USF Athletics

Former Bulls Thriving Outside the Basketball Arena

March 01, 2022

By Joey Johnston
 
ChiChi Okpaleke still keeps a basketball and sneakers in the trunk of her car — just in case. Sometimes, the mood just strikes out of nowhere and she looks for a good pickup game. Full court, of course.
 
"I'm doing good for my age,'' said Okpaleke, 35, with a laugh. "I work out. I can still play ball. Somebody on the court asked me, 'You still play?' I was like, 'Yeah, about 10 years ago.' But when I'm out there, I still like the feeling. I still think I belong.''
 
Where Okpaleke belongs most, though, is on the floor of her hospital, Houston's Memorial Hermann Health System. She's a Family Medicine Hospitalist who believes her faith and Nigerian-American culture has empowered her to serve others. She's also a media consultant who's dedicated to articulating facts, especially about COVID-19.
 
"The demand of COVID has made things heavier,'' said Okpaleke, a USF women's basketball player from 2004-07. "But I feel like I'm here for a purpose. When I was growing up, I thought I would play basketball forever. As it turned out, as much as I loved basketball, there was a lot more for me to experience in life.''
 
And that might be the most meaningful legacy for the USF women's basketball program, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary season. Some former Bulls have made it to the WNBA or a professional playing career overseas.
 
But most took all lessons from the winning and losing, all the time demands and sacrifices, and used it to carve out a lasting niche in life.
 
"One thing you can say about our USF program after 50 seasons, it has produced so many good people,'' said former Bull Brigid Smith Merenda (1994-97), an attorney and partner with Tampa's Trenam Law Firm, who also serves as the color analyst on USF women's basketball broadcasts. "Whether you're Courtney Williams, our WNBA All-Star, or someone who has found success in another walk of life, none of it happens by luck. You've got to have a goal and you've got to work.
 
"Whether you played in the NCAA Tournament and you had to deal with lots of losses, that was the ultimate takeaway. We learned the work ethic, the discipline and the commitment that you need to achieve your goals in life. I am forever grateful.''
 
When Okpaleke and Merenda were raised, "professional basketball player'' wasn't considered a realistic answer for the inevitable question: "What do you want to be when you grow up?'' That has changed. Now hoops opportunities abound.
 
"I grew up in the (Washington) D.C. area and I was always the only girl playing with a bunch of guys,'' said former USF player Natasha Barnes Adair (1992-94), now the University of Delaware's head coach. "I'd go to the court and they would stare at me, like, 'What is she doing here?'
 
"And if a guy didn't want to guard me because I was a girl, let me tell you, I cooked and scored on him. I'm sure some comments hurt my feelings. But I formed this level of toughness. Nobody could say or do anything to stop me. But there was no WNBA then and I didn't want to go overseas, so it kind of stopped.''
 
Adair majored in communications and thought she would become an ESPN broadcaster. She stayed at USF and worked in fundraising. But when basketball season began … she couldn't help herself. She wound up back in the gym. She helped out.
 
She became an assistant at Georgetown and Wake Forest. In 2012, she was head coach at the College of Charleston, then back to Georgetown and finally over to Delaware, where she has guided the program since 2017.
 
"I think back to my USF head coach (Trudi Lacey) and all the fires she had to put out before even hitting the court and how very few head coaches looked like her … and it makes me want to empower my current players even more,'' Adair said. "Could I have done something different? Probably. But I believe I found my purpose.
 
"I'm still close to so many of my USF teammates and they're all over the country doing different things. We all learned the same things I teach my players now — go hard, use your voice, play together, be a good teammate — and those things never go away.''
 
You can see those lessons in all walks of life, through the careers of former USF women's players.
 
Kristi Poore (1989-93) is a colonel with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, where she continues to give back to the community's youth. Rachael Sheats (2003-07) is director of enterprise accounts and logistics with the FSL Group, a transportation company vital to the supply chain.
 
Kristi Cheatham Petit (1989-93) is business development and marketing manager at Clearwater Gas. Jenny Koeppel (1994-97) is business support manager at Caterpillar Inc.
 
Many former players became teachers and coaches. Some are still chasing their basketball dreams around the globe.
 
"You hear the expression that 'Basketball is life,' but the truth is basketball teaches you about life,'' said Merenda, who has been on the shortlist to become a judge. "I mostly sat on the bench, but I learned how to face adversity. In life, you've got to keep grinding.
 
"I've won cases I should've lost. I've lost cases I should've won. Judges are human, too. Do you get mad and give up? No, you go to the next day. When you're a basketball athlete, you learn the value of discipline and surrounding yourself with like-minded people. And through that, you get these long-term friendships and shared experiences that keep carrying through, all these years later.''
 
At USF, Okpaleke had some years where she felt lost. She visualized some professional basketball, but her main goal was medical school. She majored in Biomedical Science — when many of her teammates were Communications students — and some counselors advised her to switch.
 
"They said I probably couldn't take this certain class and practice at the same time,'' Okpaleke said. "I certainly learned the basics of time management. The grit I needed for basketball and the energy I had to pull out of myself to make it all work, it spilled over into medical school. I was supremely motivated to do well and reach my full potential.''
 
Along the way, Okpaleke founded a nonprofit organization, Reality Speaks, that is designed to help student-athletes transition into life without sports, whether it's interview training, resume building or learning the value of community service.
 
In the last game of Okpaleke's senior basketball season, she tore her ACL. That ended her hoops dream. But it accelerated the path toward her life's mission.
 
"No matter how good you are, the ball will stop bouncing and the game will end,'' Okpaleke said. "But the lessons you learn on that court, they keep going.''
 
That's true of a pickup game or a rigorous 12-hour shift at the hospital. If you're knocked down, you get up. Forget about all the USF women's basketball games, the NCAA Tournament glory and the statistics for a moment. A half-century later, these former players are still pursuing goals of different shapes and sizes. Far beyond the court, it's the thing that really lasts.