Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a five-part series previewing the top five girls basketball players in the Class of 2023. The series counts down to No. 1 and aligns with the start of the 2022-23 high school season. Click here to see the latest rankings from the Class of 2023. Counting down: No. 5 Hannah Hidalgo | No. 4 Aalyah Del Rosario | No. 3 Jadyn Donovan | No. 2 Juju Watkins | No. 1 Mikaylah Williams.

Juju Watkins has earned every second of her time in the spotlight. The 17-year-old’s skill set is still unfolding, but what she’s already revealed has been impressive enough to attract attention from the nation’s top college basketball programs and beyond.

As a junior, in her first season with California juggernaut Sierra Canyon, Watkins averaged 24.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 2.8 steals and 2.0 blocks per game.

Most transfers would need more time to get acclimated to a new culture, but Watkins credits Sierra Canyon coach Alicia Komaki and the rest of her teammates for easing that transition process.

“Coach Komaki and the team made it easy for me,” Watkins said. “I think that type of environment made it easier for me to adapt. They made me feel very welcome and supported, and that’s the type of environment I strive in the most.”

The 6-foot-2 guard has started each of the 13 games she’s played in a Team USA jersey while averaging double figures in scoring across two gold-medal summers. And in the early days of NIL rights at the NCAA level, Watkins has managed to stand out in a sea of high school and college athletes looking to curate their brands.

Juju Watkins has already been recognized as the 2022 Los Angeles Times Player of the Year, Gatorade California Girls Basketball Player of the Year and California Ms. Basketball, but she’s only getting started.

Coach’s analysis

Each year, Komaki chooses a team motto. This year, it’s “good to great” — reflective of the Sierra Canyon mentality.

Last year, Sierra Canyon finished as not only the top program in the state of California but also a top-five program in the country, and yet the team has accepted that they were simply good, not great.

This ring is truly our legacy and salutes our current and past champions.

We included 83 💎’s on top which when added up rep the years we won state ‘22 ‘19 ‘15 ‘14 ‘13 pic.twitter.com/5waLnjj969

— Alicia Komaki (@iamkomaki) August 4, 2022

Watkins has spent only one season on the court for Sierra Canyon, but she wasted no time embedding herself in the team culture. According to Komaki, many of those traits were already inherent to Watkins.

“We’re a very big cultural program,” Komaki said. “One of the reasons we forget [she’s not been here all four years] is she came in and quickly adapted to everything that we do. We get kids as freshmen, and it usually takes three to four years; a lot of our leadership usually comes from the seniors and the juniors.

“It’s an attribution to her and who she is that she’s been able to be a leader on our team despite only being here for a year. It’s actually very impressive that she can grasp a lot of our values and concepts we teach. That’s what we breed here. This is a character-driven culture. We breed great teammates. All the things we preach on a daily basis, she just kind of fit right in.”

It’s Watkins’ unique brand of competitiveness that most impresses Komaki.

“I don’t think there’s anybody like her,” Komaki said. “I’ve been coaching for a long time, and I’ve been fortunate to coach some of the best players, but also coach against some of the best players throughout the nation. She is as high as it gets. She brings her competitiveness to everything. She ups that factor of competing on a daily basis, which again, is a big staple of our program.

“But I think she accelerated the type of competitiveness that you really need to compete at a high level.”

The Sierra Canyon coaching staff — and any coaching staff that’s had to plan for Watkins — is never sure what to expect from Watkins.

“There’s a lot of really talented, skilled athletes out there who just play the same way all the time, and they’re great. But with Juju, you don’t know what you’re getting that day,” Komaki said. “She might make seven 3s that day. She might score 40 points in the paint that day. She might get to the free-throw line 20 times that day.

“You just don’t know because she reads defenses and she does whatever she needs to do to score.”

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Catching up

Watkins is one of 11 returners for Sierra Canyon. She believes in the team’s ability to win another state title but understands the difficulty in doing so.

“We want to be a great team this year,” Watkins said. “We want to focus on all the small details that are going to be crucial for us to win another championship. I do feel like it’s going to be harder to win a championship this year.”

On an individual level, Watkins is proud of the work she’s done to improve her game.

“I feel like I’ve gotten better with my passing,” Watkins said. “That’s something I’m definitely looking forward to this season, to take some of the attention off me offensively and get my teammates more involved.”

