Desire Dee Dee Wheeler was a professional basketball player in the WNBA and Europe for six years, is an elite basketball trainer and facilitator for 20+ years.
She’s coming on the podcast to share how using athletics can be a tool to change your narrative. It is her mission to advocate for access and opportunities & motivate inner-city youth to believe they can achieve.
Instagram Handle @Igotnexxtbball11
Email: igotnexxtbball11@gmail.Com for camps and private training opportunities
Desire Dee Dee Wheeler was a professional basketball player in the WNBA and Europe for six years, is an elite basketball trainer and facilitator for 20+ years.
She’s coming on the podcast to share how using athletics can be a tool to change your narrative. It is her mission to advocate for access and opportunities & motivate inner-city youth to believe they can achieve.
Instagram Handle @Igotnexxtbball11
Email: igotnexxtbball11@gmail.Com for camps and private training opportunities
Hey guys. Welcome to Heart to Talk the podcast. I am the host and creator Teresa Caesar. My intention for this podcast is to deliver to you wisdom, inspiration, and consciousness. Through solo episodes and conversations amongst insightful people. It is my greatest honor to bring to you talks that come from the. I am so excited we have here today Desire Deedee Wheeler, who is just one of the most phenomenal people I know so welcome my beautiful friend to the show.
Desire Dee Dee :Thank you. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here
Theresa Cesare:there's so many directions we can go, but I think we'll just start with introducing us to who you are and give us a snapshot of your story.
Desire Dee Dee :All right. I think it's very important to talk about who I am today, but I think it's very important to reflect back on how I got here. I'm from the inner city of Chicago. I was raised in a housing authority by my late grandmother, and my grandmother raised not just me, but my two older brothers, which helped start my journey. I will follow them every. They went to play sports. I went to play sports and so at, at some point I had a mentor that came to me and said, you know what? You have a gift. You have a gift in athletics. And eventually that's what I end up using. I used athletics as a tool to counter, you know, change my narrative from what I've seen be behind around me in a community, within my own. I focused on athletics from a young age, and it kept me focused. It kept me driven, and it eventually helped, you know, along the journey to where I am today. And so currently I am the director of Inters Scholastics for, a School District, which is an absolute honor
Theresa Cesare:That is so inspiring. So that being said, what is your mission today?
Desire Dee Dee :I wanna tell. Adolescents, inner city youth, that regardless of what you see around you, whether that's in your community, whether that's your family, whomever is raising you, whether that's your grandmother, your aunt, your brother, anyone besides your parents, that society. Has written off certain individuals, just because we don't come from a wealthy family, just because we look a certain way, that we are already labeled as someone that will not succeed. And I wanna tell individuals, whether it's young boys or young girls, that regardless of what your current situation is, it doesn't determine what your goal in life stay motivated, stay driven, and if you have a goal that you wanna. I'm quite sure with someone in your corner, that you can get there.
Theresa Cesare:That's so powerful. I love it. What was the most challenging aspect that you feel like you had to overcome to get to where you are today?
Desire Dee Dee :I think in general, being in a field of athletics as a female is tough. You know, I started out with my journey in sports administration in the city of Chicago, which Chicago public schools. There had never been a female. I had all these great ideas to how to enhance athletics, and I didn't get the opportunity to really voice that and sit at the tables with, you know, senior leadership to discuss some of the things that I had seen as a product of Chicago public schools. But a female in athletics is tough, one gaining a respect from the males that are working in that field. So I think the toughest role of being a female in leadership in athletics is, is not just gaining, but retaining the respect of, of men, not just within your community. In, in the world.
Theresa Cesare:And I'm sure other women that are in leadership roles feel similar, and I would've never imagined that. You would've said that that would've been such a challenge for you you have any tips for those are out there in these roles on how you can stay, strong in leadership?
Desire Dee Dee :Absolutely. Well, first and foremost, I would like to say that I feel supported at a hundred percent with not just my team but the senior leadership. You know, they support me, they respect me in the role of, of leadership, in athletics for the school district and my team has been phenomenal. the biggest thing I would say for women in general out there, whether it's to United States or abroad, is just be confident, be confident. Don't ever sway from asking questions. And so for me, I, I don't expect to know everything. I'm a lifelong learner and if I have a question and it will help enhance the programming that we are offering. I'm gonna ask no question is a bad question. I would say be resourceful. Make sure you're attending, attending, not just national conferences, state conferences, and, I would say just always, always ask questions.
Theresa Cesare:I love it. And let's scale back. So here you are today. You described who you are, what you've overcome. But tell everyone who doesn't know you are really popular here in Tucson and have made an extreme impact on Arizona athletics, basketball in particular. Can you tell us about your journey as an athlete here at the University of Arizona and the impact?
Desire Dee Dee :Absolutely. I had the phenomenal opportunity to play for the University of Arizona. I played on the women's basketball team from 2001 to 2005, in which Joan Bonini was the head coach. You know, it was a complete honor. It was a cl complete honor, but it's tough being a division one athlete. A lot of students have, student athletes have aspirations to play at the collegiate. But they don't understand that college coaches look more, look for more than just how talented you are. They look at your grades, they look at your sportsmanship, how you treat your teammates, how you treat those around you. Are you respecting your coach? Are you a good fit for my program? And so those were the things that I think are important. Student athletes that aspired to play at the division one level. But my University of Arizona experience was phenomenal to the point I wanted to come back. You know, I got drafted after my senior year at the University of Arizona in the second round of the W N B A draft by the Houston comments. I had a short stint there, returned back to university, finished my degree, and from there I played. Houston for the Houston Comets I played around the world. I had the awesome opportunity to play in countries such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Israel, and France. But the great thing that I wanna mention about the University of Arizona, Even though it took me some time to get my ba, they welcomed me back and they still paid for me to get my undergraduate degree. And one experience that I must mention, my senior year at the University of Arizona, I lost my grandmother. She's the woman that raised me. She was my guardian. And I remember to this day, I got that call while I was on campus and the University of Arizona supported. They got me on the next flight out. My coaches, some of my teammates that came back home to Chicago, they attended the funeral. And the experience that I had at the, at the University of Arizona is something that I would love to share with any aspiring collegiate athlete.
