This story appears in SLAM 245. Get your copy here.
On the age of 10, Kateryna Koval needed to make a probably life-changing alternative between her first two loves: ballet and basketball. Quick ahead to the current, and the 6-4 heart displays again realizing that she made the plain proper one. Surprisingly, Koval and her household had doubts about her pursuing hoops. To be truthful, basketball didn’t run within the household and nobody envisioned that she would develop right into a five-star prospect.
“I used to be considering of selecting ballet as a result of I didn’t like basketball at first. However then…I fell in love with the sport,” she says.
Born in Ukraine, Koval knew she was proficient sufficient to pursue a profession in hoops when she was simply 12, again when she was taking part in towards 15-year-olds. Two years in the past, Lengthy Island Lutheran head coach Christina Raiti noticed Koval’s highlights and satisfied her to maneuver 4,664 miles from her childhood residence to hitch this system. “It was laborious realizing I’m leaving my household, my buddies, the whole lot I like and [am] used to,” she says.
Though it was probably a life-changing resolution, she was additionally excited to take the leap. “The concept of exploring new issues, getting a greater schooling, taking part in basketball towards the perfect gamers within the nation is so thrilling for me,” she says. “That half coated all of the stress.”
You’ll discover Koval on a extremely ranked squad for any event she’s in, together with her nationwide workforce (which she began taking part in on when she was 12). She was a licensed baller on the FIBA U16 Ladies’s European Challengers, averaging 26 factors and 14.2 rebounds per recreation. Koval fashions her recreation after NBA and WNBA champions Nikola Jokic and A’ja Wilson. “I like Nikola Jokic and the best way he is ready to move the ball and shoot.” she says. “I [also] love A’ja Wilson, her recreation and physicality.”
Koval’s versatility permits her to stretch the ground and knock down threes with out hesitation. “It’s form of disrespectful to me—leaving me open, considering I can’t shoot,” she says. All enterprise on the courtroom, her aggressive nature is what makes her persona. “You’re in all probability not going to see me smile or chortle in the course of the recreation,” she says. “We will be buddies exterior the courtroom. I can hug you after the sport, but when we play towards one another, you already know I like profitable and I hate shedding.”
Koval has grow to be “the lady” that opposing coaches need to scheme towards. “I am going into each single recreation realizing I’m going to be double-teamed, even triple-teamed,” she says. Dare to place three defenders on her and she or he’ll dish the ball to her teammates for huge open pictures. “I’m going to move that ball,” she says, “and I’m going to proceed to try this as a result of it’s the proper play.”
Koval already has her profession objectives mapped out. This yr? Win “a nationwide title with my workforce,” she says. Then she smiles and provides, “and make my school resolution.” Koval’s rising variety of supply letters consists of prime applications like LSU, Notre Dame, Duke and Stanford, and she or he nonetheless has extra official recruiting visits lined up. Whichever program she decides to decide to, her aim stays the identical.
“The aim is profitable the nationwide championship with my school workforce,” she says. Koval additionally has her eyes set on the massive League. “The lengthy, long run goes professional, WNBA.”
Portraits by Marcus Stevens.
