Mic'd Up Sports

Frequent guest LaShayla Wright-Ponder typically comes on to discuss the sights and spaces she visits in her overseas travels, including a pair of stops in England and Luxembourg in her third season as a professional basketball player. That hasn't changed, but a series of trials upon her arrival in England and her return home proved illuminating in ways that stats can't measure. LaShayla go...

As Jordyn Johnson writes the final chapter of her high school volleyball career at DeLaSalle, she will write several new ones next year at UC-Santa Barbara. When she isn't racking up blocks or kills, you'll find Jordyn working on code as a member of the DeLaSalle robotics team. Her summer job? Interning with the Minnesota Twins as a business systems analyst in software development! We expl...

From the late 1990s through the 2000s, Minneapolis North girls basketball was a pipeline for Division I recruits. Catrice Williams was no exception, winning three straight Class AAA state titles before landing a Division I spot at Arkansas State. As a youngster, Catrice was inspired by the likes of Tamara Moore and Mauri Horton. In college, Catrice found herself in a mentally treacherous position,...

If you heard of a three-sport athlete who plays football, basketball and track, Deborah Ayeni might not be the first name that comes to mind. The kicker? Deborah plays offensive and defensive line on the gridiron, emblematic of a student athlete who combines toughness and intellect. Between the athletes Deborah watched growing up and her two older siblings, including an older brother who plays foo...

Minneapolis was a girls basketball hotbed in the late 1990s. Minneapolis North had two Miss Basketball winners in Tamara Moore and Mauri Horton, and Minneapolis Washburn had a Golden Gophers recruit in Kim Bell, who was the tallest player in school history at the time of her signing. Bell's height (6'5", 6'7" on listed programs) was an asset on the court, but a source of nerv...

As long as she can remember, Sade Pollard was the fastest kid on the block. Her blazing speed was noticed by a local track coach, launching a swift expedition that led to seven career gold medals in Minnesota state track competition. In one of those state trips, Sade earned enough points by herself to give Harding High School a bronze medal in the team standings. Years later, she would receive ind...

Professional basketball athlete LaShayla Wright-Ponder checks in with us before taking off to start another season of pro basketball in Sweden. Along the way, she helped run basketball camps domestically with The Sanneh Foundation and abroad in Germany. While she was teaching the game of basketball to the next generation, she learned several lessons about herself that will stick with her no matter...

Nora Francois envisioned herself as a Division I basketball athlete the moment she took up the sport, but the quest to complete her mission brought a deluge of detours and dichotomies. On one side, Nora was a rising bastion of versatility, becoming the first DeLaSalle player in school history to make varsity as an eighth grader. She later played a central role in DeLaSalle's state championship...

Versatility sums up Lauren Stenman succinctly. At North St. Paul, she embraced whatever role was needed, and she played a big role as a member of the first North St. Paul volleyball team to reach the state tournament and win a medal, taking bronze. At Lewis, Lauren's responsibilities were more defined as the primary setter, a task she has mastered over the last two seasons as Lewis won back-to...

In her 51 years, Onika Craven has done a little bit of everything. You may remember her as a player at Minneapolis Washburn, Rainy River or Minnesota-Morris. You might have seen her running community outreach events as CEO and co-founder of the non-profit organization O'nika's Angels. You may also have seen her covering all sorts of sports with the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. All of thos...

Sierre Lumpkin went out with flair in her senior year at Benilde-St. Margaret's, earning a silver medal in the Class AAA state volleyball tournament and gold in the Class AAA girls basketball state tournament. Getting to that point was, in her words, "a jamble." Sierre reflects on an adventure of growing up as the daughter of an NFL veteran, starting her varsity career in Edina, endu...

Prior to a Salvo SC home game, we conducted a short interview with midfielder Ansley Atkinson. Atkinson attended DeLaSalle and played Division I soccer for Creighton University, a path that took an unexpected detour following an ACL injury. We discuss her journey to get back on the pitch and what she enjoys most about playing the game with a mix of college and high school athletes.

In another universe, LaShayla Wright-Ponder could have charted a career in karate, but she has achieved a lot in basketball amidst a journey that included playing for three colleges, navigating athletics amidst the pandemic, and a professional track that took her to Australia, Serbia and Germany in the span of a few months. The graduate of Bloomington Kennedy and Tampa discusses the sights and sou...

