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Final Four loss here in '01 still hurts Jackie Stiles
By Stu Durando
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/17/2009
The wrist and shoulder that produced an NCAA-record 3,393 points began to malfunction soon after Jackie Stiles reached the WNBA. An ankle that generated the lift on her jumper was suddenly shot.
The right side of Stiles' body, the part largely responsible for the 1,000 shots she forced herself to make daily for years, was in shambles.
Friends had joked that her right arm was going to rot from over-use. After leading Missouri State (then Southwest Missouri State) to the 2001 women's Final Four in St. Louis and being named the WNBA rookie of the year, the joke developed a cruel punch line.
"I wore that side out,'' she said. "It's like I'm an old car.''
The small-town girl who became a national sensation and the darling of the Final Four has undergone 13 surgeries — all on her right side — since her college career ended on the court at Scottrade Center.
Stiles lasted only two seasons in the WNBA, the second consisting of stints on the league's injured list as she battled a torn rotator cuff and partly torn Achilles' tendon. Her career ended in August 2002. She has tried to make comebacks but ultimately recognized that she could no longer play basketball, competitively or casually.
"I don't ever play at all,'' said Stiles, now living in Wichita, Kan. "I have high expectations for myself. It's hard to be a shell of myself.''
Stiles would seem to exaggerate her health assessment, which is based largely on her inability to play the sport that has dominated her existence. She said she is in the best shape of her life, thanks to an exercise routine and cycling as she builds a business around basketball clinics and camps and some motivational speaking.
At 30, she still can demonstrate skills and instructs young girls, some of whom weren't born when she averaged 30.3 points as a senior for the Lady Bears. Stiles continues to build on the fame she gained in 2001, even if she has refused for eight years to watch what should have been the biggest game of her life.
Stiles said she rarely, if ever, missed a game due to injury in high school and college or in between those seasons when she played for USA Basketball.
She honed her skills through her freshman year at Missouri State by making the 1,000 shots per day until coach Cheryl Burnett convinced her the load was too hard on her body. But the obsessive workload paid dividends, especially her senior season.
"Looking back, I wish I would have tried to slow her down,'' said her father, Pat. "I'm a coach and you always want them to work hard and you think they'll get rewards. She was compulsive and would not miss a workout. She's a 5-7 small-town girl, and without her work ethic I don't think she would have gone the places she's gone.''
The Final Four was a highlight, but some of her memories aren't all that wonderful.
A hectic schedule ran Stiles ragged. The day the team traveled to St. Louis, she flew to Minnesota for an awards ceremony, joining teammates the next day. She arrived in St. Louis in time for the team's public practice and a day crammed with activities, including a banquet the night before the national semifinals.
"I remember I was about in tears because I was having a bad hair day,'' she said, "and I was just so exhausted.''
The next night, Stiles had her worst shooting game of the season, making seven of 21 shots and scoring 22 points in an 81-64 loss to Purdue. Eight years later, she still doesn't like to talk about it.
She immediately set her sights on the WNBA, was drafted by Portland and became the 2001 rookie of the year. But Stiles' reputation preceded her, and she received a rude welcome.
"To stop me, teams were beating me up,'' she said. "I was taking such a beating. I had no rest. I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't eating right. And by the end of my rookie season I was breaking down.''
Stiles wishes she hadn't tried to play through the assorted injuries the following season. But she did and the writing was on the wall. She was sidelined from August 2002 until 2006, when she attempted a comeback in Australia. Again, her body refused.
Pat Stiles said Jackie has had offers to coach but nothing that has seemed right.
"I think if the right situation came along with the right coach, all of that would fall in line,'' he said.
Stiles now promotes herself through her website (jackiestilesbasketball.com) and gives daily lessons and clinics to about 50 players in Wichita from age 6 to college.
She will conduct clinics around the country this summer and plans a move to Springfield, Mo., where she hopes to build her business.
Stiles has been invited to participate in a couple of events at the Final Four in St. Louis and hopes to attend. But she's pretty sure what she'll find.
"I've been to a lot of Final Fours since (2001),'' she said. "I'm biased, but I don't think there's been one that had that kind of electricity.''
sdurando@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8232