KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The WNBA returned to Kansas City Monday night for the first time since 2005. The Minnesota Lynx faced the Nigerian Women’s National Team in a preseason matchup and won 88-79.
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“I think girls’ basketball has come a long way in the last couple of years, and I want all these girls to be able to visually see where they can be,” said Missouri Phenom Head Coach Ty Hawkins.
Hawkins brought his younger athletes to the game and surprised the girls with tickets. He said showing them what’s possible is going to inspire them to be the best and the girls were happy to miss a day of practice to watch the professional teams play.
“When coach says to try something, ill try it,” said Zoe, a player on the team.
Missouri Phenom Girl’s Basketball Team
Linda Hargrove is president of ProHoops, the group that organizes WNBA teams to come to states that don’t have a professional team.
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From her experience as a retired head coach and general manager for the Portland Fire and Washington Mystics. She said when people invest in women’s sports that’s how they become successful. In addition to that, she said social media has played a big part in the women’s success.
“People buying tickets and just enjoying games is the best thing we can do to help us move forward,” Hargrove said.
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Coach Hawkins said the girls deserve going to a game like this because of their hard work.
“They’ve been working extremely hard,” Hawkins said. “We pushed them hard just like they’re the high school girls. Monday is our practice day, and we just surprised them and told them today, since they’ve been working so hard. They do everything that we asked them to do.”
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