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 goes deep in our most complex and revealing conversation yet, discussing the growing pains that accompany age and experience.

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 explore all the achievements Jordyn has earned and how that will shape her as she prepares for life as a Division I student athlete.

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, leading her away from the sport for several years. Raising two daughters has given Catrice a renewed love of the game, and the sport has served her well in her current role as a realtor and affordable homeownership advocate.

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 football at St. Thomas, inspiration was plentiful. In our conversation with a hopeful Division I basketball athlete, find out how Deborah makes all three sports work and how she aims to continue promoting the belief that Nigerian-American women can thrive in athletics.

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 nerves outside of it. Accepting her body type was one of several hurdles Bell encountered during her time as a player, but she had plenty of highlights too. With the likes of Lindsay Whalen, Janel McCarville and Corrin Von Wald as teammates, Bell finished her college career with an NCAA tournament appearance in 2002. Get ready for a trip through the basketball vault and hear what the sport gave Bell, from the friendships that still hold today to her work in public service.

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 induction into the Harding Athletics Hall of Fame Sade's track career met an abrupt end following a scleroderma diagnosis, but that hasn't derailed Sade's next chapter as a coach and a mother of three sons who are aiming to stake their own claim in athletics. Get ready for a enlightening trip down memory lane.

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 what her career looks like.

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 run in 2019. On the other side, Nora encountered a series of mental health battles and traumatic moments that chipped away at her morale, leading her to transfer schools several times as a junior and senior.

Refusing to let go of her basketball dream, Nora enrolled at North Iowa Area in her college freshman season, which led to a spot in the Southland Conference at New Orleans the following year. Her numbers were modest, but she did earn the first double-double of her collegiate career. Nora sees basketball as a tool to build her career ambitions, and she discusses all the tools that strengthened her resolve with basketball and mental health.