The reason I even picked up a basketball was because of my family. My dad played, my mom played, and I’m the youngest of four, so I didn’t even really stand a chance to not love the sport. Let’s just say the late night gym/training sessions with my family were intense, but I loved every minute of it. I found my way to the Nashville Peacocks through a friend who was joining the team, and he thought I would love it. At first I wasn’t sure because I was burned out after playing college basketball for five years, and I basically “retired” after my last collegiate game. My friend stayed on my back about joining the Peacocks, and I am so glad he did. Obviously, I decided to join, and I have developed some of the closest relationships in my life with these guys (the gurls!). Playing with others like me changed the game for me, and it helped me rediscover my love for basketball.

I remember my very first NGBA game with the Nashville Peacocks. We forgot to bring basketballs (like who forgets that?!), so we had to order some via DoorDash. They wouldn’t be there in time for the start of the game, so while the other team was warming up and taking shots, we were just stretching and chatting, looking in over our heads. I remember the talk before the game started – we knew we were gonna start kind of cold, but we said, “let’s play with confidence and stick to what we do best,” and that’s pretty much what we did. It was a close first half, we got going in the second half, and we ended up winning the game by a good margin.

Honestly, it’s just the banter! The banter is so different than when you’re playing with straight guys. My very first possession of my first tournament in the NGBA, I was coming down the court and someone said, “Gurl, you can’t get past me!” I could not stop laughing because it was just so different for me, but it was okay to do that and be yourself, and you don’t have to feel like, “Oh, I slipped up” because you’re around a bunch of straight men.

I’m kind of intense, so I have a pretty strict warm-up regimen that gets my body going and makes me sweat a little bit. On the lighter side, I always have a piece of chewing gum, and I have two Gatorade bottles – one filled with room temperature water (not cold EVER!!) and one filled with Gatorade. The last thing I do is to always spray my jersey with a spritz of Versace (or what ever cologne I have). So at least when I’m blowing past someone, they don’t take it too personally since I smell amazing.

Jamar Jenkins because I love him, first off. And second, he knows I’m competitive and it will be on sight, because I always want the heat! 😜

My current team—Nashville Peacocks. I will go to war with them any day of the week.

Other than the obvious to work hard and that you get what you put into something, I would say to always stay confident and just be yourself because that’s more than half the battle. My parents used to tell me, “No one can hurt your feelings better than you can, and you’re not gonna feed yourself poison, so you might as well feed yourself the good stuff and bet on yourself”.