In July, Watkins was named the MVP at the FIBA U17 World Cup after averaging 13.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.3 steals per game for Team USA in Debrecen, Hungary.

“USA always helps me to be more independent,” Watkins said. “That’s an opportunity for me to lock in on basketball. You’re responsible for yourself in a lot of ways, and that’s something I’ve gotten used to the second time around. It’s taught me how to play with 10 other All-Americans — just guarding them every day and getting better on defense and them guarding me every day and getting better on offense.

“I’ve learned a lot from coach Sue [Phillips] and from my peers. They’ve pushed me to get better. I do the same for them. It’s a summer where you can completely get better, learn new things and raise your IQ.”

Watkins is expected to make her college choice during the early signing period, which begins Wednesday and lasts one week, according to the L.A. Times. She’s narrowed her choice down to three schools but has declined to specify which programs.

Off the court, Watkins has made national headlines for recent brand deals with Nike and Lids, and she’s signed with Klutch Sports Group for NIL representation.

“NIL is a big blessing,” Watkins said. “It’s something I’ll never take for granted. I’m just happy I’m here in this moment in time; if I was a couple of years older, I wouldn’t be able to experience generating income off my name and how I perform on the court. I’m blessed to be in this position.”

Caroline Makauskas is a contributing writer for Just Women’s Sports. She also covers a variety of sports on her TikTok @cmakauskas. Follow her on Twitter @cmakauskas.

After an illustrious career for both club and country, Gotham FC and U.S. Women’s National Team defender Kelley O’Hara announced today via Kelley on the Street that she will be retiring from professional soccer at the end of this year, making the 2024 NWSL season her last.

"I have always said I would play under two conditions: that I still love playing soccer, and if my body would let me do it the way I wanted to," O’Hara told Just Women’s Sports in the lead-up to her retirement announcement. "I realized a while back that I was always going to love it, so it was the physical piece that was going to be the deciding factor."

The 35-year-old will retire as a two-time World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and at least a two-time NWSL champion, depending on where Gotham finishes this season. Her legacy as a player is hard to fully encapsulate, and will forever run through some of the biggest snapshots in USWNT and NWSL history. 

In 2012, O’Hara played every minute of the USWNT’s Olympic gold medal run, after having recently converted into a defender. Her soaring goal off the bench in the 2015 World Cup semifinal is the stuff of legend. And her return from lingering injury to play in every knockout match of the national team’s 2019 World Cup win cemented a storybook international career. 

It was O’Hara who scored the overtime goal in 2021 to earn the Washington Spirit their first-ever NWSL championship, and O’Hara who returned to help see Gotham earn a title in 2023 after years spent in the trenches with the club’s previous iteration, Sky Blue. Her 15-year career spanned two professional women’s soccer leagues in the U.S. (she earned her first professional title in 2010 with WPS’s FC Gold Pride), as well as sweeping changes to the sport both on and off the pitch.

On the field, O’Hara has always been known for a motor that never quits, making the right flank her domain in attacking possession and defensive transition. In recent years, she’s also been celebrated for a competitive fire that raises the level of her teammates, whether she’s in the starting XI or supporting from the bench.

But injuries take a toll, a reality not always seen by the fans watching from home. "I've never taken anything for granted, and I feel like I've never coasted either," O’Hara said of her late-career success in the NWSL despite battling injuries. "I've always been like, 'I gotta put my best foot forward every single day I step on this field' — which is honestly probably half the reason why I'm having to retire now as opposed to getting a couple more years out of it. I've just grinded hard."

Recently, O’Hara has been sidelined at Gotham with ankle and knee injuries, and the situation motivated her to really prioritize listening to her body. "To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you.

"People don't see the doubt that's associated with injury,” she continued. "As athletes we feel a certain way, we perform a certain way, our body feels a certain way, we're very in tune with our bodies. And there's always so much doubt surrounding injury. It’s like, 'Can I feel the way I felt before?' The reality is sometimes you don't."

O’Hara didn’t arrive at the decision to move on from her playing career lightly. But once she began seriously considering making 2024 her final year during the last NWSL offseason, it felt right. "Once I was like, 'Alright, you know what, this will be my last year,' I have had a lot of peace with it," she said. "Truly the only thing I felt was gratitude for everything that my career has been, all the things I've been able to do and the people I've been able to do it with."

