Retired WNBA player Jacki Gemelos returns to home town for youth camp

The dorm room was silent and dim, shades pulled tight, door sealed shut.

In the center of it sat Jacki Gemelos, alone with her thoughts.

It was April 12, 2012 — WNBA Draft Day. Six years at USC and a storied run at St. Mary’s High School in Stockton had built toward this single moment.

She couldn’t, however, bear an audience. The fear of her name not being called felt heavier than she could share. If the silence from the draft stretched too long, she believed it might break her for good.

So, she hid from it.

The television wasn’t on the draft but on anything else she could find, her thumb moving restlessly as she flipped channel after channel, desperate to drown out the creeping sense of hopelessness and the thought that this might be the end.

Then her phone lit up — buzzing nonstop. Jacki froze. Instead of answering, she finally turned to the draft.

“With the 31st pick in the 2012 WNBA Draft, the Minnesota Lynx select Jacki Gemelos from the University of Southern California.”

The door flew open, and in rushed teammate Briana Gilbreath — who, moments later, would hear her own name called just four picks after Gemelos.

She wrapped Jacki in an embrace, bracing for tears, but found something else entirely: stunned disbelief.

“I didn’t think there was anyone crazy enough to draft me — someone who had five ACL tears,” Jacki said. “That was all I needed, just something to hold on to. That’s all I needed to keep going.”

Fast-forward through five ACL tears in college and a decade spent playing across the WNBA and overseas, and now Jacki is back in Stockton — not to stay, but to give back.

Partnering with Adam Gotelli, owner of The Barn and Gotelli Training, she’s set to host her third annual Jacki Gemelos Shooting Clinic on Dec. 11. The coed clinic, open to third- through eighth-graders, runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 9189 N. Ashley Lane. Early registration is $90, and late registration is $105.

“We just want to make it so the kids have so much fun and learn so much that they leave wanting to play more basketball,” Gotelli said. “The hope is to spark a fire and a love for the game. We just want them to develop a passion — to see they can work hard, have fun and maybe make something of it one day, like Jacki did. And maybe it’s not basketball for some kids, but if they bring that same fire to something else, they can’t be stopped.”

Jacki added, “I’ll never forget the impact certain camps had on me and what they taught me at a young age. But I never had a former professional athlete in those camps who had played at the highest level. For me, I want to be a good example. I want to be a good role model for these young kids and share my experience with them, so they can actually see it and believe it too.

“I love Stockton, I love the community, and I love giving back to the youth. I just want to help kids believe that if I can make it from Stockton, they can too.”

‘Stockton is in my DNA’

Sixth grade marked the true beginning.

Jacki, already glued to a basketball since she was seven, walked into an AAU tryout alongside her older sister Johnna — a team run by none other than Stockton coaching legend Tom Gonsalves.

Johnna earned a spot right away. Jacki, meanwhile, required a little lobbying from her father, Steve, who played at Tracy High School and later at Weber State.

“I’m still shocked that my dad talked him into putting me on that team,” she said. “Back then, I really wasn’t that good.”

Years later, the connection came full circle.

Jacki starred for Gonsalves at St. Mary’s, finishing her high school career with a staggering 3,162 points. As a senior, she averaged 39.2 points, 8.9 assists, 6.5 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game.

And the accolades piled up: four-time Stockton Record Player of the Year, 2006 McDonald’s All-American, 2006 MaxPreps Player of the Year, USA Today First Team selection, Miss Basketball of California and a place on ESPN’s Second-Team All-Decade girls basketball list.

“I remember being really young and going to her games,” Gotelli said. “She was averaging 40 a night, and the wildest part is how unselfishly she did it. She could have scored even more if she wanted to. But let me remind you — she was one of the best in the country.

“There were only a couple players like her. When they showed up, I glued myself to them. I was a sponge — every bit of advice, every detail, I soaked it up, because talents like that didn’t come through Stockton often. So being able to show kids, ‘Here’s what you want to do, here’s what it takes, and yes, it can be done,’ is what makes this camp special.”

‘What I was about to face all over again’

At just 15 years old, Jacki originally committed to UConn before flipping her commitment to USC to stay closer to home. It felt like the next step toward everything she had ever wanted.

Instead, the years ahead unraveled in heartbreak.

Three full seasons lost. Four ACL tears. Nothing but setbacks.

So, when Feb. 4, 2010, rolled around, what should’ve been her senior year turned into her long-awaited debut. At Cal, in her first game action since 2005, she delivered eight points, five rebounds and five assists. She went on to appear in 11 games, averaging 7.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 0.8 steals.

“I felt like basketball was what I was put on this earth to do,” Jacki said. “I wanted to be the best women’s basketball player to ever live. I knew I couldn’t reach that status without being in the league. I kept believing I’d get back to the most elite level.”

