Yasen Set To Join Girls Of Summer
Corissa Yasen has landed herself a 10-week summer job that pays $10,000 to play high-quality hoops.
The Coeur d’Alene High School graduate was selected to play for the Sacramento Monarchs, one of eight inaugural teams in the Women’s NBA.
“I was relieved, because I had no idea what I was going to do this summer,” said Yasen, a 6-foot Purdue University forward.
Yasen, best known for her track and field achievements, played her only collegiate basketball this past season. She averaged 11.4 points and 6.2 rebounds a game, helping the Boilermakers qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Purdue lost in overtime in the second round to eventual runner-up Old Dominion.
Yasen said she still doesn’t have the heart to watch the game film. Yasen also was drafted by the New England Blizzard of the American Basketball League on May 5. She said she turned down the offer be cause the league plays in the winter, making it impossible to return to school in West Lafayette, Ind., in the fall. Yasen won’t graduate until next spring, although her athletic eligibility has expired.
“I was like, ‘Man, if I don’t play in the (W)NBA, I don’t know what I’m going to do about the ABL,”’ Yasen said. “I want to finish school, so it was nice how it worked out when they said they wanted me. It made life a lot simpler.”
Yasen was invited to the Monarchs’ tryouts two weeks ago and officially found out earlier this week she had been selected to fill one of the last two spots on the team’s roster. She will leave Indiana Sunday and report to training camp on Wednesday.
Yasen said she will earn about $10,000. Two of the league’s marquee players, Rebecca Lobo (New York Liberty) and Lisa Leslie (Houston Comets), reportedly signed for $250,000 each.
“For me its not the $10,000,” she said. “I don’t care about that right now.”
The Monarchs’ top draft pick was 6-3 center Pamela McGee (USC ‘94). One of the assistant coaches is former Eastern Washington University head coach Heidi VanDerveer.
Before returning to basketball, a game Yasen had been away from since graduating high school in 1992, the 23-year-old athlete dominated in track and field. She’s a nine-time All-American and 10-time Big Ten Conference champion.
Last spring, she won the heptathlon title at the NCAA women’s outdoor track and field championships. She also had top finishes in the high jump, javelin and 800-meter events. She finished eighth in heptathlon at last summer’s U.S. Olympic trials.
“It’s kinda on hold right now,” Yasen said about her track career.
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