From a Miner to a Valkyrie: that’s the trajectory of one of this past weekend’s WNBA All-Stars.
Kayla Thornton dropped a double-double in her All-Star debut on Saturday – and those new to the league might not know the power forward got her collegiate start playing for the University of Texas at El Paso.
For more on that and how her career has catapulted in recent years, the Standard talked with her former coach at UTEP, Keitha Adams.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: You were at the All-Star Game in Indianapolis this past weekend. Can you explain the mood there, maybe compared to past events and the growing number of fans embracing women’s basketball?
Keitha Adams: It was energized in Indianapolis. It was a great weekend to celebrate women’s basketball and how far the WNBA has grown and how far it’s come.
And the enthusiasm – it was very electric in the arena. And it was a lot of fun. And I think it was it was great event for the fans, and it was a great event for the players.
I think that it was really, truly a weekend to celebrate where the game’s at. It’s definitely in a great place right now. The league is thriving and doing very well.
And of course, Kayla Thornton – before we get into her career, tell us about the first time you met her. She was raised in El Paso. What was it like coaching her at UTEP, and what was she like as a player?
I tell you what, she comes from a great family, and when I went and watched her play, I was really impressed with her athleticism and how hard she played.
It’s been really fun to watch Kayla. She’s been in the league for 10 years now. And really, when she came here as a freshman, she got better – I mean, from her freshman year to her senior year, her improvement in those four years was just amazing.
What’s been awesome is that she’s just continued to work on her craft, and that same approach to the game and her work ethic has been … she’s been very resilient, and she is really reaping the benefits of how hard she’s worked throughout her college and her tenure pro career.
She’s continued to respect the game, love the game and really put her heart and soul in it. It’s been fun to see her reap the rewards from that.
Well, despite being a standout back in her college career, she didn’t immediately get drafted into the WNBA. How did she end up on the roster for the Dallas Wings?
Well, right out of college, she went to training camp with the Washington Mystics, and she got cut the last day. She called me that day, and she was crying, and I told her, “hey, you’re young. Your career’s just getting started. This is not the finish line.”
She went overseas and had a good season and then came back the next summer, second summer after being out of college. She had the option to go to the Washington Mystics’ or San Antonio Stars’, at that time, training camp.
And she picked to go back to the Washington Mystics because I think she had something to prove. And she made the team and she played in the league, but they cut her on the last day that they could make changes in the season.
That phone call was a lot different than the summer before – that summer she was crying, and in the second summer she was mad. She took that second round and used it as motivation.
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And so she went back overseas again, had a good season and then came back and had an individual workout with Fred [Williams] when he was at the Dallas Wings. And I think they saw the value and how hard she played. And she made their team.
And by her third season with the Dallas Wings, she was a starter and she just became more and more comfortable. And then, obviously going to New York was phenomenal.
I really admired how Kayla – I think she understood her role with Liberty and she understood who she was playing with and that they were playing for WNBA championship. And, you know, lo and behold, last year we’re watching the final game against Minnesota and Kayla’s on the floor and had a great defensive game, and their defense came through, and they win the WNBA championship.
To watch her just evolve through those two teams and do that has been amazing, a lot of fun. And now she’s doing a lot of firsts for the Valkyries; I mean, it’s their inaugural season. She was the first player to get a double-double, first player to be player of the week.
This year, after being picked up by the expansion team, she is having a great impact on the league. What do you attribute her growth to? The growth of the league?
I do think that adding the team with the way the situation was, everybody’s top six players, they were able to pick their six that they wanted to protect, and then they were able to draft experienced players that were on rosters that weren’t protected.
And one of the staff members on the Valkyries team was actually with New York. So they actually I think saw Kayla work day in and day out and knew what Kayla could bring to their program.
She’s great for your culture. She’s great in the locker room. She’s got great work ethic. And I think they brought her there saying, “hey, you’re gonna have a bigger role for us.” And so she’s been fulfilling that and it’s been an opportunity for her.
I think that having that person within really knowing Kayla helped them to know that, hey, we think that she could do this for us. And so it opened up another door for her.
One thing I’ll finish on is just saying that Kayla is a El Paso girl. She loves El Paso. And she’s definitely represented the 915 and UTEP and her family and everyone in a first-class way.
We’re very proud of her, and El Paso is proud of her. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to celebrate Kayla.
