This story seems in SLAM 245. Get your copy right here.
On the age of 10, Kateryna Koval needed to make a doubtlessly life-changing selection between her first two loves: ballet and basketball. Quick ahead to the current, and the 6-4 middle displays again understanding that she made the plain proper one. Surprisingly, Koval and her household had doubts about her pursuing hoops. To be honest, basketball didn’t run within the household and nobody envisioned that she would develop right into a five-star prospect.
“I used to be pondering 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 gifted sufficient to pursue a profession in hoops when she was simply 12, again when she was enjoying in opposition to 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 affix this system. “It was laborious understanding I’m leaving my household, my buddies, the whole lot I really like and [am] used to,” she says.
Though it was doubtlessly a life-changing determination, she was additionally excited to take the leap. “The concept of exploring new issues, getting a greater schooling, enjoying basketball in opposition to the most effective gamers within the nation is so thrilling for me,” she says. “That half lined all of the stress.”
You’ll discover Koval on a extremely ranked squad for any event she’s in, together with her nationwide crew (which she began enjoying on when she was 12). She was a licensed baller on the FIBA U16 Girls’s European Challengers, averaging 26 factors and 14.2 rebounds per sport. Koval fashions her sport after NBA and WNBA champions Nikola Jokic and A’ja Wilson. “I really 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 sport 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, pondering I can’t shoot,” she says. All enterprise on the court docket, her aggressive nature is what makes her character. “You’re in all probability not going to see me smile or chortle in the course of the sport,” she says. “We will be buddies outdoors the court docket. I can hug you after the sport, but when we play in opposition to one another, you understand I really like successful and I hate dropping.”
Koval has grow to be “the lady” that opposing coaches must scheme in opposition to. “I am going into each single sport understanding 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 broad open photographs. “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 best play.”
Koval already has her profession objectives mapped out. This yr? Win “a nationwide title with my crew,” she says. Then she smiles and provides, “and make my school determination.” Koval’s rising variety of provide letters consists of prime packages 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 successful the nationwide championship with my school crew,” she says. Koval additionally has her eyes set on the large League. “The lengthy, long run goes professional, WNBA.”
Portraits by Marcus Stevens.
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