Linked by one glorious night for Clark County high school girls basketball, Cori Woodward and Aubrey Ward-El are now collegiate teammates.
Prairie High School graduate Woodward and Skyview High School graduate Ward-El respected and relished the challenge of facing each other as competitors from programs that were rivals despite being in different leagues and classifications, but were not particularly friends then.
That has changed at the University of San Diego.
Both in the point guard rotation, the pair share a hometown bond — and Toreros sophomore Woodward is helping freshman Ward-El make the transition from high school to college.
When the USD staff began looking at Ward-El, head coach Cindy Fisher and her staff solicited Woodward’s opinion.
“They actually came to me and asked me what I thought, and I always loved playing against Aubrey,” Woodward said. “I always thought she was really good, and I have nothing but good things to say about her.”
Once they were teammates, high school rivalry was quickly put in the past.
“That game was always a huge game and I always wanted to beat her, but she was such a good player and a little spitfire on their team, and I always admired her for that,” Ward-El said. “Now that I’m playing with her and coming in during the summer, she welcomed me with open arms. She was always like, ‘If you need anything, I’m here for you.’ “
Prep accolades
Prairie and Skyview both claimed state championships at the Tacoma Dome in 2012, and each of Clark County’s Toreros played a significant role.
Woodward, a Prairie junior, scored a game-high 13 points as the Falcons beat Franklin of Seattle, 54-44 for the Class 3A state championship.
With time nearly out in Skyview’s game for the Class 4A state title against Central Valley of Veradale, Storm sophomore Ward-El was scoreless on 0-for-10 shooting — then made that not matter by draining a three-pointer with a second left in her team’s 46-43 victory.
A year later, Woodward was The Columbian’s girls basketball All-Region Player of the Year as a senior and Ward-El was named female Multi-Sport Athlete of the Year. The year after that, Ward-El was girls basketball Player of the Year. Each was named first team All-State as a senior.
Ward-El first participated in track and field as a sophomore. As a senior, she was 4A state champion in the shot put and runner-up in the javelin. But there was never any doubt which is her sport.
“I was just doing track for fun to stay busy in the offseason for basketball,” she said. “It’s not like I gave it up, because I didn’t really like it. But I’m no longer doing track.”
Collegiate changes
Woodward was the first to make the transition to being a collegiate basketball player, and first to face the typical challenges.
She found that the game was faster than before, other players on the court were taller than before and she was learning a new role in a new system with new coaches and teammates. She continues to work on improving at handling the ball with her left hand, an example of her continued development at USD.
“I knew that that usually happens with freshmen,” Woodward said of the step up to college athletics. “It was hard to come in and kind of find my place in this new program. It was hard at first, but my teammates really helped. There was a senior guard who really helped bring my confidence up and really believed in me — and that really helped a lot.”
Now Woodward is paying that forward to Ward-El.
Woodward has started 17 games and played in all 25 for the Toreros (20-5, 11-4 West Coast Conference), averaging 5.6 points and a team-high 2.5 assists in 23.1 minutes a game. She played 8.9 minutes a game as a freshman for a USD team that went 24-9 and reached the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
“I feel like I have a better connection with everybody, being in the program a year, so it comes a little more naturally,” she said. “I’m hoping that each year it comes a little more naturally to me.”
More perimeter-oriented than she was at Prairie, the 5-foot-6 Woodward is 29 of 81 (.358) from 3-point range this season.
Ward-El’s style is a little different. At 5-9, she played at forward her last two seasons at Skyview after previously playing at guard.
Despite playing less than a third of Woodward’s minutes (7.1 a game), averaging 2.3 points and 0.5 assists in 23 games played, she has as many rebounds (29) and more free-throw attempts (29 to Woodward’s 26).
“She is really strong, and she uses her physicality really well,” Woodward said.
Ward-El said she is doing her best to work hard and learn as much as she can to get better, while pushing the veterans in practice as much as she can so the team gets better.
“I’m still trying to find my role, if that makes any sense,” she said. “I know what the coaches expect of me, but it’s a finding my place kind of thing.”
With help from each other and their coaches and teammates, Woodward said, and while they are one crucial year apart in their personal journeys, they are both finding their place with the Toreros.
“They expect a lot from you, but I really like a challenge,” she said of the USD coaches. “Stepping up and meeting expectations is something that I’ve always really enjoyed.”
