Val Whiting

Valeria Olivia Whiting (born April 9, 1972) is a former professional basketball player.

Val Whiting
Personal information
Born (1972-04-09) April 9, 1972
South Orange, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Listed height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight199 lb (90 kg)
Career information
High schoolUrsuline Academy
(Wilmington, Delaware)
CollegeStanford (1989–1993)
WNBA draft1999 / Round: 2 / Pick: 17th overall
Selected by the Detroit Shock
PositionPower forward / Center
Number52
Career history
1996–1997San Jose Lasers
1997–1998Seattle Reign
1999Detroit Shock
2001–2002Minnesota Lynx
Career highlights and awards
  • 2× NCAA champion (1990, 1992)
  • 2× Pac-10 Player of the Year (1992, 1993)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Early life

Whiting was born on April 9, 1972 in South Orange, New Jersey. She grew up in East Orange, New Jersey, and eventually moved to Wilmington, Delaware during the 80's. By middle school she was almost six feet tall and she even skipped the fourth grade. Being tall, awkward, and shy, she was subject to bullying. In an effort to fit in, she tried out for the middle school cheer squad but didn't make the cut. She says, "Boys only seemed to like the girls that were popular and cheerleaders, so I thought that if I was popular, the bullying would go away." She went into basketball after being cut from the cheerleading team. Despite her father playing college basketball, and her mother being offered a scholarship to play, they never mentioned the sport to her, and she wasn't interested in the sport until her math teacher suggested that she tryout for her middle school team. In the beginning, she found basketball extremely confusing, even scoring for the wrong team once in a game. But she was undeterred by these minor setbacks. On weekends, as a requirement of her father, she would have 6 am workouts to work on her game, honing her skills, which she says she didn't enjoy. She played streetball every weekend against grown men, the challenging situation helping her improve and develop grit. In one incident, she knocked down an adult man off of a rebound during a pick up game. Frustrated and angry, he said, "That's not a girl, that's a man." Val recalls being extremely hurt by this remark, as she was only 13 years old, and was still trying to figure out what it meant to be female and an athlete.

Basketball career

High School

Val Whiting didn't begin to love the sport until tenth grade, which was also when she received her first college recruitment letter from Princeton. That moment was when she realized that she could play college basketball. Motivated, she pushed herself harder, attending multiple exposure camps. After these camps, the letters poured in as she gained the interest of many high level college basketball programs. Years later, one assistant coach even said that she would never be a great basketball player, only because of assumptions that she made of her during a high school tryout at Ursuline Academy. She says, "I'm glad that I didn't hear that then, because at that point I was fragile, and it would've demotivated me. This happened during my freshman, and it was my first time being seen." Her senior year, she averaged 30 points a game and 15 rebounds. Through her high school season she won four state championships, was a 3 time All-State Player, and a 2 time All-American. In addition, she was player of the year from her sophomore to senior season. In 1984, Whiting attended the Olympic Trials, to gain exposure to see what competition was like at the elite level. As the youngest player she says "It was difficult and it was out of my league." She quotes, "I got my butt kicked". At the Olympic Trial was where she first caught the attention of Stanford Women's Basketball coaching legend, Tara Vanderveer. Whiting was a heavily recruited athlete, receiving letters from nearly every program in America, including the most elite. She was eventually awarded a full scholarship to Stanford University.

College

Whiting won two NCAA championships and went to the Final Four three years. At the end of her last year, she graduate as the school's second all-time leading scorer and all-time leader in rebounds and blocks. She also left as the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in Pac-10 history.

Professional Career (1994-2002)

Val played overseas in Italy, Israel and Brazil. She then played in the American Basketball League and was an All-Star, and All-ABL Selection and one of the few players to score 1000 points before the league folded after 2 1/2 years. In 1999, she was drafted 17th overall by the WNBA team Detroit Shock and was a part of their first ever playoff team. She ended her career in 2002 with the Minnesota Lynx.

Awards and honors

College
  • Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame (inducted in 2000)
  • In 2010, she was named one of the Top 25 NCAA Players of the Past 25 years.
  • 2x All-American (1992, 1993) Both Kodak and U.S. Basketball Writers Association each time
  • 2x Pac-10 Player of the Year (1992, 1993)
  • 1990 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year
  • 2x All-Pac-10 First Team (1992, 1993)
  • Pac-10 All-Freshman Team (1990)
  • 1992 All-Final Four Team
  • 1991 West Region MVP
  • 2x All-West Region Team (1991, 1992)

· 2,077 career points

o Currently 6th all-time at Stanford and 16th in the Pac-12 o Both Stanford and conference leader at the time she graduated

· 16.1 career PPG

o Currently 7th all-time at Stanford and was 2nd when she graduated

· 481 career FT made

o Currently 4th all-time at Stanford and was 1st when she graduated

· 1,134 career rebounds

o Currently 6th all-time at Stanford and 14th in the Pac-12 o Both Stanford and conference leader at the time she graduated

· 8.8 career RPG

o Currently 3rd all-time at Stanford and 15th in the Pac-12 o Both Stanford and conference leader at the time she graduated

· 201 career blocks

o Currently 3rd all-time at Stanford and 10th in the Pac-12 o Stanford’s leader and second in conference history at the time she graduated.

Delaware
  • The Hall of Fame of Delaware Women
  • The Delaware Basketball Hall of Fame
  • Delaware Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame
  • Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.

USA BASKETBALL
  • Was named to USA Basketball Pan-American Games Team in 1995[1]
  • Alternate to the 1995 US National team that went on to win the Gold Medal at the 1996 Olympics

Personal life

Whiting earned a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford.[2] She deferred her acceptance to University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine due to her love of basketball. She played overseas, is a mother and wife, and became a business owner after basketball.[3]

References
  1. "Stanford University – Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-24.
  2. "Steve's Club Camden: Val Whiting is our guest speaker for Beat the Streets!". stevesclub.typepad.com. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
  3. "Sideline Pass » Blog Archive » Val Whiting Raymond: Ball Girl Extraordinaire". www.sidelinepass.com. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
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