Fueled by equal parts stubbornness and passion, for the first time in her USC career, Jacki entered the 2010-11 season fully healthy. She went on to play in every game for the Trojans, earned All-Pac-10 honorable mention, led the conference in 3-point percentage at 42.4% and averaged 12.4 points per game.

With everything trending upward, Jacki entered her final season with sky-high expectations. She opened the year on the Naismith Award Early-Season Watch List — a distinction reserved for the best player in college basketball — and it felt like she was finally stepping into the player she was meant to become.

Dec. 19, 2011. A road game at Texas A&M. A showdown with future top-five pick Kelsey Bone. It was the perfect stage for Jacki to show who she truly was.

And suddenly gym fell silent in an instant. The only sound was Jacki’s screams echoing off the floor.

“I knew exactly what had happened the moment it happened,” she said. “And all I could think about was what I was about to face all over again.”

‘It kept me going’

What kept her going were the sacrifices she’d seen up close.

Her mom, Linda, working the snack bar and pulling weeds at St. Mary’s. Her dad grinding at Frito-Lay, Dreyer’s and any side job he could pick up.

Every bit of it was so Jacki and her sister could get to practice, pay for clinics and keep enough gas in the car to chase basketball from gym to gym.

“They scraped and clawed to give my sister and me everything they could,” she said. “So much of my why comes from that. Any time I felt like quitting, I thought about their sacrifices, and it kept me going.”

Drafted in 2013, Jacki spent two full years overseas before finally getting her moment. On June 19, 2015, against the Atlanta Dream, she stepped onto a WNBA court for the first time with the Chicago Sky. She played 17 games that season, averaging 1.1 points, 0.5 rebounds and 0.4 assists.

She spent the next five years overseas, with a brief stint with the Las Vegas Aces that ended when she was cut before final rosters were set.

Then came the 2020 bubble. She inked a deal with the Connecticut Sun, was waived after six games and landed with Washington. Across 18 games between the two teams, she averaged 2.7 points and had her best game on Sept. 2, 2020 — dropping 10 against former St. Mary’s and Seattle Storm guard Chelsea Gray.

One final trip overseas saw her officially retire in 2021.

“What makes Jacki so special is her pure fire and competitiveness,” Gotelli said. “Training others has shown me you need a different level of will to win. It’s rare for someone as nice as she is to have that same fire. It takes a special kind of person, because it’s not always easy to turn that off when you’re interacting with people off the floor. She’s got a gift in her ability to connect with people. So, when she asked me to help her, it was an easy yes.”

‘I am a hooper and…’

Through every trial, every setback and every stop along the way, she never questioned whether she could play.

But each challenge peeled back another layer, revealing something deeper — a purpose far bigger than basketball.

This year, she’s sharing that lesson in a new way. When each camper checks in and gets their shirt, they’ll have one thing to do before they pull it on.

Across the back reads, “I am a hooper and,” with a blank line waiting for them to write their own ending.

“I think a lot of times as athletes, we get put into a box, and that becomes the only thing we think about or focus on,” Jacki said. “What I want to tell these kids is to really lean into what else makes them happy, so they understand there’s always something outside of their sport.”

So if it were her shirt, what would Jacki write across the back?

“I am a hooper and a giver,” she said.

A giver, no doubt.

But why Stockton? After all her stops, all her miles, what is it about this place that keeps pulling her back?

“I just have a deep appreciation for Stockton because it’s where I started,” she said. “It really shaped my character, and without everything it taught me, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Being from Stockton isn’t just about where I’m from — it’s the fire in me. It’s the reason I walk into every room truly knowing that I belong.

“And I hope these kids see my story and embrace how special this place is.”

Her toughness was forged at the old 24 Hour Fitness on Benjamin Holt, stepping into all-men runs and busting their butt — and yes, she used a much spicier word.

Her resiliency came from watching her mom take on breast cancer and win.

Her fire sparked from years of chasing her sister.

Her game was shaped by Tom Gonsalves, Jason Hitt, Anthony Matthews, Mark Payne and a long list of Stockton locals.

All of it — her character, her identity, her “DNA,” as she calls it — was molded in Stockton. She carries it with her, literally, with “209” inked on her arm.

Stockton isn’t perfect. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It can be a mean and nasty place when it wants to be.

Yet that same realness, that authenticity, that family-like community found in the 209 — that’s what keeps pulling her home, and what keeps her wanting to give back.

“Stockton means community, it means love,” Jacki said. “These are the people who’ve supported me since day one, who helped shape every part of my journey. I’ll always want to give back to this place and these people. That’s what my heart tells me to do.

“If these kids walk away with something they’ll carry for life, the same way Stockton poured into me, that’s everything.”