Alana Beard tabbed as ‘genuine, thoughtful, driven, family focused, goofy, easy-going’

Once offered a live goat in appreciation of her basketball prowess, Alana Beard was a generational athlete who won nearly every award imaginable for a women’s basketball player during an incredible career that took her across the world.

A four-time LHSAA state champion at Shreveport’s Southwood High School, a John Wooden Award winner at Duke and a WNBA Champion with the Los Angeles Sparks, Beard has been emblematic of success at all levels. Not long after she saw Beard play the first time in high school, former Duke coach Gail Goestenkors knew she was watching someone special.

“Some players work hard, some are talented, and some have a special drive,” said Goestenkors, currently a women's college basketball consultant. “But Alana was the trifecta. She has the drive to be the best in whatever she’s doing. She had the mind, the heart and the soul of a basketball player.”

On July 29, Beard can add the LaSportsHall.com induction to her resumé. She will join Eli Manning, Paul Mainieri, Ron Washington, Walter Davis, Matt Forte, Paul Byrd, Wendell Davis, Walter Imahara and M.L. Woodruff as inductees during the 64th induction ceremony in Natchitoches.

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'Defense and her competitiveness is what made her great'

Beard, who played basketball in 27 countries, also had a special place in her soul for Krispy Kreme doughnuts, according to former teammate Vicki Krapohl-Pugsley.

“Once at the ACC tournament, she actually made herself sick from eating too many,” Krapohl-Pugsley said. “She of course overcame it and played great. But if I was her opponent, I might secretly leave her a dozen Krispy Kreme’s before a game.”

Beard led Southwood to a 144-6 record with 53 consecutive wins for former coach Steve McDowell. She scored 48 points against Bonnabel in her final prep contest in the LHSAA Class 5A state championship game in UL Monroe’s Fant-Ewing Coliseum. But it was her defense that was memorable for McDowell.

“Bonnabel had a great guard, Tameika Johnson, who signed with LSU. Alana got two charges on her and had 20 rebounds,” McDowell said. “Alana didn’t miss much and set the championship game scoring record, but defense and her competitiveness is what made her great.”

A new challenge

Beard’s current job is as a social entrepreneur where she aims to create a cultural shift in how women and girls experience access and opportunity in education, business and sports.

In February, Beard founded and is president of the 318 Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization designed to inspire positive outcomes for high school girls in underserved communities.

“Like my hometown of Shreveport,” Beard said. “We were financially anchored by Steve Miller and the Andre Agassi Foundation and recently received significant funding from Kris Englestad and the Englestad Family Foundation."

Beard is also co-founder and CEO of Transition Play, a talent firm that helps prepare female athletes for life after the game by providing mentoring, career and skills coaching along with connecting them with employment opportunities with the company’s partner companies.

On a national stage, Beard is adamantly pursuing her dream of owning an expansion WNBA franchise. But she doesn’t miss her playing days.

“I was fortunate to do what many athletes don't get a chance to do,” she said. “I was craving the transition to the business world and was ready for a new challenge. I walked away from the game (2019), knowing that I gave it my all every time.”

'She was our stopper'

Beard’s former Southwood teammate, Jenna (Thomas) Bolin, currently the girls basketball coach at Haughton, said Beard’s attitude and work ethic set her apart from the normal athlete.

“Looking back now as a coach, she is exactly the kind of person you would want your best player to be,” Bolin said. “So often these days the most talented are usually cocky or too cool or not coachable. Alana was none of those things. She did the same thing to college point guards that she did high school point guards. She was our stopper.”

Goestenkors said one game summed up the greatness of Alana Beard. It came in a tournament game on foreign soil against Iowa State. One of the Blue Devils turned the ball over at a critical point in the game. The Hawkeyes had a breakaway, but hadn’t accounted for Beard’s tenacity.

“Alana tracked down the player, made an incredible block and saved the ball from going out of bounds by tipping it to a teammate,” Goestenkors said. “Then she raced to the other end, took a pass and hit a jumper. I’d never seen anything like it — it was a thing of beauty.”

During an early season tournament in the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas, the Blue Devils were traveling on an open-air, safari-type bus.

“Alana was approached by a local as we were getting ready to go for a game and offered a goat,” Krapohl-Pugsley said. “She smiled and respectfully declined, but I have to say it was definitely a first for us on a bus trip to a game.”

