The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist began her NCAA career with Washington State University but is now a graduate working towards her master\u2019s after making the move to UCLA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going into my sixth year of being over here in college, fourth year I guess playing, but it is completely different to anything we have in New Zealand in terms of the scale of just collegiate sports and how much they put into it.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously they have a lot of money in America and they like to put a lot into their sports. So coming over here, it\u2019s been really cool just to be a part of that system and being in games where you\u2019re playing in front of thousands of people and you get free gear and you get free food and you kind of just get taken care of in a different way that unless you\u2019re professional in New Zealand, isn\u2019t really a thing for uni students.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old said collegiate athletes were treated well, with support systems that ranged from massages to academic tutors, but it was not an easy ride for the players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a lot on your body, it is a lot in terms of just your time. We train for about three hours on court every day and then you add a lift session after that, which is about an hour, we have film study where we watch our practices and other teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day we meet with our coaches, and then on top of that you also have your school, your studies as well, which takes up a big portion of your day, so it is a lot to navigate and manage.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I still am very grateful just to be living this and having the opportunity to travel all around America and play some amazing teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next step in Leger-Walker\u2019s career is to turn professional and she will \u201cfor sure\u201d put her name forward for the competitive WNBA draft after her final college season wraps up this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the draft, basically anyone can put their name forward if you are eligible, which for girls you have to have completed at least three collegiate seasons, most people do four, or you have to be over the age of 21 but have played pro so you can go into the draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly 36 girls get drafted but because the rosters are so small, only 12 people get named to a roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s really only 144 spots to go on to the WNBA so when you break it down to those numbers, it\u2019s very hard to make teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first New Zealander to play in the WNBA, Megan Compain, is someone Leger-Walker has turned to for advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe played with my mum [Leanne Walker] and I\u2019ve had multiple conversations with her about her kind of journey into that and what she thought of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it was a different time back then with the WNBA but I just think it speaks to that it is possible, and I think it\u2019s really cool seeing people in front of you who have done that. And that\u2019s one of the motivations for me too, just to remind people \u2013 especially girls \u2013 from New Zealand that it is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leger-Walker had been focused on returning to playing for the UCLA Bruins before she considered whether she would be available for the Tall Ferns, a team she had played for since she was 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cWearing the Tall Ferns singlet is a big part of my journey and something I want to get back to but those conversations will happen a little bit later on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist began her NCAA career with Washington State University but is now a graduate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[71578,49,48,197995,3011,5718,197996,56983,197997,28153,82,182,2547,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-493291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ambition","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-charlisse","12":"tag-from","13":"tag-injury","14":"tag-legerwalker","15":"tag-nine","16":"tag-noon","17":"tag-returns","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-with","21":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}