{"id":163480,"date":"2025-08-21T09:49:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/163480\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T09:49:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:49:17","slug":"wnba-dream-for-jersey-teen-heading-to-us-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/163480\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA dream for Jersey teen heading to US college"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Vanessa Szajkowska says she is excited and anxious about her stateside move<\/p>\n

A teenager from Jersey says she hopes to one day make it to the American professional women’s basketball league, the WNBA, ahead of a move to the United States.<\/p>\n

Vanessa Szajkowska, 16, has been awarded a basketball scholarship to SPIRE Academy in Cleveland, Ohio.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the move she thanked coaches and the basketball community for helping her realise her dream.<\/p>\n

The Jersey Basketball Association (JBBA) said “moments like these highlight the pathway that basketball in Jersey can provide”.<\/p>\n

‘Fell in love’<\/p>\n

Speaking to the BBC, Vanessa said she was looking forward to her next steps.<\/p>\n

“I’m very excited, obviously a bit anxious, but mostly excited,” she said. <\/p>\n

Vanessa began playing basketball as a small child and says her love for the sport came from her dad: “He started playing a long time ago. Eventually I fell in love with it too,” she said. <\/p>\n

“I just love the sport, I love how it feels playing it, and being able to play in such a great community makes it even better.”<\/p>\n

Vanessa, who plays wing-guard and shooting-guard, says she has been putting in early starts to get ready for life in the US.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had so much support from my coaches and team over the years – and I’ve been training every morning at 7:30 to get ready for the move.<\/p>\n

“The goal is to try and go there for university too and, one day, the WNBA.”<\/p>\n

\"Timea<\/p>\n

Timea Kraft spotted Vanessa’s talent back in 2021<\/p>\n

Timea Kraft, junior ladies’ head coach in Jersey, spotted Vanessa playing in the women’s league in Jersey.<\/p>\n

“She is a real talent, and I first saw that talent back in 2021. I pulled her off the court, spoke to her mum, brought her to the senior training sessions, and I’m just very proud of her.<\/p>\n

“She is the most complete player in Jersey. She is the highest scorer in all of our wins against Guernsey, I’m really proud of her achievements.”<\/p>\n

Ms Kraft added Vanessa was “the first player to ever get a basketball scholarship, from the JBBA. It’s a huge milestone. She can be an example for every other player coming up”.<\/p>\n

SPIRE Academy describes itself as an elite sports boarding school, with world-class athletic training and facilities.<\/p>\n

“There is so much behind this, the resilience, the work outside of basketball in the gym, it’s been years and years of really hard work,” Ms Kraft said.<\/p>\n

\"ReutersReuters<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark has been credited with boosting interest in the WNBA<\/p>\n

Vanessa’s WNBA dream coincides with a huge surge in interest<\/a> in the women’s game led by superstar player, Caitlin Clark. Her rise has increased viewership and sent ticket prices soaring. <\/p>\n

No matter where Vanessa’s career goes from here, Paul Millbank, president of the JBBA, described her scholarship as an “incredible achievement”.<\/p>\n

“We first met Vanessa when she was very small, coming through our junior minis programme, and we’ve watched her grow.<\/p>\n

“The programme here has really grown around her. And to be at the point where you can go and play in America is the ultimate gold standard for any player. <\/p>\n

“It’s the home of the sport. And what that does is it creates much more aspiration within the association too.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BBC Vanessa Szajkowska says she is excited and anxious about her stateside move A teenager from Jersey says…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":163481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-163480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115066133950995372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}