{"id":808288,"date":"2024-07-02T15:58:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T19:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=808288"},"modified":"2024-07-02T15:58:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T19:58:44","slug":"sarah-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/the-magazine\/250\/sarah-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"From Spain to the States, No. 1 Ranked Senior Sarah Strong is Ready to Continue Her Journey at UCONN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Growing up in Spain, Sarah Strong\u2019s first introduction to the game was from her mother, Allison Feaster. Feaster, a former standout at Harvard, was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks in \u201998 with the fifth overall pick, went on to become an All-Star in \u201904 and played overseas in France, Portugal, Italy and Spain. Strong remembers going to her mom\u2019s practices and watching her put in work on the hardwood, all while falling in love with the game herself. \u201cShe would hustle a lot,\u201d Strong tells us over Zoom in May. \u201cThat was probably her main thing. Just energy on defense, hustle and [being] aggressive. She [was] a dawg.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game has always been a part of Strong\u2019s life\u2014she even suited up for the same club team as mom\u2014but it wasn\u2019t until she moved to the United States in fifth grade that she started taking her game to the next level given the level of competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe talent level and skill level is a lot different here, so definitely it\u2019s a little harder. I started getting results out of it, so I was like, OK, let me lock in,\u201d she says. Off the court, Strong also had to deal with the transition that comes with moving from a different country, whether it was cultural adjustments\u2014in Spain, she would watch a lot of American movies and was nervous about having to deal with bullies in school like what she saw in the films\u2014or the language barrier. Strong, who speaks Spanish, initially struggled with reading comprehension in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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She\u2019s come a long way since then. A five-star recruit and the No. 1 ranked player in the ESPNW 100 for the class of 2024, Strong is an undeniable talent with an all-around game\u2014at 6-2, she uses her strength and size to her advantage, whether it\u2019s holding her own on the post, using her silky smooth handles to drive to the rim or relying on her acute court vision to dish out dimes to her teammates. The 2023-24 Gatorade North Carolina Girls Basketball Player of the Year averaged a double-double at Grace Christian School (NC) while also maintaining a 3.68 GPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strong, who would watch highlights of Maya Moore\u2014her favorite player\u2014and Breanna Stewart, had always dreamt of going to UConn. And yet, when it came time to make her final decision, the final factor had nothing to do with location, she says, but rather, what she felt within. \u201cIt\u2019s always been a dream school,\u201d she says. \u201cI just kind of felt it in my heart, and I talked to my family. I prayed about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At UConn, Strong wants to elevate her game and get \u201caccustomed to the college pace\u201d and the level of physicality\u2014from getting in shape to becoming more efficient and a consistent shooter. She\u2019s set to join a Huskies squad that just lost standout Aaliyah Edwards to the 2024 WNBA Draft but will see the return of one of the most elite floor generals in college hoops, Paige Bueckers. The pairing already has fans in Storrs excited for the future. Strong is ready to bring that same energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to win,\u201d she says. \u201cThey haven\u2019t won a championship in a while, so that\u2019s the plan for the next four years. I\u2019m just very excited to play with everybody and be coached by the coaching staff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Portraits by Luke Schlaifer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up in Spain, Sarah Strong\u2019s first introduction to the game was from her mother, Allison Feaster. Feaster, a former standout at Harvard, was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks in \u201998 with the fifth overall pick, went on to become an All-Star in \u201904 and played overseas in France, Portugal, Italy and Spain. Strong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":424,"featured_media":808302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65232],"tags":[65219,65213,486,65214,64081,63726],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-808288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-65232","tag-2024-slam-hs-all-americans","tag-2024-slam-hs-girls-all-americans","tag-ncaa","tag-sarah-strong","tag-uconn-womens-basketball","tag-wslam"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808288"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808305,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808288\/revisions\/808305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808288"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=808288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}