Abby Waner Senior Profile

DURHAM, N.C. ? GoDuke.com recently sat down with senior tri-captain Abby Waner for her senior profile. Waner discusses her plans after graduation, her best non-athletic talent, her favorite book, plus much more.

GoDuke.com: Why do you wear number 4?
Abby Waner: I wear number four because number one was taken when I first got here, and my sister and I have always been number one and number two. So, she was number two when she came to Duke and four was the closest I could get. So, I guess two plus two equals four, or basically it's the closest I could get to two.

GD: Who is your favorite professional player in your sport?
AW: Chauncey Billups. He was the best player to come out of Colorado as a high school player, and then at CU, and now that he's back with the [Denver] Nuggets and my home team, I really enjoy watching him play.

GD: What is your favorite book?
AW: Harry Potter because I think it's so far from real life and the real world that it's nice as a Division I basketball player to get far away from the stress. I think with every day encounters Harry Potter is the farthest thing from that. It's a good thing for your imagination.

GD: What's the last non-school related book you read?
AW: I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which I do not suggest if you're looking for a happy book.

GD: Favorite TV show?
AW: I have a couple, but we'll go with Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Flight of the Concords, and Arrested Development.

GD: What's your best non-athletic talent?
AW: It's not my best right now, but I would like to say it will be, is playing the piano. I started playing when I was way younger, and then I quit because it wasn't the cool thing to do. My mom really wanted me to keep playing. But, if you have big hands, you need to be able to do something with them, and the piano isn't a bad thing to do that with.

GD: What do you plan on doing after graduation?
AW: I will know on April 9th, that's when the WNBA Draft is. So, tentatively, I will be playing in the WNBA and going from there.

GD: Who's had the most impact on your athletic career and why?
AW: My sister, Emily. It's not only my athletic career, I should say in my life. I have always followed in my sister's footsteps and luckily those are good foot steps to follow in. There hasn't been one thing that I've done which hasn't been because of her.

GD: What does the perfect end to your athletic career look like?
AW: A National Championship.

GD: What is your dream job?
AW: An Olympian.

GD: Being a few years removed from high school, what pops in your head when you think back to your high school career?
AW: The four girls that I won three state championships with: Annie Fox, Megan McCahill, Laura Wilson, and Jayna Hartig. I've never had as much fun playing basketball as I did in those four years with those girls.

GD: Who was your childhood hero?
AW: Ann Strother. She played at Highlands Ridge High School, which is my rival high school. And, she played for the Colorado Hoopsters, which is the club that I started playing for. Everything about her, I absolutely idolized, and I was lucky enough because I was able to be her teammate and playing against her everyday in practice, too. On top of it all, after I left high school, one of the coolest parts of my college career was being able to guard her in the Elite Eight my freshman year in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

GD: What's the best advice you've ever received?
AW: From my dad, that at the end of it all, you never want to say, “I should have, I could have, I would have.” My dad played minor league baseball, and he made it very far, but he also got hurt. There were some things that he says he learned once his college career was over that he wished that he could have done differently. It's very applicable to, not just basketball, but to everything in life.

GD: Why did you choose to attend Duke?
AW: It was between Duke or UConn. UConn already had the National Championships, and Duke had been to the Final Four, but they hadn't yet won a National Championship, so I saw it as a challenge. And then, on top of it all, Duke has academics and the whole package.

GD: Where is your favorite place to play outside of Duke?
AW: The Final Four, it doesn't get any better than that.

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Abby Waner

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