'A leader and role model of the team'

When she arrived at Duke, Beard did not know how to swim, but she didn’t let that stop her when the Blue Devils visited the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia during a tournament trip. The rest of her team decided to snorkel on the reef.

“Alana put on floaties, flippers, goggles and every floating thing imaginable so she could participate,” Goestenkors said. “She wasn’t going to let the fear of being unable to swim keep her from doing something great.”

Beard has since not only learned to swim, she has returned to her hometown several times to teach swimming to children at the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana.

It didn’t take long after her arrival as a freshman at Duke for Beard to become homesick for her mother’s cooking. There were thoughts about transferring closer to a school closer to home, but the Duke coaches and players rallied around the introverted Beard.

“Alana was very quiet. All she did was practice and study. Most of those early days there were tears,” Goestenkors said. “Her teammates were trying to get her to do some things to have fun. It definitely took some time for her to adjust.”

But adjust she did. She led the Blue Devils to two NCAA Women’s Final Fours while becoming the first NCAA basketball player to accumulate more than 2,600 points, 500 assists and 400 steals. Although Duke didn’t win a national title under her leadership, the Blue Devils won four ACC regular season and tournament championships.

“I watched her grow from a young woman who was very homesick and struggling in her new environment into becoming a leader and role model of the team,” Krapohl-Pugsley said.

'A dynamic person'

All of the student-athletes who competed with Beard were smart and talented in their own right, including Dr. Georgia (Schweitzer) Beasley, currently associate professor of surgery and medicine and co-director of Duke’s melanoma program. She said Beard was “simply spectacular” the day she stepped on the floor in Cameron Indoor Stadium, one of the most unique basketball arenas in the country.

“AB played with tremendous passion and skill while remaining humble and in pursuit of improvement,” Beasley said. “I knew right away that she was a generational player, someone that you might consider yourself lucky to see play if you are alive during the right era. Better than that, I got to play with her! To me, she will always be the best player to ever play in Cameron Indoor Stadium.”

Former Southwood teammate Krystal Jackson called Beard a “dynamic person” with basketball giving her an avenue to expose herself to the world.

“AB is genuine, thoughtful, driven, family focused, goofy, funny, easy-going and that is just a small fraction of who I’ve grown to know over the years,” Jackson said. “She is very loyal, and I treasure our friendship. When she came in her freshman year she came in with a fire and determination to get better daily and in any way possible, help make her teammates and the team as a whole the best that we could be. Very selfless. I am ecstatic about all she has achieved and all that is in store for her to accomplish.”

'She was the best there was'

In addition to the 2004 Wooden Award, Beard was recognized with the State Farm Wade Trophy along with the Associated Press and Naismith National Player of the Year awards.

She was drafted No. 2 by the Washington Mystics in the 2004 WNBA Draft and became an All-Star during her second season. She was twice awarded the WNBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award, and during the Sparks’ 2016 championship run, Beard made a last second jumper to give her team a 1-0 lead in the championship series with the Minnesota Lynx.

During her off-season with the WNBA, Beard played in South Korea, Spain and two different seasons in Israel and Poland. During her last trip to Poland, Beard suffered a severe eye injury during a game that nearly ended her career. She went through several weeks of hospitalization in Poland because the injury kept her from flying back to the U.S. She eventually healed, but decided to forego playing overseas after that.

Bolin said Beard’s demeanor at Southwood was an extension of McDowell, an LHSAA Hall of Famer.

“It was no nonsense — more competitive than anyone else — nothing flashy (except all those championship rings!!!),” Bolin said. “She was the best there was and will ever be.”

Jimmy Watson covers Louisiana sports for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at jwatson@shreveporttimes.com and follow him on Twitter @JimmyWatson6.

Alana Beard Accolades

High school

USAT Second team All-America 2000

Parade Second team All-America 2000

LHSAA state champion 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000

College

John R. Wooden Award — Women’s Basketball National Player of the Year 2004

State Farm Wade Trophy-National Player of the Year 2004

Associated Press — National Player of the Year 2004

Naismith Player of the Year

United States Basketball Writers Association-National Player of the Year 2004

ESPN.com-National Player of the Year 2003, 2004

Kodak All-American 2002, 2003, 2004

United States Basketball Writers Association National Freshman of the Year 2001

WBCA Player(s) of the Year 2004

ACC Female Athlete of the Year 2003, 2004

Professional

2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 WNBA All-Star Team

2016 WNBA Champion

2017 & 2018 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Here's what qualifies Alana Beard as a La. Sports Hall of Fame inductee