In the late ‘90s, Lindsay Whalen wasn’t the only Minnesota girls’ basketball player drawing attention from major colleges.
So when the first-year University of Minnesota women’s basketball head coach was asked who from her past she loved competing against, she chose the guard who beat her out for the Miss Basketball award their senior year in 2000.
“For sure Susan King,” Whalen said. “She was awesome. I loved that matchup because she was so good. She was so good in high school. She was good in college.”
The two have reconnected over the years since high school because both have found their own successful paths in basketball. Whalen went on to win the most games in WNBA history and four championships; Susan King Borchardt is a strength and conditioning coach — officially a sports performance consultant — who works with multiple elite WNBA athletes including Sue Bird, who’s playing at a high level at age 38.
The point guards battled in the now-defunct Missota Conference for five years. Borchardt joined the Academy of Holy Angels varsity team as a seventh grader. Whalen played for the Hutchinson Tigers starting in eighth grade. They even competed on the tennis court, but never directly because Borchardt recalls she played singles and Whalen doubles.
