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 alternative between her first two loves: ballet and basketball. Quick ahead to the current, and the 6-4 heart 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 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 house to hitch this system. “It was onerous understanding I’m leaving my household, my mates, all the pieces I really like and [am] used to,” she says.
Though it was doubtlessly a life-changing choice, she was additionally excited to take the leap. “The concept of exploring new issues, getting a greater training, taking part in basketball towards one of the best 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 group (which she began taking part in on when she was 12). She was an authorized 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 really like Nikola Jokic and the way in which he is ready to cross 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 type 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 persona. “You’re in all probability not going to see me smile or snort throughout the recreation,” she says. “We could be mates exterior the court docket. I can hug you after the sport, but when we play towards one another, you realize I really like profitable and I hate shedding.”
Koval has turn out to be “the woman” that opposing coaches must scheme towards. “I’m going into each single recreation understanding I’m going to be double-teamed, even triple-teamed,” she says. Dare to place three defenders on her and he or she’ll dish the ball to her teammates for vast open photographs. “I’m going to cross that ball,” she says, “and I’m going to proceed to try this as a result of it’s the fitting play.”
Koval already has her profession objectives mapped out. This yr? Win “a nationwide title with my group,” she says. Then she smiles and provides, “and make my faculty choice.” Koval’s rising variety of supply letters contains prime packages like LSU, Notre Dame, Duke and Stanford, and he or she nonetheless has extra official recruiting visits lined up. Whichever program she decides to decide to, her objective stays the identical.
“The objective is profitable the nationwide championship with my faculty group,” she says. Koval additionally has her eyes set on the massive League. “The lengthy, long run goes professional, WNBA.”
Portraits by Marcus Stevens.