DeMya Walker
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DeMya Chakheia Walker (born November 28, 1977 in Mount Holly, New Jersey) is a professional basketball player. She currently plays for the Sacramento Monarchs in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
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[edit] High school
Walker attended Rancocas Valley Regional High School, (located in Mount Holly, New Jersey), where she set school records for career rebounds (851), rebound average per game (14.2 rpg), most rebounds in a game (29), most points in a season (675), and most career points (1,546).
In her senior year, she was named to the 1995 All-American first team by Street & Smith's New Jersey High School "Female Athlete of the Year", and Parade Magazine All-America Second Team as a high school senior.
[edit] University of Virginia
Walker attended the University of Virginia and played on the women's basketball team (known as The Cavaliers) from 1995 to 1999.
By the time she graduated, she became Virginia's all-time leader in field goal percentage, as well as 330 career blocked shots which at the time was ranked 12th in the NCAA record books. She averaged 13.0 points per game and 6.9 rebounds per game during her career.
Her 1,583 points ranks her ninth in school history.
She was named the "Cavalier of the Year", and was an Honorable Mention All-America selection in her senior year (1998-99 season) after leading the team in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and blocked shots.
She is also a member of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.
[edit] WNBA career
Despite her impressive career in college, Walker wasn't selected by any of the WNBA teams during the 1999 WNBA Draft, mainly due to the influx of former players from the just-disbanded American Basketball League (ABL), a rival professional women's league. Several of the ABL's star players were selected in that year's draft.
However, prior to the start of the 1999 WNBA season, Walker was assigned to the Minnesota Lynx for its pre-season training camp, but was cut from the team final roster shortly afterwards. Walker spent that summer playing overseas on a professional women's league team in Italy.
In 2000, she signed a free agent contract with the Portland Fire, and played with them for three seasons until the team was disbanded due to financial difficulties.
On April 24, 2003, the WNBA held a Dispersal draft, where various former players from the newly-defunct Portland Fire and Miami Sol teams were chosen by the existing WNBA teams. Walker was selected by the Sacramento Monarchs as the fifth overall pick in the 2003 WNBA Dispersal Draft.
Walker played the next several seasons with the Monarchs, and helped the team win the 2005 WNBA Finals by defeating the Connecticut Sun, three games to one.
[edit] Personal
- Two months after the Monarchs won the title she announced her pregnancy.
- In April 2006, after going through an intense four days of labor, Walker gave a Caesarean section birth to her first child, a daughter named Zachara. She went on maternity leave and missed the first 11 games of the 2006 WNBA season, before returning to the Monarchs' player roster.
- Earned her degree from Virginia in Government.
- After playing days are over wants to be an attorney in mergers & acquisitions.
