Celebrating Asian Americans in the sports world.
Sept. 19, 2023

Playing & Coaching for the Pomona-Pitzer Women’s Basketball Team and a Lifelong Basketball Journey with Alaina Woo

Playing & Coaching for the Pomona-Pitzer Women’s Basketball Team and a Lifelong Basketball Journey with Alaina Woo

In this episode, host Justin Hong interviews Alaina Woo, Head Coach of the Pomona-Pitzer women's basketball team, on her basketball journey as a player and coach. 

During the episode, Alaina talks about her family’s background, where she grew up, and how she got started playing basketball (3:35). 

She also shares about her high school basketball career at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California (7:42), what she did to improve as a player (9:08), and how she landed at Pomona-Pitzer to play college basketball (10:28).

Alaina discusses the biggest transition for her from playing high school to college basketball (13:18), her favorite part of being a student-athlete (15:04), and a career highlight from her college basketball career.

She gives us an inside look at her transition into coaching and landing her first college coaching opportunity at Tufts (18:08), how she made her way back to Pomona-Pitzer as a coach (21:10), and becoming the Head Coach at Pomona-Pitzer (22:19).

She also talks about her experience as an Asian American athlete (27:16) and coach (30:03), advice for up-and-coming Asian basketball players and Asian Americans who are looking to get into coaching (34:08), and much more.

Coach Alaina Woo - Pomona-Pitzer Profile Page

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