Tonya Massaline (born December 30, 1977), née Tonya Washington, is an American former professional

basketball 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 h ...

player who 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) ** Sm ...

in the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA) for four seasons. Washington accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where she played for coach

Carol Ross Carol Ross (born June 11, 1959) is an American college and professional basketball coach. Ross has served as the head women's basketball coach for the University of Florida and the University of Mississippi, and also as the head coach of the Los ...

Florida Gators women's basketball The Florida Gators women's basketball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of basketball. The Gators compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Gator ...

team from 1997 to 2000. She did not play during her 1996–97 freshman season, but she excelled thereafter, receiving All-

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

(SEC) honors in 1999 and 2000.GatorZone.com, Women's Basketball, 1999–2000 Roster
Tonya Washington
Retrieved September 7, 2014. She graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in 2000. The

Washington Mystics The Washington Mystics are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Mystics compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference (WNBA), Eastern Conference ...

selected Washington in the second round, with the eighteenth overall pick, of the 2000 WNBA draft. She played for the Mystics for three and a half seasons from 2000 to 2003, and finished her fourth season with the

Seattle Storm The Seattle Storm are an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The Storm competes in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was founded by Ginger Ackerl ...

during the second half of 2003. She played in 98 regular season games, mostly in reserve, during her WNBA pro career.Basketball-Reference.com, Players
Tonya Washington
Retrieved September 7, 2014.

Early life

Tonya Massaline has an explosive first step creates her own shots can shoot off the dribble plays with a lot of enthusiasm on the court very versatile player who can play or the perimeter on in the paint a remarkable scoring talent sports one of the best vertical jump and broad jump on the team has a terrific one-on-one game and drives aggressively to the hole nicknamed "LT" by her teammates, taking the first and third letters of her given name: Latonya ough luck at USA Basketball tryouts: invited to tryout for the 1999 World University Games team, but underwent an emergency appendectomy days before the event began; earned a spot on the 1998 USA Jones Cup Team, but could not accept the position due to an academic conflict on target to graduate with an undergraduate degree in Recreation - Program Delivery in August 2000, when she would have had the option of retaining a fourth year of college eligibility after having sat out as a freshman due to NCAA rules (She was a partial qualifier her freshman season and was forced by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

to sit out the year)., however, she decided to forego a fourth year of eligibility to pursue a professional basketball career.... on April 25, 2000 became the 18th overall selection in the 2000 WNBA draft, picked by Washington as the 2nd selection in the second round.

Florida statistics

Source

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington, Tonya 1977 births Living people American women's basketball players Basketball players from Florida Florida Gators women's basketball players Forwards (basketball) People from Walton County, Florida Seattle Storm players Washington Mystics draft picks Washington Mystics players

Early life

Florida statistics

See also

References