Angela Deanne Bjorklund (born July 14, 1989) is an American former

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

basketball player Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's ...

for the

Tennessee Lady Vols The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Colleg ...

. She played professionally for the

Chicago Sky The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 2006 season. Th ...

, who drafted her in the

2011 WNBA draft The 2011 WNBA draft is the league's annual process for determining which teams receive the rights to negotiate with players entering the league. The draft was held on April 11, 2011, at the ESPN studios in Bristol, Connecticut. The first round ...

. Her older sister, Jami, was a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

Kelly Graves Kelly Lee Graves (born January 14, 1963) is the current head women's basketball coach at the University of Oregon. Previously, Graves was the head women's basketball coach at Saint Mary's Gaels women's basketball, St. Mary's from 1997 to 2000, as ...

Gonzaga Bulldogs The Gonzaga Bulldogs (), also known unofficially as the Zags, are the intercollegiate athletic teams representing Gonzaga University, located in Spokane, Washington, United States. Gonzaga competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association ...

women's basketball team from 2005 to 2009, playing alongside Sky teammate at the time;

Courtney Vandersloot Courtney Vandersloot (born February 8, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is a five-time WNBA All-Star and two-time WNBA champion. She has also playe ...

Early life

Bjorklund was named a WBCA All-American. She participated in the 2007 WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored eleven points.

USA Basketball

Bjorklund was a member of the USA Women's U19 team which won the gold medal at the FIBA U19 World Championship in

Bratislava, Slovakia Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the capital and largest city of the Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all cities on the river Danube. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, ...

. The event was held in July and August 2007, when the USA team defeated Sweden to win the championship. Bjorklund helped the team the gold medal, scoring 7.4 points per game.

College career

Bjorklund became the 10th Lady Vols freshman to start their basketball career in the starting lineup. She played all 38 games during her freshman season, where Tennessee won the National Championship against Stanford by a final score of 64–48, earning

Pat Summitt Patricia Susan Summitt (; June 14, 1952 – June 28, 2016) was an American women's college basketball head coach and college basketball player. As a coach, she acquired 1,098 career wins, the most in college basketball history at the time ...

her eighth and eventually, final National Championship as head coach. Bjorklund finished her college career with 300 3-pointers, becoming the Lady Vols all-time 3 points record, which was previously held by

Shanna Zolman Shanna Annette Zolman (born September 7, 1983) is an American professional basketball player, most recently for the Tulsa Shock of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She attended college at the University of Tennessee and gradua ...

, who had 266 3-pointers in her career.

Post basketball career

Bjorklund was hired as the Director of Basketball Operations position prior to the 2013–14 season under Jennifer Mountain, who was assistant coach during her sister Jami's freshman, sophomore, and junior years at Gonzaga.

Career statistics

WNBA

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Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

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College

References

1989 births Living people American women's basketball players Basketball players from Spokane, Washington Chicago Sky draft picks Chicago Sky players 21st-century American sportswomen Parade High School All-Americans (girls' basketball) People from Spokane Valley, Washington Sportspeople from Spokane County, Washington Point guards Tarbes Gespe Bigorre players Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball players {{1980s-US-basketball-bio-stub