There’s no singularly obvious reason for Courtney Ogden’s success. JWS’ 10th-ranked recruit in the Class of 2023, Ogden is confident, focused and patient. She values her coaches, mentors and teammates. She puts in a tremendous amount of work both on the court and in the classroom.

The Stanford-bound guard has everything it takes to become a franchise player at the college level and beyond.

Ogden’s basketball journey began in elementary school. As a third grader, she was the only girl to attend the annual Dell Curry Camp in Charlotte, N.C. In an interview with Jr. NBA’s Elevate Series, she said that, despite her best efforts at the camp, none of the boys would pass her the ball. Ogden’s parents, Christopher and Carla, and Dell Curry himself encouraged her to keep working. If she persisted, they said, she would improve.

The term “Basketball IQ” is regularly thrown around in today’s game to describe athletes who have an elite ability to see plays develop before they unfold and to adapt at a moment’s notice.

Courtney Ogden exemplifies Basketball IQ. As with her commitment to the game, she has polished and developed that skill over time.

Sacrifices are never easy, but Courtney knows what it takes to be great. @UAbasketball @CourtneyP_Ogden

Tap the link for the full Day In The Life: https://t.co/6oNhd2NKhE pic.twitter.com/D4KOi4NhUT

— WSLAM (@wslam) October 10, 2022

One influential teacher in Ogden’s life is trainer Dorian Lee, the CEO of B’Ball 101 who specializes in player development at all levels. Ogden began working with Lee in elementary school. The talented guard is one of thousands of players who have trained with Lee, and his impact is evident in her adaptability on the court.

While training with Lee, Ogden also joined an AAU team before she entered fifth grade.

In the state of Georgia, there’s a clear choice for young girls looking to improve their game on the AAU circuit: Atlanta-based program, Finest Basketball Club. Creator and coach Alfred “Mo” Motton has helped catapult young basketball players to the next level for nearly two decades.

FBC teams have collected hundreds of wins over the years. To play for a program of that caliber, and to shine while doing so, attracts attention no matter how old you are.

So, in the sixth grade, just three years after nobody would pass her the ball at the Dell Curry Camp, Ogden picked up her first Division I offer from then-coach MaChelle Joseph at Georgia Tech.

That same year, she enrolled at the Westminster School in Atlanta, where she played for the JV team as an eighth grader and moved up to varsity as a freshman. That season, she averaged a double-double while shooting 42 percent from the field. As a sophomore, she increased her field goal percentage to nearly 50 percent.

Ogden also excels in her community and in the classroom, prioritizing her education off the court. In 2021, she earned her a spot on the inaugural Jr. NBA Court of Leaders, a youth leadership council that connects student-athletes with opportunities to develop. In school, the senior has studied Mandarin since around the same time she got that first DI offer.

When she gets to college next year, Ogden can continue to grow at one of the world’s top universities and on a team that excels at developing guards while regularly vying for titles.

“Courtney is, plain and simple, a pure and excellent scorer,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after Ogden signed with the program. “She’s a very physical player on both sides of the ball, loves to look for her 3-point shot and can knock them down.”

Ogden committed to Stanford in December of her junior year of high school, just months after breaking her ankle during the summer. The injury required surgery, causing her to miss the beginning of the Westminster season. After making a full recovery, Ogden exceeded expectations, averaging 18.4 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.2 blocks per game that season.

She was named a 2022 GHSA All-Georgia Honorable Mention and GHSA Class AAA First Team selection in addition to leading Westminster to the state semifinals.

Around the same time, she was also invited to her first USA Basketball roster tryout. Ogden earned a spot on the roster for the U18 Women’s Americas Championship in Argentina, despite being a year younger than most of the other players on the team.

Playing for Team USA is a unique learning experience due to the specific style of play the coaching staff demands. Those who make the roster must demonstrate their adaptability and talent to stick around.

U.S. U18 assistant coach DeLisha Milton-Jones, also currently the head coach at Old Dominion, describes Ogden as a skilled player with good size at the guard spot.

“Courtney is a triple-level scorer with good handles that allow her to penetrate the rim and finish through traffic,” she said.

Ogden and the U18 team, entering the Championship on a nine-tournament gold-medal streak, won gold again in Buenos Aires. Ogden averaged 2.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.0 steals in 14.5 minutes across five games as the U.S. went 6-0.

She returned to the States and wrapped up her club career this July at the GUAA U17 Championship, marking the culmination of more than a decade with FBC.

Though Ogden’s squad fell in the title game after four overtime periods, she and her teammates — including Alabama signee Essence Cody, UNC signee Reniya Kelly and 2024 standouts Jaloni Cambridge and Zamareya Jones — demonstrated just how effectively FBC prepares and develops its players for the next level.

Ogden continued to shine at the Elite 24 game in Chicago, where she put on a show alongside other dynamic five-star recruits.

.@CourtneyP_Ogden went OFF in the first half 😤 pic.twitter.com/JJxlDq7nmV

— Girls UAA (@UANextGHoops) August 12, 2022

She was also selected as one of nine athletes — and the only girls’ basketball player — to participate in UA Next’s The Workout. The Workout is an annual performance development weekend at Under Armour’s headquarters designed to push invited participants from a variety of sports through different workouts and activities, demonstrating what college athletics has in store.

And now, the 1,000-point scorer has begun her final season in a Westminster jersey as one of 10 student-athletes named to the 2022-23 Naismith Girls’ High School Player of the Year Preseason Watchlist.

The Westminster Wildcats have started the 2022-23 season 8-4 and resume play in the New Year. Ogden leads the team in scoring (21.3 points per game), rebounds (10.7) and steals (2.5).

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.

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.

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

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The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

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"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.