Stephanie Soares, the No. 4 overall selection in the 2023 WNBA Draft, has played basketball in far more places than your average 23-year-old draftee, including a yearlong stint in the small town of Deming during her junior year of high school.
The 6-foot-6 center was born and raised mostly in various Brazilian towns and missionary camps. She fostered a passion and elite skill for the sport with support from her parents, Rogerio and Susan, both former college basketball players.
In 2017, her family’s travels brought her to Mount Baker High School, where she played her first full season in the U.S., leading Mount Baker girls to their first state championship.
Stephanie Soares, right, reacts April 10 after being selected by the Connecticut Mystics at the WNBA basketball draft in New York.
(Adam Hunger/AP Photo)
Six years later, Soares was surrounded at the draft by her entire family, who traveled from Brazil for their first reunion in nearly two years.
Not only was she the fourth player picked, but her potential was emphasized when the Washington Mystics immediately traded her to the Dallas Wings — a center-scarce team — for future draft picks.
“It was for sure surreal. I can’t really grasp what happened yet,” Soares said in an April 13 interview. “It was just disbelief because — compared to all the other girls that were there — I’ve come from a different background, a different situation, a different story.”
Victory in high school
Stephanie Soares puts up a shot over an Oak Harbor defender in 2017 while playing at Mount Baker High School in Deming.
(Photo by John Fisken, WPA Network)
Soares and her sister grew up bouncing between club teams in Brazil, primarily playing for their father’s team, Athletes in Action.
With the Soares’ arrival, Mount Baker suddenly gained two players who topped 6-foot-4 — a luxury most high school teams don’t have.
“When I heard they were coming, it was super exciting,” said Kim Stensgar, Mount Baker’s coach at the time and current Sehome High School girls basketball coach. “I knew that they had the morals and values that we were really trying to instill in the team.”
The Soares sisters, though, were joining athletes who had played together most of their lives.
“Had they come in and had any ego or had any desire to be the star, I don’t know that it could have worked,” Stensgar said. “Because of the people that they are, it worked out really well.”
Soares said it was the year she learned to be more independent. She also learned the nuances between basketball in the U.S. and Brazil, which helped her pre-college development.
The team peaked at just the right time, Stensgar said.
Stephanie Soares brings the ball down the court during a game against Oak Harbor in 2017 at Mount Baker High School.
(Photo by John Fisken, WPA Network)
Mount Baker finished its season 23-5, beating previously undefeated Cashmere — which featured then-freshman Hailey Van Lith — 45-44 in the 2017 1A state championship.
Soares finished the championship game with 12 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocks while playing all 32 minutes. It was her first time playing in a fan-packed gym, which she said “meant a lot” to her career.
“That point kind of helped me start thinking more seriously of basketball,” Soares said. “I think it for sure helped me grow as an individual, as a player.”
For Stensgar, the title was just the cherry on top.
“Had we not won a state title, it would still probably be my favorite season I’ve coached so far,” Stensgar said.
To this day, Soares and her former Mount Baker teammates remain in contact, and she received texts from a few on draft night when her life pivoted to a new vector of untapped potential and possibility.
Soares played her senior season back in Brazil before following the footsteps of her sister, brother and father to The Master’s University, a small, Christian NAIA college in Santa Clara, California.
Accolades, injuries and an ever-rising draft stock
Starting with a productive freshman season at Master’s in 2018–19, Soares just kept getting better.
She averaged 20.7 points, 13.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.3 steals and 4.9 blocks in her second season with the Mustangs, becoming the school’s first women’s basketball player to win an NAIA Division I Player of the Year award.
When she wasn’t participating in organized team events, Soares was in the gym or with teammates putting up shots, trying to improve.
And then, after an off-season day of weights, practice, individual drills and shootaround in October 2020, Soares returned to the gym to play one-on-one with a teammate. But that night, she tore the ACL in her left knee, sidelining her for the entire 2020–21 season.
“Not having basketball was really frustrating,” Soares said. “I questioned a lot of things.”
Dan Waldeck, the coach at Master’s at the time, encouraged Soares daily to consider a perspective wider than her basketball goals, reminding her she was loved for who she was, not because of the player she was.
Soares said she used the time to grow her relationship with God and focus on her personal relationships.
She returned to win another NAIA Division I Player of the Year award — in addition to a host of other accolades — in her final season at Master’s, averaging 20.5 points, 12.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.9 steals and 3.7 blocks.
Then, after finishing her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology with a concentration in teaching and coaching, Soares transferred to Iowa State in pursuit of top-level competition.
Iowa State forward Stephanie Soares blocks a shot by Iowa guard Caitlin Clark in December 2022 during a women’s college basketball game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa.
(Keith Gillett, Icon Sportswire/AP Photo)
Soares helped lead the Cyclones to a 10-2 start, averaging 15.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.17 blocks per game — before re-injuring her ACL during a Jan. 8, 2023, game against Oklahoma.
Not only did she wonder what her future would hold with a second injury, she began questioning, “What was the point of doing all of this just to play 12 games and not be able to complete a season?”
Eventually, Soares found her voice. Typically quiet, she became her teammates’ biggest fan on the bench. She took Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly’s mantra of “we over me” to heart, and made it her mission to be a leader.
“It’s not going to do anything if I’m just sad and depressed on the bench,” Soares said. “I had to think more of my teammates, their needs, ways I can help them at the moment, ways that I can be vocal, ways that I can encourage them.”
Iowa State finished the season 22-10. Soares and her coaches filed a waiver to get her another year of eligibility.
“The draft kind of wasn’t in my head because we were so focused on getting this waiver, and I was so focused on my rehab and waiting for the decision,” Soares said.
The waiver was denied. Soares had no choice but to declare for the 2023 WNBA Draft, opening the door to a future she didn’t expect.
“If you told me I’d be here, I wouldn’t believe you at all,” Soares said.
But it makes her accomplishments that much sweeter. “It does,” she said. “It for sure does.”
A future superstar?
Stephanie Soares blocks a shot by Villanova’s Bella Runyan in December 2022 during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Uncasville, Conn.
(Jessica Hill/AP Photo)
Despite the fact she will miss her entire first season in the WNBA due to her injury, Soares is the highest draft pick in Iowa State history. She will be joined in Dallas by Iowa State teammate and roommate Ashley Joens, who was selected 19th overall in the second round of the draft.
While Soares has not discussed her contract with Dallas, top-four selections in 2023 are set to make $74,305 in their first year, according to Her Hoop Stats.
She plans to spend her first season with the Dallas Wings getting healthy and learning about the daily regimen of a professional athlete. Her main goal is to bring her game up to the next level before May 2024.
“We still have great, great players that are still playing in the league,” Soares said. “It’s going to be a year of growth and learning and development.”
Iowa State center Stephanie Soares shoots over North Carolina guards Teonni Key and Alyssa Ustby in November 2022 during the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Ore.
(Craig Mitchelldyer/AP Photo)
