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Jackie Stiles trudges on
By Scott Puryear, Springfield News-Leader, December 29, 2002 Dozens of parents, many toting video cameras, line the viewing area above the Chesterfield Family Center basketball court as Jackie Stiles works her way through the throng of young girls participating in her Springfield basketball camp. “Nice job!’” Stiles tells a 7-year-old who uses the proper form on a layup. “That’s OK ... you’ll get it next time!’” she says to another. At least a third of the 85 or so girls enrolled in the morning camp session are wearing some form of tribute to the former Southwest Missouri State University star, mostly replica Portland Fire jerseys. It’s the Women’s National Basketball Association team for which Stiles was the league’s rookie of the year two years ago — and an injury-plagued disappointment last summer. Those jerseys remind the 24-year-old Stiles of the work she has ahead to rebuild her image as one of the WNBA’s up-and-coming stars. But even more so, they provide Stiles with much-needed solace. Today, most facets of her basketball career are in a state of flux: Wrist and heel injuries have been slow to heal; her Portland team could move or fold; and her league isn’t on the steadiest of financial ground. “It really means a lot, especially at a time like this, when I’ve gone through a lot of adversity,” Stiles said. “With all that support, it motivates me even more to fight through the adversity and come back.” Her goal is quite simple: Get back to being Jackie Stiles, the small-town Midwesterner who led the Lady Bears to national prominence, then took the WNBA by storm. But that was before injuries mounted and questions followed about her abilities to handle the rigors of the pro game. “I guess I’m kind of put back in the underdog role, the role I played for so many years,” Stiles said. “Now, I have a lot of doubters ... and I, too, sometimes wonder if I can get through it. But I’ve just got to keep believing and keep fighting every day, and hopefully I can overcome these injuries.” Slow healer Getting back on the comeback trail, at least the way Stiles is accustomed to, would be a start. But the body won’t cooperate just yet. The right (shooting) wrist she had surgically repaired in August, shortly after the past WNBA season when her scoring average dropped from 14.9 points per game as a rookie to 5.9, is improving to the point where Stiles now can participate in shooting drills and fire up some 100 to 200 attempts per practice round. It’s a far cry from her legendary workout routine of 1,000-made shots per day, but it is a start. Her dysfunctional right heel, which kept Stiles out of 11 of the Fire’s 32 games and limited her minutes played to 18 per game last season, is another matter. Stiles had surgery in early September in Portland to remove a bone spur near the Achilles’ tendon that was causing tremendous pain with every step. But the procedure didn’t help that much, she says; in fact, Stiles will see another orthopedic surgeon next week in Great Bend, Kan., near her Claflin home, to have an MRI exam and pinpoint the source of the pain. “I can’t imagine myself being able to run and cut on it the way it is at this point,” Stiles said. “If there’s damage, it could be probably another six weeks in a cast, or maybe even another surgery. I’ll just have to wait and see. I’m pretending like it’s going to be fine, so I’m still shooting, doing those types of things.” And that’s been the most frustrating part of this off-season for Stiles: She went in to have her defective body parts fixed and, months later, still can’t work. “I thought I’d be pretty much full-speed now,” Stiles said. “And that’s what’s tough. I don’t know how to do this ... because I’m used to just hitting the court full-speed with everything, so I don’t really know how to back off.” The 5-foot-9 guard turns to her local support group for help. It includes former Lady Bears’ coach Cheryl Burnett, with whom Stiles speaks regularly, and former SMS assistant Chuck Williams, who’s become an adviser-coach-trainer to Stiles in Springfield. Williams, who served as director for Stiles’ second annual camp Friday and Saturday at the Chesterfield Family Center, says keeping Stiles upbeat is his primary task. “As great an athlete as she is, Jackie sometimes loses her confidence rather easily,” Williams said. “Her confidence is based largely upon her work ethic, and being able to just go out and work, work, work is how she got to where she is now. Not being able to work all the time, I think, has made her confidence in a little bit of limbo. “But I have all the confidence in the world in her, and I think she’ll bounce back and take the injuries and the league situations and all that and put it into proper perspective. I just want to see her get completely healthy first.” And then Stiles can worry about other unanswered questions such as when, where and for whom she might be playing this summer. An orphaned team? Since the WNBA announced in October it was ending league ownership of the teams and cutting ties that bound teams to NBA franchises, the Portland Fire’s status has been on somewhat shaky ground. Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen isn’t sure if he wants to take on the financial burden of a Fire team that hasn’t been profitable in its three seasons of existence. And no potential buyers from Portland, or other non-NBA markets, have stepped forward. Fire officials said an announcement on their future would be forthcoming last week; so far, nothing. And Stiles says she knows nothing more about her team’s status. “What we were told is just to wait and see, that they haven’t made any final decision yet whether we’ll have a team,” she said. “If we do have a team, I can’t see us having one for more than another year in Portland. So we’re just waiting.” As is Stiles. Right now, she has no contract for the 2003 season, like many players who accepted the required two-year contract for rookies when they entered the league in 2001. All players are awaiting the results of a new collective bargaining agreement between their union and the WNBA. The players’ union is seeking a pension plan, looser restrictions on endorsement deals, some form of free agency and higher salaries. The league clearly has deep issues. The Miami and Orlando franchises have folded; the Utah team is moving to San Antonio; and the Seattle Storm also may be in a new home by next summer. If the Portland franchise dissolves, it’s still unclear to Stiles whether she’d become a free agent, or be placed in a player dispersal draft for other league teams. “If anyone out there wants to hire me, I’m unemployed,” Stiles said with a laugh. “I’ve heard it could be as late as April before we’re even negotiating our contracts. So I have no idea where I’m going or what I’m going to be doing.” Or for whom she might be playing, since Portland hasn’t hired a replacement for coach Linda Hargrove, fired after a 37-59 mark in three seasons (16-16 in 2002). Then again, little of it matters if Stiles can’t regain her health. Two years in the professional ranks have taught her that it truly is survival of the fittest. “In high school if you have an injury, you can easily get back into things,” Stiles said. “At this level it’s very tough, because it’s just so competitive. It’s so cutthroat, because everybody is fighting for a job and money is involved. It is a business. “And that’s the bottom line of professional sports: It’s not what you did for me yesterday, it’s what can you do for me today?” Early retirement? Stiles admits the thought of leaving her playing career behind has increasingly entered her mind. With every struggle, it becomes easier for her to envision putting the degree in sports fitness and promotions she earned from SMS last May to use as a coach, trainer or full-time basketball camp instructor. “I just never imagined having those thoughts this early,” Stiles said. “After my first (WNBA) season of having the dream season and being named rookie of the year, to what I’m going through now, I just never dreamed I’d be thinking now, ‘Well, what am I going to do if I can’t get through these injuries?’ I’ve got to take it one day at a time and live in the present, and not worry too much about the future.” To help out with the future, Stiles has hired new help. She dropped her association with the Octagon sports agency and recently signed with a Kansas City-based law firm — Stinson, Morrison and Hecker — that is more in touch with the Midwest region where her name holds more clout. The firm represents several regional sports figures including high-profile college coaches like Missouri’s Quin Snyder, Roy Williams of Kansas and Kelvin Sampson of Oklahoma. The attorney assigned to represent Stiles, Steve Owens, is a 1973 Glendale High School graduate who’s well aware of the drawing power Stiles can have in the Midwest. Owens says Stiles, despite the sub-par sophomore year in the WNBA, has endorsement possibilities “constantly in the works.” “She has a lot of attraction to corporate America for the kind of person she is ... in addition to being the basketball player,” said Owens, adding his firm will seek more opportunities in Springfield and the four-state region, where Stiles is more of a household name. That appeal was evident at the two-day camp in Springfield, where the sessions were filled beyond their original capacity by young girls aspiring to become the next Jackie Stiles. “She’s my role model because of her hard work and efforts in basketball, because of her awesome personality and because she loves the game with all her heart,” said camper Kelsey Rucker, 13, of Aurora, decked out in a No. 10 Fire jersey. “I know this last season was rough for her because of her injuries, but I know she’s working hard to get back into the game. She’ll make it back.” If Stiles ever sees herself becoming mediocre, she’ll walk away from the game without reservations. “I don’t want to be just barely hanging on, trying to play,” Stiles said. “If I can’t get back to an elite level, I’m definitely going to have to move on to my next career.” But then there’s the competitive nature of Stiles, the one that drove her to become the NCAA women’s all-time career scoring leader with 3,393 points. It won’t let her walk away without a fight. Those closest to Stiles say the struggles of the past year have made her more resilient and taught her not to sweat the small stuff — perhaps because in the past year there could always be bigger problems around the next turn. “It just seems like for her, it’s been one thing after another,” said her father, Pat Stiles. “But she kind of likes that (underdog) position. I just tell her to give it some time. I’d be the last one to doubt her.” “I used to worry about things like a broken nail on my shooting hand,” Stiles said with a laugh. “Now I’ve learned I’ve just got to kind of let things go that I can’t control ... and that’s a lot. I’ve always been one to plan ahead, to know years in advance where I want to be and where I want to go. But right now ... I don’t have control of any of those things. “It’s been very challenging.” And humbling, too. Which explains why Stiles is so complimentary and upbeat with her young basketball campers. Her primary goal is to instruct them and nurture their love for a game while it’s still in one of its most innocent forms. “Because I was so lucky in college, I didn’t realize what an injury or a couple of injuries could do, and how quickly it can go,” Stiles said. “It just has made me so appreciative of every single day I’ve been healthy and got to play on the court. “And I just want to tell younger kids just to enjoy it on through high school and college. Those are the best times in your life, and you never know within an instant when it can be over.” TO THE TOP |