The Guru’s WNBA Report: Satou Sabally: The Big Assist - Athletes Helping Others

By Andy Lipton

Leading the ‘Break

 

Satou Sabally of the Dallas Wings is one of the best basketball players in the WNBA. 

A complete player who is very skilled in all aspects of the game.

As a superb passer, particularly for a 6’4” forward, Sabally has a heightened awareness of the other players on the court. And although she can score from all over the court, Sabally is an unselfish player.

 

So it’s no surprise that off the court, Sabally is keenly aware of the world around her and of her own experiences, and the need to translate awareness into helping others.

 

And for Sabally, the next steps after awareness are educating oneself about a problem and then figuring out a way to solve it.

 

Watching and listening to Sabally speak, you realize how seriously she takes helping others and the joy it brings to her.

 

Sabally is one of 12 WNBA players who have teamed up with Voice in Sport to mentor young female athletes.  

One of the goals of the mentoring program is to inspire young female athletes not to drop out of athletics in their early teens by giving them advice and education on a variety of topics including mental and physical health.

 

With the Voice in Sport program, Sabally has held a few virtual mentoring sessions (which were free) to discuss advocacy through sports, and along side a dietician, diet, nutrition, and sleep deficiency.

 

In the advocacy through sports discussion, Sabally tried to impart to the young athletes that they are also more than just athletes and should also develop themselves outside of athletics, while still maintaining their athletic identity.  

In doing so, Sabally called upon her advocacy experiences in college at the University of Oregon.

 

Satou is a big believer in equal opportunities for disadvantaged people and her relationship with Cafe Momentum, a restaurant in Dallas, has given her the opportunity to provide mentorship to young paid interns at the restaurant.  

The interns have had troubles and the internships are a way to help give them a chance for a productive life.

 

Here in part is how Cafe Momentum describes its program on their website:

 

“The secret behind Café Momentum’s success is the Momentum Model for Youth Justice. The Momentum model offers an ecosystem of support, including educational and financial literacy, paid workforce development training, life-skills and social-skills training. Because of this wraparound support, interns can build strong foundations to get their education back on track and gain financial stability.”[1]

 

Satou lends an ear to the young interns, giving them an opportunity to express themselves to someone who listens and cares about their future.

 

As a Jordan Brand athlete, Satou has facilitated a $100,000 donation to the Cafe from the Jordan Brand as well as having sneakers donated to every intern.

 

In college at Oregon, Sabally remembers going to a shelter for female domestic violence victims and realizing that the two hours of work packing hygienic products for the women may have not been difficult or time consuming, but was impactful.  She realized that simple acts of kindness could go a long way.

 

During her time with the Wings (her only WNBA team in the five years she has been in the W), Satou has been involved in two different school programs.

 

She gave a discussion on financial literacy to students at the Woodrow Wilson High School.  She spoke about some of the basics of personal finance such as saving versus spending your income, checking accounts, and credit cards.

 

Satou was also involved in a program for a STEM school that was geared towards broadening the students’ interest and skills in sports.

 

Sabally was recently selected to co-chair the WNBA Player Association’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) committee after serving two consecutive terms as a vice president.

 

Her desire to be a  leader can be traced back to at least her days at Oregon where she served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, was a student-athlete representative at  PAC-12 meetings, lead the O Heroes organization which facilitates where in the Eugene and Springfield, Oregon communities student-athletes can volunteer in communal activities, and led the female Oregon student-athletes organization called Women of Oregon.

 

Satou is proud of having planned the first Black History Month game at Oregon.

 

Don’t be surprised if one day, Satou Sabally is the President of the WNBA Players Association.

 

[1] https://cafemomentum.org/our-impact