Wnba Reality ‘Weird’ Clinesmith Discovers Transition To Pro Play An Exciting Adventure

Things were getting kind of lively inside the visitors’ locker room the other night. It was as if the Sacramento Monarchs called a postgame coffee klatch and only served caffeinated.

As for the stick stirring the latte, Ruthie Bolton-Holifield. The grand dame was giving her teammates the business. The Monarchs’ off-night produced a win, but an ugly one at that. Bolton-Holifield bailed them out, scoring the last seven points as the Monarchs avoided a road loss to the first-year Portland Fire.

The 33-year-old veteran drifted to Yolanda Griffith’s side of the cozy quarters, laughing and jiving as if the two 2000 U.S. National Team players were thinking - what were we thinking tonight?

Ticha Penicheiro continued to mumble to herself and to anyone within earshot about the lousy game she played. But the Monarchs came back from an 11-point halftime deficit and kept the Fire from a rare win.

There were jokes, there was laughter, there was sisterhood.

And there was Stacy Clinesmith, sitting in at her locker stall, soaking it all in like the new-kid-in-the-clubhouse, which she is. She laughed at the right times, her eyes drifting from one veteran player to another.

“It’s almost unreal. It’s kinda weird,” said Clinesmith, a 1996 Mead High graduate.

“Weird” is Clinesmith’s word of choice these days. “Awesome” which used to pop up in every other sentence is like totally out.

Making about $40,000 for a summer job and doing something she absolutely loves. Weird.

Not having to fork out a penny for rent on a nice one-bedroom furnished apartment. Driving “an SUV-type thing” for free. Weird.

Scanning the seats during warmups at - Oh my God, pinch me - Madison Square Garden. Weird.

Putting a move on Sheryl Swoopes. Very weird.

Maybe the weirdest of weirdness for Clinesmith is that she’s coming off the bench and playing 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there. But this is the WNBA, where the 12th player on any team was the No.1 go-to girl on her high school and college teams.

Clinesmith was no different.

She started as a freshman at Mead High School and guided her team to the State AAA girls championship her senior year. She didn’t miss a beat at UC Santa Barbara, where coach Mark French stuck her in the starting lineup from the start. From there, it was Big West Conference title after title, all with Clinesmith, an allconference player, running the team at the point.

And then things got, well, weird.

She was invited to the league’s predraft camp. On the final day, players were told to be prepared to fly to NBA Entertainment Studios in Secaucus, N.J., for the draft.

“I was like, `Oh yeah… . whatever,”’ Clinesmith said.

So here she was back in Santa Barbara and she gets the call.

“I remember, I was playing pickup with my teammates,” she said. “Who would have ever thought I would be asked to come out to the draft? I just didn’t expect it. It was weird.”

Who would have thought a 5-foot-4 point guard with less than 15 seconds of fame would be a second-round pick and 30th overall?

Sonny Allen, the Monarchs’ second-year coach, liked what he had seen for years. He admitted he thought Clinesmith would have been picked higher. But unlike other coaches, Allen lives in Reno, Nev., so he got his annual fill of Clinesmith at the Big West Conference tournament and he knew what she can do.

“She’s a great story,” Allen said. “It’s probably where she comes from. Small town and Santa Barbara, which had a great team, but they didn’t get national exposure.

“Her size makes her unique. She’s a crowd-pleaser because of those things. A lot of people like that are crowd pleasers but they can’t play. They’re a novelty and you just put them in when you’re up 20 or down 20. But Stacy can play.”

She plays about 11 minutes a game to give Penicheiro a breather. Clinesmith’s most memorable moments in her young pro career came against Minnesota. After Penicheiro turned her ankle in the opening minutes, Clinesmith stepped in, ran the floor, scored nine points and dished out 10 assists as the Monarchs cruised to a 12-point win.

But Clinesmith said she realizes there probably won’t be many nights like that, at least for now.

The 5-11 Penicheiro is more than a star on Sacramento. She’s one of the 3-year-old league’s stars, voted to start in the All-Star game Monday in Phoenix. The Portuguese player from Old Dominion University leads the league in assists with 8.2.

“To be able to come in and learn and to play under her for my first year is a really good fit for me,” Clinesmith said. “Especially for my first year coming out as a rookie straight out of college.”

While many first-year players have overseas experience, Clinesmith, who turned 22 in April, is a true rookie. Penicheiro, however, is hardly an old lady at age 25.

So for now, the diminutive one must watch and wait her turn. She’s doing it with class. She’s the first to greet the starters on the sideline during timeouts, slapping them on the hands and chatting words of encouragement.

“Overall, she’s doing a great job,” said 6-foot-4 forward Griffith, the league’s MVP last year. “She gets her minutes. She comes in and sparks the team as a great defender and smart point guard.

“She has a positive attitude. That’s going to help her down the line.”

Added 5-9 shooting guard Bolton-Holifield, the oldest player on the team: “I think she has a great future. Even though she’s small, she’s quick and she’s a spark.”

For the record, Clinesmith is 5-4. “You know, with shoes, two pairs of socks, tape… . that’s why my hair is a little bit longer on top now,” Clinesmith said, yanking on her blonde spikes. “I’m at least 5-8.”

Only a few players in the league are shorter. Debbie Black of the Miami Sol is listed at 5-2.

“But she can’t do anything about her height,” Penicheiro said of Clinesmith. “She compensates with hustle. She has a really, really good shot. I think she was a little concerned about her height. Maybe people would take advantage of it, posting up. But teams haven’t done anything.”

Something else Clinesmith can’t control is her future. Not so much in the league, but with which team. “She’ll be in this league for years and years,” Allen said. “People now know what she can do.”

Allen said the Monarchs would never rule out the possibility of a trade, but added “we would never trade anybody until we got something better in return. She’s a good guard, and somebody may call and say we’ll give so-and-so for so-and-so.

Clinesmith doesn’t rule out the possibility of that happening.

“I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to play under Ticha and be happy with that,” she admitted. “But for this first year, I’m fine.”

She said she’s also thinking about playing overseas during the off-season. But she’s two quarters short of her sociology degree at UCSB and plans on finishing that first.

As for a trade? Perhaps a summer home in Detroit or Charlotte.

That, Clinesmith classified as “weird.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: FAST FACTS Stacy Clinesmith

Position: Guard

Height: 5-foot-4

College: UC Santa Barbara

High school: Mead

Birthdate: 4/22/78

WNBA: Selected by Sacramento in second round (30th overall) of 2000 draft