Angel Reese’s next goal: Breaking the stereotypes of girls sports and giving hope to young athletes

The ear-piercing shrieks of nearly 100 middle school girls sharply echoed throughout the gymnasium at St. Frances Academy on Wednesday morning as LSU star Angel Reese walked through the glass doors to host a basketball camp alongside WNBA great Angel McCoughtry at their alma mater.

The young female ballers stared at Reese in awe as wide smiles appeared in abundance.

One of those campers was Khloe Ison, a rising seventh grader. Ison played summer ball with Team Durant, NBA superstar Kevin Durant’s AAU squad in Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League. Having just finished sixth grade, she was the youngest member of Team Durant’s eighth grade girls crew. She recently returned from competing in the summer’s culminating EYBL tournament in Chicago and the AAU national championships.

“I thought it was important to bring my daughter here today because Angel Reese and Angel McCoughtry are perfect role models for her to see,” said her father, Keenie Ison, a physical education teacher at Collington Square Elementary School who played high school ball at Frederick Douglass before playing at Robert Morris University and Hawaii Pacific University. “They’re doing so many good things here in the city through the game of basketball, and I thought it was a great opportunity for my daughter to see some real true role models that she can aspire to be like.”

St. Frances was the launching pad where fans got their first glimpse of Reese’s rare talent, passion and competitiveness and where she compiled one of the most impressive resumes of any prep athlete ever to rise out of the city’s crucible of elite hoops.

Now she’s one of the country’s biggest stars — recently winning Best Breakthrough Athlete from ESPN (she and her mom were styling and profiling in Hollywood). There also were the Sports Illustrated swimsuit shoot in May, national television appearances across the country and her appearance on the popular Breakfast Club radio program.

She also won the BET Sportswoman of the Year award but couldn’t be there to accept it because she was busy helping the United States Women’s National Team win a silver medal at the FIBA AmeriCup tournament in Mexico.

But she’s also been a polarizing figure, drawing the ire of some fans when she taunted Iowa’s Caitlin Clark toward the end of the NCAA championship game.

With the outcome all but decided in favor of the Tigers, Reese looked at Clark and waved her hand in front of her face, which basically translates to, “You can’t see me!”

She was repeating the gesture that Clark directed at a South Carolina player during Iowa’s Final Four win over the top-ranked and previously undefeated Gamecocks.

Reese then pointed to her ring finger, showing the destination of her championship ring.

The backlash that followed on social media and mainstream media outlets brought about a national discussion on racial dynamics (Clark, who is white, was not criticized in nearly the same way), gender inequities and sportsmanship.

Reese, in front of many young girls who consider her a role model, addressed the controversy.

“After the national championship game, everybody saw the interactions between me and Caitlin Clark, but most people didn’t see the bigger picture,” Reese said. “The bigger picture was that 9.9 million people watched that game. It was the most-viewed game in the history of women’s basketball. People tried to put me and her against each other, and that was definitely frustrating. I like to win, and I’m from Baltimore. That’s what we do. We’re passionate about the game.”

Clark was quick to come to Reese’s defense.

“I don’t think Angel should be criticized at all,” she said in an ESPN interview the day after the championship game. “I’m just one that competes, and she competed. I think everybody knew there was going to be a little trash talk in the entire tournament. It’s not just me and Angel.

“We’re all competitive,” Clark continued. “We all show our emotions in a different way. You know, Angel is a tremendous, tremendous player. I have nothing but respect for her. I love her game – the way she rebounds the ball, scores the ball, is absolutely incredible. I’m a big fan of her and even the entire LSU team. They played an amazing game. Men have always had trash talk. … You should be able to play with that emotion. … That’s how every girl should continue to play.”

In many ways, that was the theme of Reese’s return to Baltimore this week. Though she declined repeated interview requests, she made clear in public remarks that she wants to continue the work of emboldening girls — especially Black ones — not to be afraid to be who they are on the court.

“I really think Angel changed the narrative of Baltimore basketball,” said one of the coaches working the camp, Anthony Fitzgerald, who also coaches with Carmelo Anthony’s Team Melo AAU program. “She makes girls feel like they can do anything, inspiring them to think, ‘Hey, I can do anything.’ Seeing her win the national championship made me feel good because she represented herself, her family and this city to the fullest.”

Before the players broke into groups for drills and skill development, Reese shared a few words of advice and encouragement with them, first by paying homage to her mother, who’s known as Big Angel.

“My biggest role model growing up was my mom,” Reese told the rapt audience. “She was a single mother who raised me and my brother by herself. I saw how much time she dedicated to both of us. We had hectic schedules with both of us playing sports. I would see how she balanced everything and how much she loved and supported us in everything we did.”

Reese inherited excellent basketball DNA from her mom as well.

Big Angel had a stupendous college career as a power forward at UMBC from 1988-92 when she was known as Angel Webb. A member of the UMBC Athletic Hall of Fame, she was a first-team All-East Coast Conference honoree as a junior and a senior and finished her career with 1,390 points, 932 rebounds and 132 blocked shots. She played professionally in Luxembourg.

