Gotnext Women's Basketball Boards

AJSpark · Joined: 15 Jun 2002 Posts: 18 Location: Santa Barbara, CA

skew - just read on another forum that there will be an article about Kayte in an upcoming issue of Santa Barbara Magazine....are you authoring it?? When you know which issue it will be, post it here and I'll pick up a few copies! :)

The front page of the Sports section of today's Santa Barbara News-Press features a HUGE color picture of Kayte, on the floor, fighting for the ball with two Lynx players, and a smaller color picture of her, on the floor, trying to take the ball away from the Sparks' Tamecka Dixon. No wonder she wears knee pads! ;) Is "hustle" her middle name or what?! Go Kayte! :D

skew11 · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 372

AJ, will be the Oct/Nov issue of Santa Barbara Magazine!! :D I was referring to me using their article and retyping probably in this case as they aren't online(to copy and paste to my site or link to).. that I have seen?? Of course note on my site where from, writer, etc. to credit them!!

Should be a good one as the author wrote for Sports Illustrated many years and has a book also. http://uconnbook.com/

AJSpark · Joined: 15 Jun 2002 Posts: 18 Location: Santa Barbara, CA

skew - I can pick up a copy locally, scan the article, and email it to you...you can decide if the scan is good enough to use on the website. That would be faster than waiting for a copy in the mail and retyping it. :)

skew11 · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 372

:D sounds ok to me!!... will get it 'hot off the press' :lol: appreciate it...I have a scanner also but I like your idea as will get on the site much quicker....

Gaucho81 · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 147 Location: Ventura, CA

Skew, AjSpark--

I spot checked the Oct/Nov issue of the Santa Barbara Magazine, but I did not see info on Kayte. I may have missed it, I quickly scanned through it.

AjSpark--
Have you looked at the issue? Did you find Kayte's article?

Maybe, they've pushed the article to the next issue.

skew11 · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 372

:( think it will be in the next issue like you said...I looked through the latest issue and couldnt find it..guess they did push to the Dec/Jan one...

Gaucho81 · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 147 Location: Ventura, CA

Kayte's article made it in this month's issue of the Santa Barbara Magazine :lol:

Skew, I am going to scan it this weekend and convert it to a document. I'll send it to you (that way you can get it before the postal wait).

skew · Joined: 15 Nov 2002 Posts: 2

:D good deal gaucho81...send it on should have mine soon enough! :D I am working with two computers right now -- my new one Im using now and previous one needs power supply replaced (which has all my website 'stuff' on it). Going to connect two computers asap so I can share files between both.

Glad that finally made it in the mag....look forward to seeing/reading it. :wink:

Gaucho81 · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 147 Location: Ventura, CA

Below is a copy of the aritcle by John Walters on Kayte that appeared in the December/January 2003 issue of the Santa Barbara Magazine:

------------------------------------
Kayte
Christensen

WNBA's Mercury rising.

BY JOHN WALTERS

KAYTE CHRISTENSEN IS AN INSIGHTFUL
writer who just happens to excel at basketball. For the past two years, the former UC Santa Barbara Gaucho standout and current WNBA Phoenix Mercury forward has kept a witty and often self-deprecating online journal.
It chronicles everything from her aversion (and subsequent conversion) to cell phones to her having been quite the corpulent 1-year-old (32 pounds!) to her goal of having every episode of The Golden Girls on tape. "What in the world is better than that?" she asks.

Friends and family are introduced in the online journal and yes, gently needled. But the author saves the sharpest barbs for herself. When Christensen discovered her car was out of commission, she quipped: "The back right tire was flat as my chest. Well, not that flat, that's hard to do."

"I consider myself a shy person, " says the 6-foot-3-incher from Alturas, Calif., "so maybe the journal is my outlet."

