News Articles – August 3, 2007

COLUMBIA | Jackie Stiles still has it. That thing that makes a teenage girl stop in her tracks, grab her nearest friend and blurt out “Oh my God! It’s Jackie Stiles!” It’s been awhile since her thousand-baskets-a-day routine (true story) and record-breaking Southwest Missouri State career made her a national name. It’s been six years and 13 surgeries, to be exact. But she’s still a rock star. Even when she shows up at speaking engagements like the MSHSAA Sportsmanship Summit on Thursday morning in Columbia, looking very much like a mere mortal. As Stiles stood in front of an audience of about 250 high school athletes and coaches, she could’ve blended right in with the kids. She looks much younger than her 28 years. “I feel like I’m 98, though,” Stiles said. Her body is broken down like a used car, but she hides those surgery scars well. Silvery bangles worn on her right wrist cover the pink wounds from surgery No. 1. No. 14 is necessary — a procedure to fix her left knee — but she’s holding that one off. She spent years crafting her 5-foot-8 frame into a shooting machine, but now she’s paying the price. Injuries forced Stiles to retire from professional basketball late last year. “I’m not going to lie,” Stiles said, “it’s been a tough adjustment because that was my life.” Far from being a genetic giant like the 6-foot-2 Kristin Folkl-Kaburakis, Stiles’ former WNBA teammate and tag-team partner during their Summit session “Emulating College Coaches and Players,” Stiles depended on her intense practice regimen. She was the petite workaholic so driven that she told her second-grade teacher she would play pro basketball. She started shooting those thousand daily baskets after freshman year at Claflin High and kept on till she became a pro. She talked to the young audience on Thursday about work ethic and shared stories about her own sacrifice. Or self-torture, whatever way you want to look at it. “I just wish everyone could understand how good she was and how hard she worked,” said Folkl-Kaburakis, who remembered Stiles as a Portland Fire rookie waking up at 5 a.m. on game day to ride an exercise bike, then shoot around before the official shootaround. “She was crazy!” Stiles set the NCAA Division I women’s career scoring record with 3,393 points. In 2001, Stiles was selected the WNBA Rookie of the Year but just as soon as her career was taking off, her body was wearing down. Folkl-Kaburakis was different. Before married life she was known as Kristin Folkl, the two-sport sensation from St. Louis who won three national championships as a volleyball player and reached the Final Four twice in basketball at Stanford. Folkl played five WNBA seasons then went overseas. In 2003, she knew it was time for a lifestyle change and retired without regrets. She’s since married and now has an 11-month-old son. “I wanted to wake up and not hurt,” Folkl-Kaburakis said. “I know that sounds really weird but those are things you look forward to. I didn’t want to have bruises everywhere. When I retired I said, ‘I can go to work and not worry about having my nose broken.’ ” While Folkl-Kaburakis was ready for her career to end, Stiles didn’t have a choice. Her latest comeback attempt ended in Australia. She went from setting the practice floor on fire with her jumpers to waking up the next morning unable to move. Last December, she finally gave it up and moved to Wichita. “The only thing I can do now to stay active is ride a bike because it’s non-impact,” Stiles said. “That’s been a hard adjustment for me.” Although basketball ended too soon, she’s accepting her new life. Stiles continues to teach private lessons and book speaking engagements. She just wrapped two instructional videos to be released in November, one on ball handling and the other on making a thousand baskets, of course. Fans like Jordan Mays saw that skill. Mays, a Eureka High cross country runner who attended the day’s session, remembers being mesmerized by Stiles during the 2001 Final Four in St. Louis. It was just a casual shootaround but Stiles was the only one on the floor and she made fans stop and watch her make shot after shot. “The crowd was into it and cheering every make,” said Mays, who uttered the ‘Oh my God!’ when spotting Stiles on Thursday. “I just thought she was the coolest thing ever.”