She said she’ll miss daily interactions with her teammates and all the amazing memories they’ve created, though she feels lucky to have formed relationships that go beyond sharing a locker room. "You're basically getting to hang out and just shoot the shit with your best friends every day," she reflected. "Which is so unheard of, and I just feel very lucky to do it for so long."

The Stanford graduate also mentioned that the NWSL’s suspension of regular season play in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic made her realize how much playing allowed her the space to simply be creative every day. The tactical elements of soccer provided O’Hara an outlet for problem solving and made use of her naturally competitive edge.

She’s now gearing up to channel her on-field intensity into her post-playing career full time, which is a new chapter she’s excited to begin. "I don't know if the world's ready for it, like the fact that I'm not going to be putting all of my energy into football all the time," she said with a laugh. 

O’Hara said she would like to stay connected to the game in some fashion, whether it be as an owner, coach, or member of a front office. She’s also interested in the growing media space surrounding women’s sports, having provided on-camera analysis for broadcasters like CBS Sports in addition to starting a production company with her fiancée.

"I just feel like I have a lot of passions, and things that excite me," she says. "And I do want to stay as close as I can to the game, because I feel a responsibility — and I'm not sure in what capacity — to continue to grow it."

A sense of responsibility to grow the game has been a consistent refrain for the USWNT and NWSL players of O’Hara’s era, who ushered in a new age of equal pay for the national team and collectively bargained protections for those in the league. The landscape for new players looks different than it did 14 years ago, in large part due to this pivotal generation.

"I feel an immense sense of pride around that, because I don't know if any of us knew that was gonna happen," she said. "We kind of, as things unfolded, took the next step towards changing what women's football looks like in this country and around the world.

"I'm really grateful to have been part of this era with the players that I was [with], not backing down and pushing and knowing that was the right thing to do."

Whatever the future holds, O’Hara is going ahead full throttle. It’s a piece of advice she’d also give to the next generation of professionals looking to make their own impact.

"Whatever you do in life, do it because you love it, and the chips will fall in place," she said. "If you love something, you're willing to do what it takes. You're willing to make the sacrifices, you're willing to handle the roller coaster.

"To me, it's simple. Don't do it for any other reason but that, and I think you'll be alright."

The Phoenix Mercury center spoke with Robin Roberts about her 10-month incarceration, reflecting on her poor living conditions and shaky mental state ahead of her May 7th memoir.

"The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper," Griner told the ABC News anchor in last night’s 20/20 special. "That was the moment where I just felt less than a human." 

She also detailed some of her lowest moments during that time, saying with tears in her eyes that she went so far as to consider taking her own life on more than one occasion. However, the thought of Russian officials not releasing her body back to her family made her reconsider.

"I just didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through," said Griner.

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In February 2022, Griner was arrested and charged with drug possession and smuggling by a Russian court after Sheremetyevo International Airport police found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. The cartridges were prescribed by Griner’s doctor for chronic pain back in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal. In the interview, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she had a "mental lapse" while packing, and never intended to bring the cannabis products with her when she returned to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

"It's just so easy to have a mental lapse," Griner said. "Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn't take away from how that can happen." 

She was later sentenced to nine years behind bars after her Russian attorneys advised her to plead guilty the following July. Griner was then sent to a remote penal colony where she was forced to spend her days cutting cloth to make military uniforms. From there, it only got worse.

"Honestly, it just had to happen," she said when asked about her decision to cut off her signature long locks. "We had spiders above my bed making nests.

"My dreads started to freeze," she added. "They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You've gotta do what you've gotta do to survive."

Shortly after Griner’s initial arrest, the U.S. State Department classified her case as wrongfully detained, escalating its urgency within the government and calling even more attention to the situation. On December 8th, she was freed in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration.

While she told Roberts she was "thrilled" when she got the news, she was also very upset about having to leave fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan behind. She also continues to carry guilt about her arrest, saying "At the end of the day, it's my fault. And I let everybody down."

Griner’s memoir, Coming Home, hits shelves on May 7th.

"Coming Home begins in a land where my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets," Griner told ABC News in an exclusive statement. "But, ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare."

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.