Shy? As Christensen might write, not so much. But humble? Surely. Since typing her first entry (Dec. 11, 2000), Christensen has not written a word about her achievements even though she led the Gauchos in scoring (14.5 per game) and rebounding (9.1 per game) as a senior last season, scored 36 and 34 points in consecutive victories versus Cal State Northridge and Arizona last January, led the Gauchos to a 26-6 record, was named Big West Player of the Year in 2001-02 and was UCSB's career field-goal percentage leader (.549) in women's basketball.

Christensen also neglected to mention that she was picked from a total of 64 players selected in last April's WNBA draft (40th overall, by the Phoenix Mercury). And anyone who has seen her play-she's the one flying past the rest of the pack on fast breaks-understands that Christensen made the Mercury as much on effort as she did on talent. "I've never seen anybody who plays as hard as Kayte Christensen " Gauchos coach Mark French said after a game last year. "She's taken it beyond any other player I've ever coached."

Christensen was raised a ranch hand, she and her two brothers and two sisters doing their part on the family's 750-acre cattle ranch. The spread, a mile high and tucked away in the northeastern corner of the state, has been in her family for four generations. Chores? "A massive amount," recalls Christensen, who preferred chopping wood and milking the family cow, Buttercup, to domestic duties such as vacuuming.

Christensen cherishes the work ethic that her parents, Randy and Cathy, instilled in her. "My philosophy is to give everything that you do a hundred percent," she says. "That's all you can do."

Under French's tutelage at UCSB, Christensen blossomed. " My decision to attend UCSB had everything to do with Coach French," she says. "He never raised his voice or cussed at any of us. In fact, we had a joke: How many Gauchos does it take to screw in a light bulb? I don't know, let's talk about it."

Contrast that with Christensen's rookie season, which certainly-if she were ever inclined to write about hoops would have made for some titillating journal entries. Instead, she talked about them when she returned to UCSB in June to speak at commencement ceremonies. "My theme was that I knew who I was and I wanted to keep it that way," says Christensen, "but I had to learn that life is all about change."

The following week, the Mercury's mercurial first-year coach, Cynthia Cooper, resigned less than two hours before a home game. Two weeks after that, Christensen's boyfriend of two years, a recurring character in her journal entries, decided to cool things off. The Mercury finished with a franchise-worst,

KAYTE CHRISTENSEN,
WHOSE ONLY SPEED IS
OVERDRIVE, HAS
BECOME SYNONYMOUS
WITH HUSTLE.

11-21 record. All in all, the summer was a tasking odyssey that she can now put in perspective. "It's karma catching up to me," she says, "payback for all the road games we won in college."

Although the Mercury faltered, Christensen, whose only speed is overdrive, quickly became a fan favorite. She averaged just 4.0 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, but her name became synonymous with hustle. On a team that will undergo massive reconstruction during the off-season, Christensen, who is spending the autumn and winter completing her degree in classic civilizations at UCSB, figures to be a major piece of the new foundation.

"My biggest accomplishment as a rookie," she said just before the season ended, "is the fact that I'm still here. I didn't quit and run back home, no matter how many times I wanted to."

She may want to write all about that someday.

John Walters is a former staff writer at Sports Illustrated. His latest book, The Same River Twice, chronicles a season with the University of Connecticut women's basketball team.

skew11 · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 372

:D :shock: Thanks to Gaucho81 for these scans of the pics from SB Mag...text article to follow.... a couple of terrific pictures of Kayte..

www.kaytechristensen.com/SBMag1.jpg

www.kaytechristensen.com/SBMag2.jpg

mb · Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2002 9:14 am Post subject:

The more I learn about Kayte, the more I like her...if that is possible.

Her journal entries for the Mercury site are priceless...hope to find her Gauchos entries archived somewhere...certainly they will be just as entertaining.

skew11 · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 372

mb, go to www.kaytechristensen.com and I have linked 3 favorite diary entries near the bottom of main page....on each of those you will have a diary archive box on right hand side... enjoy :!: incredible writer and a pretty darn good BBall player :wink: