SAN FRANCISCO – Elle Ladine took a moment to glance around a sold-out Chase Center packed with purple-clad Valkyries fans when she checked in for Lexie Brown during the fourth quarter.
Her parents, Marie France and Clint Ladine, were just two of a large pro-Ladine contingent on Saturday that included former teammates, coaches and a number of friends.
All were there to watch the San Francisco native and former Pinewood High School star play her first WNBA game as a member of the visiting Seattle Storm.
“I couldn’t believe it when I walked out on the court. I literally got chills walking out here,” Ladine told the Bay Area News Group. “It was so surreal, it was amazing.”
Ladine scored the last point of the game, a free throw with 4.9 seconds remaining in a 78-76 Valkyries victory. After the final buzzer, the 21-year-old quickly got changed in the visiting locker room and then spent a long while mingling on the court with familiar faces from around the Bay Area.
She was only “down the road” from the San Francisco home she grew up in, but the setting could not be farther from the isolated court she perfected her jump shot.
Legendary Pinewood girls basketball coach and shooting guru Doc Scheppler still has a bright green sticky note taped to a wall in his home’s personal basketball court, one that Jeremy Lin and a star-studded cast of hoopers have trained on.
“Shout out to Doc Scheppler,” Ladine said when asked about her jumper. “He’s the best shooting coach in the business.”
On that note is a detailed list of exercises Scheppler planned out for Ladine, who trained with him during 2020 while the COVID-19 pandemic had shut down most other gyms.
“She would come over here four or five days a week, and I’d have a workout taped to the wall for her to go through,” Scheppler told the Bay Area News Group in a phone interview. “She followed it every day.”
A handwritten post-it note by Pinewood girls basketball coach Doc Scheppler with instructions for Elle Ladine’s shooting drills from 2020 (Photo courtesy of Doc Scheppler)
That work ethic, the rigid adherence to routine, those thousands of jumpers, paid off.
Ladine was a key contributor to Pinewood’s 17-0 Central Coast Section Open Division title-winning team during the hectic 2021 spring and summer season. That was just a preview of what was to come.
She cemented herself as the Bay Area’s best player during her senior year, being named the Bay Area News Group player of the year in 2021-22 after averaging 23.4 points per game.
“That’s why we called her Magic-Elle, she was Phenomen-Elle, all those little plays on words,” Scheppler said.
Far from a one-dimensional gunner, Ladine also ripped down 14.7 rebounds per game despite standing just 5-foot-11, once grabbing 30 boards in a CCS playoff game against Sacred Heart Cathedral.
“Moses Malone,” SHC coach Demetrius Jackson said after. “I hate to make a comparison to a male player, but that’s the first name that comes to mind.”
Elle Ladine was a superstar at Pinewood (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
Ladine then became a true rarity during the NIL era of college sports, spending all four of her years at the University of Washington and graduating with a degree in sociology, being named to the all-Pac-12 team as a sophomore and all-Big Ten team as a junior along the way.
That jump shot translated from Pinewood to major college basketball. Ladine shot 34.1% from behind the arc and averaged 11.2 points per game while making 88 starts in 123 games for the Huskies.
Following her senior season this past winter, the Storm signed the undrafted Ladine to a training camp contract. During her two weeks with the team, Ladine has been able to count standout veteran center Ezi Magbegor as a mentor.
“She’s just really kind, soft-spoken,” Ladine said of Magbegor. “Sent me a really encouraging text before the game, and to have one of the best players in the world text you and encourage you like that, it just helped calm me down and get the nerves to dial down a little bit.”
Ladine faces an uphill battle to join Magbegor on the regular season roster, battling five other rookies – including top picks Flau’jae Johnson and Awa Fam – for a spot on either the regular roster or a developmental slot.
She will have a few more practices and one additional preseason game against the expansion Portland Fire to make her case to stick in the WNBA.
Whether that be in Seattle or elsewhere, Ladine hopes to show the league that she has the mentality to stick on a roster.
“I’m really willing to work and learn from the vets, the coaches, and the best in the world,” Ladine said. “I want to learn, I want to get better.”
Elle Ladine helped Pinewood win the 2021 CCS Open Division championship (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)