News Articles – January 1, 2002

Springfield News-Leader

January 1, 2002

There are days when former Southwest Missouri State star Jackie Stiles really misses her life as a Lady Bear. In particular, those days when Stiles wakes up completely overwhelmed with this new, hectic pace that comes with being a global basketball icon. “Every day,” Stiles said with a grin. “I thought after I finished my career at SMS, I’d have all this free time, and I don’t. Sometimes I wish it were just simple, where I didn’t have to worry about things. Because I’m a worrier, anyway.” Her routine used to be so simple: Go to class, practice, play for the Lady Bears. But now, the small-town girl from Claflin, Kan., who just turned 23, finds herself immersed in stress as she continues to be introduced to the life and corporate dealings of an in-demand professional athlete. In the eight months since her SMS career ended with a Final Four loss and she becoming the NCAA’s all-time and single-season scoring record-holder, followed by the Portland Fire making her the No. 4 pick overall in the WNBA Draft, Stiles’ life has been one constant whirlwind tour. Her greatest skill these days isn’t shooting, but time management. Monday afternoon the stop was the cozy environs of Hammons Student Center where she was honored with “Jackie Stiles Appreciation Day’’ in conjunction with the Lady Bears’ game with Northern Iowa. That one was comforting for Stiles, because it was a homecoming, a chance to catch her breath. Because several times in the past few months, Stiles often needed someone to remind her where she was. There was the three-month WNBA season and its coast-to-coast travel. Afterward, a stint in New York for surgery on a bum wrist. Then various promotional stops nationwide, including, of all things, a cooking show in Indianapolis. “And I’ve never cooked a thing in my life,” Stiles said with a grin. She made a trip to Los Angeles to appear on ESPN’s “Up Close.” There was a visit with the President and the First Lady at the White House, and another five-day stay in New York for meetings, where boredom finally drove her out of her hotel room. “I walked around a little bit, then I decided to get a taxi,” Stiles said. “But then I realized I had no clue how to get a taxi in the city. I finally did, then after a while I thought, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to remember how to get back home?’ ” When she finds spare time, Stiles practices with the Lady Bears, although her recovery from a September wrist surgery has taken longer than she had hoped (due to soreness and some swelling, only recently has she been able to resume shooting from 3-point range). She also tries to catch as many SMS games as she can, which hasn’t been easy, either. “It just kills me to watch a game,’’ Stiles said. “I was looking forward to it at the start of the season, but now it’s hard for me even to walk into that gym and not be able to play. I’m definitely going through some major withdrawals.’’ Stiles not only has had to learn to manage her time, but unexpected wealth as a result. She’s making much more than her $55,000 WNBA salary away from the court in endorsements, basketball camps and promotional appearances, for which she can command several hundred dollars for a couple of hours. “It’s insane,” Stiles said of the things she now gets paid to do. She’s in the process of hiring an accountant to help eliminate some of her worries because “I don’t understand, like, taxes. All I know is they’re going to eat me alive.” You won’t find Stiles weighted down in the gold chains and snazzy jewelry of many pro athletes, either. Her biggest, and only, out-of-pocket splurge has been buying a $3,000 air conditioning system for her parents’ house in Claflin. “I’m the same way I’ve always been, because I’m not used to having money,” Stiles said. “I don’t know how to spend it.” Most everywhere she goes, the attention she draws is phenomenal. Stiles estimates she’s signed thousands of autographs in 2001 alone. She tells with some embarrassment of recently hearing a man offer a woman seated next to her $20 to switch seats on a flight back to Springfield so he could meet Stiles. And she sheepishly admits she now visits Wal-Mart in the wee hours of the morning, so she can slip in and out of the store quickly. In restaurants, stores … it doesn’t matter, everyone seems to want a small piece of Stiles. She still tries to accommodate all, although she is finally learning how to say “no” to some of the larger, business-oriented requests … with assistance, that is. “If everything went through me, I couldn’t say no,” Stiles said. “But that’s why I have an agent. She says I would say yes to anything and everything if I could.” Debby Zealley of the Washington, D.C.-based Octagon sports agency handles Stiles’ affairs, and speaks almost daily with her by phone to make arrangements. Zealley said she fields several calls weekly requesting appearances by Stiles. “It’s crazy … Jackie could easily have (endorsement) stuff going every week,” Zealley said. “She has to say no to some things, and that’s why she hired us — it’s easier for us to be the bad guy. (If not), she would have basically run herself into the ground the first semester back (at SMS). There’s just no way she could do it all.” Stiles keeps track of her life in a small Nike notebook, planning each day in such tremendous detail that her shower times are listed. “She spends more time planning her day now than she does actually doing her day,” said her roommate of five years, former Lady Bear Carly Deer. “It drives me insane.” “If I lost that planner,” Stiles said, “I’d lose control of my life.” Rest assured, there will be very few blank pages in it as the WNBA continues to market one of its brightest young stars. In fact, fans will see a hip-hop Stiles when she appears in a 30-second WNBA promotional spot shot a couple of weeks ago in New York. “I was a nervous wreck … I had to wear clothes I’d never wear and say things I’d never say,” Stiles said of a commercial featuring her in a “tight blue shirt and these low-cut gray sweatpants with a maroon stripe.” Could the world soon get its first look at Stiles’ bare midriff? “I don’t think you can see my belly-button … you can barely see skin,” she laughed. “I hope they make (the commercial) look decent … but I don’t know how.” The pace won’t slow for Stiles the next few months, either. On deck is next month’s induction into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, which she says caught her by surprise “because I thought you had to be older to get into a Hall of Fame.” She’ll try out for the United States team for the World Championships, to be coached by Houston Comets coach Van Chancellor, in March. And Fire coach Linda Hargrove wants Stiles to return to Portland well before the May start of the WNBA season so the league’s reigning Rookie of the Year can work out under her watchful eye. Stiles still has one semester of studies left and hopes to complete it by May, so she can walk with former teammates Carly Deer, Melody Campbell and Tiny McMorris in graduation ceremonies at Hammons. Among her business projects on the table are a basketball workout video, a possible book deal, more endorsements and — one that flabbergasts her — an offer of $10,000 from a record company to sing on a CD with other non-musical celebrities. “I cannot sing,” Stiles said. “I was the kid all through school who lip-synced the songs in music class.” Through it all, Stiles maintains two priorities. One, that she never lets her newfound fame change her, or affect the way that her fans perceive her. That includes always making time for the young fans, whether it’s an autograph or a simple “hi.” “I don’t ever see myself changing … I know this all isn’t going to last very long,” Stiles said, “And I know what it means to the younger kids.” And two, that above all, her basketball workouts and steps to improve her game, her meal ticket, come first. She spent three days at the Performance Sports Institute in Tempe, Ariz. before Christmas, joining tennis star Mary Pierce and others to learn how to prepare their bodies for the rigors of pro sports. “The way I felt at the end of this past season, I know I have to take care of my body better if I want to survive,” Stiles said. And what did she learn in Tempe? “Oh God … that I’m doing all the wrong things,” Stiles said with a laugh. “Not eating breakfast, not sleeping enough … everything.” The time since she left SMS has become one big learning experience, more than she’d ever envisioned. “I look at Carly (Deer) and my other friends and realize my life now is so much different,” Stiles said. “Sometimes I wish I could just go back to where life was so simple and I just played.” But Deer is impressed with the way her best friend has handled her new business responsibilities. “I’d have never thought it possible our freshman year,” Deer said with a laugh. “But after visiting with her over the summer, I could really tell the transition she underwent. “She’s a grown-up now.”