News Articles – 2001 Part One

WNBA rookie of the year returns to Springfield

By Jennifer Byrd
The Southwest Standard
November 28, 2001

After leading the SMS Lady Bears to the Final Four last season, being the fourth overall WNBA draft pick and being named WNBA Rookie-of-the-Year, Jackie Stiles is trying to live the life of a “normal student.” “A lot of the time I feel people kind of staring at me, whispering about me.
See More …

Stiles holds inaugural camp with help of former Lady Bears teammates

By Jennifer Byrd
The Southwest Standard
November 28, 2001

Jackie Stiles is back at SMS to complete her degree and to give back to the community that supported her. Stiles held her first basketball camp last weekend at the Chesterfield Family Center in Springfield. Approximately 125 girls participated in the camp. Stiles received help from former teammates Tara Mitchem and Melody Campbell as well as former SMS assistant coach Chuck Williams,…
See More …

How will SMS do without Stiles?

By Vahe Gregorian
Post-Dispatch
October 31, 2001

At Southwest Missouri State basketball clinics, SMS women’s coach Cheryl Burnett sees girls use clips to roll back the sleeves on their jerseys so their sleeves look like Jackie Stiles’ sleeves. “Anything and everything” she did at SMS, Burnett said Tuesday during the Missouri Valley Conference’s annual media day, became subject to the sincerest form of flattery.
See More ….

Stiles ready to come back strong after surgery

By MECHELLE VOEPEL
The Kansas City Star
10/03/01

Jackie Stiles won’t ever forget the date of her wrist surgery: Sept. 11, 2001. Typical of Stiles, she was squeezing in one last workout that Tuesday morning before her 12:30 p.m. operation in Syracuse, N.Y. She’d been in New York City the previous weekend — her first trip to the Big Apple — on WNBA business. She looked up at a television, saw one of the World Trade Center towers on fire and recalled how close it seemed her plane had flown over them when she’d left the city two days before.
See More ….

One-On-One with Jackie Stiles

WNBA.com
8/17/01

Hello everyone, and thanks for joining us! Jackie has already called in to start the chat, as usual, she’s right on time. We are calling her back at the ESPN studios in Los Angeles where she is waiting to be on Up Close on ESPN tonight at 5:30pm ET. Don’t forget to watch! Send in those questions, Jackie will be with us in a moment…
See More ….

Fire’s Stiles realizes she’s definitely not in Kansas anymore

By Milton Kent
Sun Staff
August 10, 2001

It won’t be much longer before Jackie Stiles gets back something that resembles the life she once knew, not that she’s complaining about the one she’s had for the last five months, mind you. It’s just that, for Stiles, a guard for the Portland Fire of the WNBA, doing tons of media interviews – including one on a bus to the airport at 5 a.m. – and having a group of fans follow you around the country is out of character for a wide-eyed young woman from Claflin, Kan. “All the attention has definitely been an adjustment for me,…

Jackie O

By Kelli Anderson
Sports Illustrated
July 23, 2001 Edition

It’s not the shoes. Jackie Stiles’s Portland Fire teammates have told her again and again that her loyalty to Cynthia Cooper-signature Nikes, model year 1997, is not the reason she has gone from the NCAA career-scoring leader (3,393 points) and darling of last spring’s NCAA tournament to the top of an exceptional WNBA rookie class.
See More ….

The Rookie Experience

By Lina Balciunas
WNBA.com
7/16/01

A year ago, they were on opposite sides of the world. Lauren Jackson was practicing with the Australian National Team for the Olympics to be held shortly in her homeland. Jackie Stiles was preparing for her senior year at Southwest Missouri State. Who could have told them about the year that lay ahead? And how could they have believed it anyway? Jackson won a silver medal at the Sydney Games and spent the next six months a swirling rumor of “will she or won’t she” with the WNBA waiting for a decision on her future.
See More…

In the Spotlight

By Nancy Lieberman-Cline
ESPN.com
7/10/01

Jackie Stiles is simply amazing. After she entered peoples’ hearts and minds during the Women’s NCAA Tournament, I’m sure people said, “Well, she is good in college. But can she play at the next level against the WNBA’s great players?”
See More ….

Basket hangin’

By Oscar Dixon
USA Today
7/10/01

Jackie Stiles may never escape the doubting Thomases, but she is making a believer out of those who still question her skills. The small-town native with the engaging smile and big-time game has turned the rookie of the year race into a two-woman contest with Seattle’s Lauren Jackson, who was all but handed the award when she was taken first in the draft.
See More …

Stiles Chat

ESPN.com
7/08/01

I’m here and ready to take your questions!!!!

Victoria (GCS): Jackie what do you and your team have in store for the Houston Comets? You are my role model as a rookie and I hope to become like you and play just the way you do. Best of luck!

Jackie Stiles: It will be very tough playing them. They are a great team and can hurt you in so many ways. We have to play 40 minutes on both sides of the ball.
See More …

Stiles looks to be adjusting well to life in pro basketball

By MECHELLE VOEPEL
Kansas City Star
7/08/01

You had to figure it would happen. Jackie Stiles heads to the city, everything changes. She’s big-time now, call her agent. We’re dealing with a superstar. Really? Naaahh. Stiles, the former Southwest Missouri State standout, is indeed living up to star status on the WNBA’s courts.
See More….

Q&A with Jackie Stiles

WNBA.com
7/05/01

Q: How does it feel having earned Player of the Week honors?
Stiles: I was shocked that they gave me the award. Basically, it’s a credit to my teammates and my coaching staff here at Portland. Being a rookie, they really believed in me through the up and down times because it has been a struggle making that transition. But they’ve been so supportive and I wouldn’t have gotten the award if it weren’t for them.
Q: Have you adjusted to life in the WNBA?
Stiles: I think I’m feeling more comfortable with every game, with every practice. At first it was so tough of a transition. You are moving to a new city.
See More …

Stiles catches Fire in Portland

By Shannon Conner
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
7/04/01

PORTLAND, Ore. – Jackie Stiles unlaced her hightops and smiled as a camera flashed. Stiles was uncharacteristically calm. A rookie guard for the WNBA’s Portland Fire, she had just endured one of the worst games of her basketball career. And the first half of Portland’s 58-43 victory over Seattle on June 19 was the worst of her career, by Stiles’ reckoning. She had taken zero shots in the first half, on the way to a four-point game (two of six from the field). Four months ago, the star of the Southwest Missouri State basketball team would have gone into seclusion after failing to shoot during 20 minutes of action.
See More…