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As the WNBA continues its meteoric rise, many fans have adored certain players, and one of them is Sophie Cunningham, who has become one of the league’s most popular players for her charm and intense competitiveness.
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Her passion is evident in every Indiana Fever game and has been since she was in college. However, basketball wasn’t the only thing she wanted to be the best at. Volleyball, soccer, and even football were part of her upbringing, which led her to explore the idea of being a dual-athlete.
At one point, volleyball was a serious endeavor for Soph, who revealed she was seriously considering taking her multi-sport capabilities into college at Missouri. However, as the reality of balancing two demanding and fundamentally different Division 1 programs became clearer, she realized something had to give.
Dual-sport aspirations
There was a time when Cunningham didn’t always know that basketball was the right sport for her. From middle school to high school, Cunningham was still exploring different sports and sometimes played them simultaneously.
“Everyone’s always like, ‘oh she must have known forever,’ but honestly, it was up to my junior year in high school that I was maybe going to play volleyball,” Cunningham
Her willingness to explore sports frankly comes from her upbringing. Soph comes from a lineage of college athletes. Her father, uncle, and grandfather all played football for Missouri while in college, and her mother was a javelin thrower.
It’s easy to see why sports came easily for Soph, and her athletic abilities were already evident at a young age. She even earned a black belt in taekwondo at age 6, before trying out multiple sports in high school, where she became the first female player to score a point for the Rock Bridge High School Bruins as a kicker.
“I like the multiple sports type things. I didn’t want to get burned out, so I tried to play as many sports as possible for as long as I could,” she stated.
Despite trying many sports, basketball and volleyball were the ones that interested her most. She explored becoming the next dual-sport athlete for Missouri until she and her college coaches realized that juggling the two vastly different sports was more than she could handle.
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“I was actually going to dual-sport in college, and then once I really thought about it, I was like, I’d have no life, no time,” Cunningham stated. “Then my basketball coach they were like, ‘There’s no way.'”
Playing one Division 1 sport can already consume an enormous amount of time between practices, games and academic responsibilities. Still, two sports would have pushed those demands to another level, and Soph understood this.
Thus, Cunningham decided to pursue basketball alone, and despite dual-sport athlete recognition potentially adding more prestige to her family’s long lineage, the choice ultimately proved right.
Related: “I’m a black belt” – Sophie Cunningham on finding the confidence to stand up for herself
Missouri basketball history
Once Soph committed fully to basketball, she never looked back. She immediately became a crucial piece for the Tigers as a freshman, before eventually finishing her college career with several All-SEC selections and as Missouri’s all-time leading scorer with 2,187 points.
Her stellar college career led to her being drafted by the Phoenix Mercury in the 2019 WNBA draft. Cunningham then spent the first several seasons of her career in Phoenix, making her name as a physical but crafty scorer before eventually joining the Fever, where her career and brand have since rocketed.
More than a decade after she decided to abandon her multi-sport dreams, Cunningham is thriving. Basketball turned out to be the sport that would give her countless opportunities, and despite her talent, she probably doesn’t regret her choice at all.
Related: “The best day of my entire life” – Sophie Cunningham met Michael Jordan during NASCAR race visit
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