Since our first visit with Alayna Contreras, the graduate of Hopkins found herself making a course correction after an ACL injury sidelined her from both AAU competition and her senior year of high school. Unable to play in front of scouts, Alayna utilized her connections and enrolled at Cochise College, a junior college in Arizona, to rebuild her ground game. Her persistence led to a spot at Miss...

Daria Douglas has seen a lot in her basketball travels. Growing up in the Hopkins youth league, she got to play alongside some members of the vaunted Hopkins teams led by Paige Bueckers. In the AAU circuit, one of Daria's assignments was guarding Aliyah Boston. Recently, Daria won an NJCAA region championship with Moberly Area Community College and is hoping it will lead to a spot on a Divisio...

Mary Claire Francois was seldom the centerpiece of the basketball teams she played for, but her coaching duties with Maranatha Christian Academy and FBC North AAU place her at the center of the next generation of athletes. A state tournament champion and graduate of DeLaSalle, Mary Claire planned on continuing her basketball expedition at St. Catherine University, but a combination of the pandemic...

Some people take up basketball the moment they learn how to walk. Others, like LaVera Jeffrie, discover it by accident. Her towering frame made her an attractive figure for coaches, but outside of the Chicago Bulls dynasty, LaVera had no knowledge of the sport. A persistent attitude from her coaches and teammates at Highland Park imbued LaVera with insight and a budding appreciation of basketball,...

If you visit the Haben Center at Benilde-St. Margaret's, you'll find Azzairia Jackson-Sherrod on a banner honoring the school's 1,000-point scorers. She added a few hundred more at Emory University in Atlanta, where she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Human Health. Upon her return to Minnesota, Azzairia obtained her Master's Degree in Human Nutrition and traded her basketball jer...

Rachel Hagen may not headline the 2023 class, but she headlines the definition of resiliency, recovering from two ACL tears early in her prep career to finish with over 1,000 points at Duluth East and start a new chapter at Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Not too shabby for someone who grew up in Australia and New Zealand before coming to Duluth. Rachel talks about how what she went through in basketball...

Versatility sums up Naja Woods well. She was a three-sport athlete at Minneapolis Southwest and Knox College (IL), and she still holds the career scoring record for Southwest girls basketball. The skills and values Naja learned from balancing three sports carried over to her career in news. Starting as a producer for ABC57 News in South Bend, Naja is now a multimedia journalist for the station, ai...

Not every basketball athlete has to go to Division One to make an impact. Shantell Harden from St. Louis Park is a glowing example, earning 14 double-doubles in her junior season, a campaign that helped her land a spot at Minnesota State-Mankato. We discuss the finer details of the recruiting process, standing out in a section where Hopkins and Wayzata historically draw most of the attention, and...

Lindsey Becher has a lengthy list of milestones in basketball. She holds the all-time scoring record at Mounds View High School, men or women. In her first year at Concordia University, Lindsey was named NSIC South Division Freshman of the Year and set a single-season school record in blocks (based on average). Last season, she finished third in all of Division II in blocks and became the first pl...

Basketball and Tisa Mitchell have gone together for a long time. She won a pair of state titles at Minneapolis North, played college basketball for two years at Southeast Missouri State and has been part of Crystal Flint's coaching staff for Minneapolis North and Cretin-Derham Hall girls basketball. In this conversation, we discuss the role Tisa's big sister played in all of this, playing alongsid...

Kendall Minta will forever be one of Eden Prairie's most distinguished volleyball players, culminating a fine career with a bronze medal at the 2021 Class AAAA state volleyball tournament. She matches her athleticism on the volleyball court with her leadership outside of it, participating in national leadership conferences throughout her time as a student and co-founding Eden Prairie's Black Stude...

There's more than one way to make an impact in basketball. Aalayah Wilson may not boast the wins or titles of her peers, but she placed fourth in the state in scoring as a junior, including a career high 47 points in a game (an Osseo single game school record). Wilson recently announced her commitment to play Division I basketball at Lindenwood, helping usher a new chapter in athletics at the scho...