Reese’s dad, Michael, was no slouch either. The 6-foot-8 forward played for Boston College as a freshman and then transferred to Loyola, where he averaged 19.8 points and 8.5 rebounds as a senior. He played pro ball in Luxembourg, Cyprus, Austria and Portugal.

Angel’s younger brother, Julian, is a gifted 6-foot-9 lefty forward at the University of Maryland who earned 2023 All-Big Ten honorable mention as a sophomore last season.

The games of one-on-one between the siblings could sometimes turn ugly. Both hated to lose, and they’d often fight. It got so bad at one point that Big Angel removed the hoop from the family’s driveway. But the skills and inner fire that marinated during those heated games ultimately paid dividends.

The hoops excellence was not limited to the siblings. Their cousin, Jordan Hawkins, was a recent first-round draft pick of the New Orleans Pelicans after winning the 2023 national championship with UConn.

Angel started her career at the University of Maryland, becoming the highest-ranked recruit ever for the Terrapins.

But, after two consecutive losses in the Sweet 16, many local observers who’d watched her in high school felt the Terps never took full advantage of her multidimensional skill set as a position-less wunderkind who could both play and guard every position on the court.

Reese wanted a fresh start and transferred to play at LSU for head coach Kim Mulkey, someone she thought would push her and help her game grow.

And Mulkey wasted no time in allowing Reese to get loose in the the Southeastern Conference, which many believe to be the best in women’s college basketball.

In her Tigers debut, she had 31 points and 13 rebounds against Bellarmine. She took it up another notch in a matchup against Texas A&M when she blazed for 26 points and 28 rebounds. And the double-doubles just kept on coming.

Along the way, she acquired a fitting nickname: “Bayou Barbie.”

Despite having a nickname based on her manicured appearance, she rankled fans with her brash style of play and emerged as something of a heel for college basketball fans — that is, until she became the story of March Madness.

She scored 34 points and snagged 15 rebounds in the tourney’s opening round against Hawaii. She followed with 25 points, 24 rebounds and six blocks in a 66–42 second-round win over Michigan.

Reese went on to be named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four after LSU’s national championship game win. Bayou Barbie averaged 21.3 points and 15.2 rebounds in the Tigers’ six tournament victories. She set an NCAA record with 34 double-doubles on the season.

The accolades, awards and recognition were not the only things that blew up. So did her pockets.

After the NCAA tournament, she became one of the highest-earning athletes in the country in name, image and likeness deals according to On3 (the details of NIL deals are not public, but many sites have developed methods for estimating how much players are earning). Her valuation stands at $1.6 million, trailing only USC basketball player Bronny James (LeBron James’ son), fellow LSU athlete and gymnast Livvy Dunne, Texas freshman quarterback Arch Manning (the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning) and USC’s Heisman-winning quarterback, Caleb Williams.

A major social media influencer, Reese has endorsement deals with Mercedes-Benz, Bose, Coach and TurboTax. Just this week, she was introduced as one of the first endorsers of an energy drink being marketed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

So it makes sense that on her trip home this week she’s been all over the city. There was Monday’s ceremony at the Scotts Branch Recreation Activity Center in Randallstown, where the basketball court was named in her honor. That evening, she did a meet, greet and autograph signing event for city youth at the DTLR store in the Northwood Shopping Center.

At one point at the DTLR appearance, a little girl stared admiringly at her before saying, “Thank you for making a way for girls that look like me.”

Big Angel had to momentarily turn her head, as tears run down her cheeks.

On Wednesday, Mayor Brandon Scott offered her a key to the city in the City Hall Rotunda.

From there, it was off to Camden Yards to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Orioles game against the Dodgers.

At the basketball camp, she reiterated her message of youth empowerment when a camper asked her about people on social media calling her ghetto or ratchet because of the passion she plays with.

“I just focus on the positive,” Reese responded. “I think about all of you guys when I speak out about things that are on my mind because I know what I have to say can help people. I know I have an audience that is positive that does love me. There are going to be people that have something negative to say who have never touched a basketball and know nothing about the game. So you just have to block those people out, keep great people in your corner and stay positive as much as you can.”

As the coaches put the players through dribbling and passing drills at St. Frances, Reese moved around the gym with deliberate smoothness, which is in direct contrast to the fierceness and kinetic energy she exhibits while playing. In her social media videos, which are viewed by millions, she brings a rare liveliness and animated personality. But away from the cameras she’s low key and unostentatious.

As for what the future holds, her high school coach has a few words of wisdom for her.

“Right now, it’s about not having a sense of entitlement, complacency or overconfidence,” said Jerome Shelton, head coach at St. Frances for 32 years. “She’s going to be challenged even more next season. So I’d simply tell her to not be satisfied because that mindset is going to move her game forward.”

Those who know Angel Reese know that that is not going to be a problem.

“She’s just getting started,” Fitzgerald said. “She has way more to accomplish. She has laid the foundation. Now she’s going to build on it.”

alejandro.danois@thebaltimorebanner.com

Alejandro Danois

Alejandro Danois was a sports writer for The Banner. He specializes in long-form storytelling, looking at society through the prism of sports and its larger connections with the greater cultural milieu. The author of The Boys of Dunbar, A Story of Love, Hope and Basketball, he is also a film producer and cultural critic.

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