DE PERE — After struggling with confidence herself, one former UWGB women’s basketball star has started a program to make sure female basketball players are ready to take the court mentally and physically.
“It’s really just about helping young women become confident young leaders and role models in this world that we live in and if I can do that, I’m doing it right,” said Laken James.
Oconto native, James shined at UW-Green Bay in her redshirt senior season, earning 2nd team all-Horizon League conference. However, it wasn’t sunshine and rainbows to start.
“The fairy tale would be you step on campus as a freshman and you just ball out, right, but that’s not always how it goes and for me personally I was living my dream so I think I put this extra pressure playing at Green Bay,” she said.
She redshirted her first year, then hardly played in her freshman and sophomore seasons. A self proclaimed gym rat, she had all the skills on the court, but the lack of playing time hurt her confidence. Heading into her junior season she says she needed a different approach.
“When I went into my junior year, that whole summer before I started to focus on the mental side of the game,” said James. “I was reading books and doing all the soft skills that I had never done before.”
James went on to play professionally in Scotland and Germany. It was there - in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the idea for Five Star Academy was born...
“I kinda really focus on the passion that I had to develop young women and the life skills through sport and that’s really what I want Five Star Academy to be,” said the former UWGB captain.
Now she’s helping young players from around the Fox Valley refine their on-court skills, but also working on the mental side of their game.
“She’s helped me a lot with just finding ways to motivate myself and along with the confidence, remembering to keep my head up after a bad shot and just things like that,” said Liz Wade, a sophomore at Marinette.
“She helps with the mental side of the game, not only you actually playing basketball, it’s what you’re going through during the season and just help you through maybe the struggles that you’re having,” said De Pere junior Abby Tassoul.
The athletes say, seeing a professional going through the same struggles makes them believe in her process.
“Knowing that she will help you get through those hard times because she had to overcome that as well even though she is a great player,” Tassoul said.
James says her goal isn’t just to build great basketball players, but to be great human beings.
“We do leadership, we do confidence building, goal setting, time management. All those things that go into being a great athlete but also a great person. I want to give them all the tools to be great in basketball, but also later in life,” said James.
