• In conversation with US Sports Envoy and Fmr. WNBA Star

Today we feature a very special guest on The Daily Morning who visited our paradise isle for a worthy cause crossing thousands of miles.

Astou Ndiaye is a former professional women's basketball player and assistant coach at Utah State University in the United States and current Country Director of CorpsAfrica Senegal. A 1997 cum laude graduate of Southern Nazarene with a bachelor's degree in business, Ndiaye was named a Kodak/Women's Basketball Coaches Association NAIA All-American as a senior and was a two-time NAIA First Team All-American. She also earned the Sooner Athletic Conference Player of the Year as a senior and was the league's Defensive Player of the Year during her sophomore, junior and senior seasons. 

In 1999, Ndiaye was selected in the fourth round (41st overall) of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) Draft by the Detroit Shock. Ndiaye played five seasons for the Shock, including winning the 2003 WNBA Championship. She went on to play for the Indiana Fever (2004), Houston Comets (2006) and Seattle Storm (2007). She also played professionally in Italy and France during her career. 

Ndiaye is a mother of three (triplets) born in Michigan in 2003. She holds two master's degrees in political science and HR. She is the founder of ASTOUNDIAYEF, a nonprofit that works to support African girls through sports (teamwork and leadership), education (STEM, mental/physical and sexual reproductive health).

Astou was a part of a weeklong basketball programme along with Stephen Howard, an NBA veteran, leadership expert, and basketball analyst for ESPN and FOX Sports. The programme intended to harness the unifying power of sports, made possible through collaboration with Foundation of Goodness and IImpact Hoop Lab. Organised by the US Embassy in Colombo Sports Envoys will lead basketball clinics and exhibition matches and engage in leadership sessions in Colombo and Southern Province for youth aged 14-18 from Northern, Uva, Eastern and Western Provinces, offering skills and leadership training both on and off the court. 

The U.S. Envoys also shared their expertise with the Sri Lanka Basketball Federation, national coaches, and players, furthering the development of basketball in the island nation. Beyond the clinics, they collaborated with Sri Lankan schoolchildren to take part in a community service project in Colombo.

Meanwhile U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung in a press release prior to the arrival of the envoys said: “We are so proud to welcome Stephen and Astou as our Sports Envoys to Sri Lanka, to build on the strong people-to-people connections between the United States and Sri Lanka. The lessons that will be shared by our Sports Envoys – communication, teamwork, resilience, inclusion, and conflict resolution – are essential for leadership development, community building, equality, and peace. The U.S. Sports Envoy programme is a testament to our belief that sports can be a powerful tool in promoting peace and unity.”

The Daily Morning caught up with Astou at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium during a basketball clinic. 

Following are excerpts from the interview:

Can you share how your journey in basketball began and who or what inspired you to pursue a career in this sport?

I've played in the WNBA for about seven, eight years between Detroit Houston, Indiana and Seattle. And happy to be here in Sri Lanka. In terms of basketball, my journey I can say that I ‘fell’ into the sport because I started very late at the age of 13. And on basketball terms, it's late because there's a lot of fundamentals that goes into practising the sport and getting really good at it. But following a high school friend of mine and falling in love with the game about a year into it, and having a chance to early on recognise where my weakness and my strengths were and working on them as I joined the national team of Senegal and being able to compete at the international level. So that's how my journey went. It was not a straightforward path as more of the kids these days have, but that's how it started. I literally faltered into basketball because I played soccer before.

What are some of the most memorable moments from your time playing in the WNBA?

I think just being a WNBA player and competing with the highest level players in the world in itself is exciting. Daily, it was a journey that was fun and competitive. But in 2003, giving birth to my kids because I have a set of triplets, giving birth to them and winning a championship that year with Detroit, it was a big moment, laying in front of 20,000 plus fans and just getting to the top of basketball worldwide, that was exciting.

How did you transition from being a professional athlete to participating in a sports diplomacy programme?

As we're finishing up our careers you always think of all the experience you have gathered on and off the court, how you can give back. So after playing and retiring, of course, we had degrees as we finished playing with our student athletes, just thinking about ways to give back locally and internationally. So I started volunteering in local communities to speak with kids and share experience and also share skills on and off the court. A little bit led me to start volunteering some in my country of origin which is Senegal, but also volunteering with some of the camps that the NBA was doing on the continent and even in the US, which eventually led to my first sports diplomacy participation in Cameroon in 2016.

In your opinion, how can sports act as a bridge to bring different cultures and nations together?

It can be as simple as people getting on the court and not speaking the same language but still being able to play together. So basketball has its own language. It's hard work. It's empathy. It's teamwork. It encourages each other. And at the end of the day as a coach when I am on the court, I see only jerseys and people that have similar goals. Sweating the same, wanting to do the same so that itself is to me something that is key in uniting people, and getting them to work together. Because coming together is one thing as we all know, but being able to work together and being from all over the place. You cannot get that in a lot of places. 

How does the intensity and nature of your work in sports diplomacy compare to your time as a professional athlete?

I wouldn't call it a walk in the park because you got to be here and you're gonna be focused and working with the kids but compared to being a professional athlete, you can call that it's easy because as a professional athlete you got to be a professional 365 days out of the year and focus a lot in working the body and mind. But here it's more about sharing and learning. Because we come in we are expected to teach but we learn a lot also from the kids and from ourselves. So that makes it easy that way.

What are some challenges you have faced in your role as a sports diplomat and how did you overcome them?

As a professional athlete you learn to be prepared for anything, any situation, but it's always hard to want to express something and you can’t fully get it across due to language barriers. Sometimes it can be frustrating so communication is quick. But challenges I really don't think can be called a whole lot as a sports envoy because people are there to set up, to help you get there when you get to a location. There's support but being able to fully communicate your feelings and your intention sometimes can be a challenge, but not anything that can’t be handled.