In Rockford, where Chicago Sky’s Stephanie Raymond grew up, the future WNBA rookie guard lived in a household where athleticism and sportsmanship were preached. Raymond had four older brothers who played sports, plus a mom who was named female athlete of the year at her high school. This meant much of her time was spent moving about and one-upping her siblings.
Raymond, now 22, concentrated much of her youth on basketball, and fine-tuned her moves on a gravel court behind her house. She remembers that the basketball rim was a bit crooked, the net was sometimes missing and it was tricky to bounce the ball on rocks.
When they weren’t practicing basketball, Raymond and her brothers collected discarded mattresses from the neighborhood. She says they’d bring them back and double-stack the mattresses in a row, down a hill behind their farm. Then they’d do somersaults and cartwheels all day. Her mother had put her through a gymnastic program, so at one point, Raymond could do 10 backflips in a row.
However she moved about, it worked — all those layups and backflips led to a collegiate career at Northern Illinois University. She was chosen by the Sky earlier this year as the 20th overall pick in the WNBA draft.