Theresa Cesare:Thanks for sharing that. And those behind the scene things you don't realize and the reward, for being an athlete and staying focused it's just seems like athletics really changed your life and paved the way, and I think it's important for anybody listening who's maybe you're raising an athlete or you're one yourself. These are some great tips is there any other tips or things you wanna mention in regards to how athletics has, changed your.
Desire Dee Dee :Absolutely, and I kind of mentioned it earlier, I believe without athletics, I wouldn't be the woman that I am today. Athletics, afforded media opportunity to get an undergraduate scholarship, an undergraduate degree in which I, I left with no bills. It afforded media opportunity to travel the world. At no expense. To me. It afforded me the ability and opportunities to now share with my little girl who is starting out, you know, in athletics, she's playing softball, but athletics provided me experiences that I'm not sure I would've had otherwise. My family didn't have the funds to send me to college. my family didn't have the funds to, of course, allow me to travel the world. So athletics not only allowed me to form and foster sisterhoods, um, with a lot of friends that I had from college, and we are still in, uh, contact today. I'm still in contact with my head coach and some of the assistant coaches, but it provided me an opportunity. That I would not have received otherwise. That's incredible. Oh wow. So inspiring. So what are you doing these days in regards to athletics? Are you doing anything beyond, you know, I know you work for the athletic department, you're director, anything that you wanna share with this audience on how they can work with you and what you're up to? These. Absolutely. So at this point, I am an elite private trainer in the sport of basketball. I have several clients, not just locally here in Tucson, but all over the state of Arizona that come to Tucson to res to receive private lessons. I have also started up my camps back here in Tucson, in which I am providing skill develop. Uh, guard camps to the adolescents here in Tucson that want to one, either start playing basketball for the first time or to the, the, the athletes that want to enhance the skills that they already have. So I've been training, I've been running my camps, and it's been phenomenal. I had great turnouts. And I'm very grateful for the Boys and Girls Club here in Tucson that they have partnered with me and I certainly will be sending my daughter there this summer. But also I, I will, wouldn't be right if I haven't mentioned PMA Community College that has also been a partner, with allowing, me to host some cancer.
Theresa Cesare:That's incredible. And how could people find how to sign up for your camps or get in touch with you?
Desire Dee Dee :Great, great question. Well, several different ways. I have an Instagram page, it's called, I got Next two X, um, basketball 11, so I got X two X the number basketball 11 and I'm sure you can probably put that out there.
Theresa Cesare:So they Absolutely, I'll drop that. Your handle in the show notes. Absolutely, absolutely. I am so inspired just of the woman, you are, what you've done, and the impact that you make. You know, you're a mother, you're an athlete. Just, it's incredible. Is there anything that you want to share, whether it's information, a message that you feel this audience would benefit hearing that you've learned through your life and who you are today?
Desire Dee Dee :Well, I say first and foremost that athletics helps build those borders and boundaries. You know, when you step on a court, you step on a field, no matter what walks of life you come from, athletics allows you to be together. It. Forms relationships. It opens doors for for students, and it provides them the opportunity to allow all the things that they may have going on in their personal life. It allows those things to go in the, in the back of their brain and allows them to have fun. It allows them to gain twos that are necessary to succeed in life. We're not talking about just athletics, participate. Participating in fine arts and any activities, it provides you the skillsets that are necessary to succeed in life. So I would say regardless if it's athletics or whatever you choose, do your very best and always remember that the person that is your biggest competition is the person you look at every day in the middle. Don't compare yourself to someone else. Your biggest competition is yourself. I love that you said that though.
That's so powerful. And I love that you said just being part of an organization, a community. And it's never too late, right? Like, oh, I didn't play a sport, you know, in college or in high school, whatever, as a youth. But there are a lot of adult opportunities, right?
Desire Dee Dee :being a part of something that is greater than yourself. Best feeling ever. At least it was for me.
Theresa Cesare:So, to wrap up this episode, I'm gonna go ahead and ask you the three ending questions per tradition. So the first one, Deedee, what quote inspires or motivates you?
Desire Dee Dee :Well, I say it's more so my mantra I got next. I've always used that throughout life and as I said earlier, that's my handle for Instagram. It has always been I got next. So whether that was in, in life in terms of athletics, in my, professional setting, Or in school, I've always said I got an accident. That was kind of my self-motivation, to, to, to go after it. That is powerful. I love that.
Theresa Cesare:Next question, what is the most recent book that you've read and that you recommend?
Desire Dee Dee :It's called I Am Enough, and it, it talks about, you know, one self-worth and embracing differences regardless of one's looks, abilities, or belief. Everyone is unique and able and worthy of respect.
Theresa Cesare:Ooh, love that. And what do you wanna be remembered for?
Desire Dee Dee :Access and opportunities. I wanna be remembered for someone that advocated for the, the kids that are inner city youth that does not always get the access and opportunities to, to things in life. So I wanna be remembered someone that helped and motivated the, the inner city youth to believe.
Theresa Cesare:Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. Please download, rate, subscribe, and share this podcast. Also, be sure to visit my theresacesare.com to check out my inspirational merch, connect to my social accounts, and much more may you continue to be filled with wisdom, inspiration, and consciousness. Otherwise, friends, I will be back in two weeks for another episode of Heart to.