'Dreams to reality' -- Fairmont's Kathryn Westbeld gets WNBA chance after years playing overseas

“I’m a 29-year-old rookie,” Kathryn told Desert Wave Media in Phoenix last week. “It feels good.”

In an Instagram post Monday with photos from her debut, Westbeld wrote simply, “Dreams to reality.”

Westbeld got her WNBA chance after averaging 18.7 points and 8.4 rebounds for KSC Szekszárd in Hungary last season.

“Life is crazy,” Westbeld told WNBA reporter Hayden Cilley after the game Saturday. “You never know.”

Westbeld helped lead Fairmont to a state championship as a junior in 2013. She won a national championship as a senior at Notre Dame in 2018. She started her last three seasons and scored 1,076 points in her career.

After going undrafted in 2018, Westbeld signed a training camp contract with the Los Angeles Sparks but did not make the roster. Instead, she started her professional career in Puerto Rico that year.

Westbeld played in Spain in 2019 and returned to Puerto Rico that same year. From November 2019 to March 2020, she played in Adelaide, Australia. Then the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted her career.

“During COVID, you didn’t really know what was going on in the world,” Westbeld told reporters in Phoenix last week. “I didn’t want to get stuck overseas.”

Westbeld was living at home and her dad told her, “You’ve got to do something.”

That’s how Westbeld ended up working as an account executive with Total Quality Logistics in West Chester from January through July in 2021. She was grateful for the experience but realized, “I do not want to be sitting in an office for my career.”

Westbeld returned to the league in Puerto Rico in August 2021 and then played in France, Italy and Hungary over the last four years. She signed a training camp contract with the Mercury in March.

Westbeld came off the bench in two preseason games and averaged 11 points. She earned a starting spot in the regular-season opener.

Westbeld said the physicality and the pace of the Hungary league prepared her for the WNBA chance.

“A lot of pressure is put on you,” she said, “so I feel like you’re preparing for big moments. Just like here you never know when your name’s going to get called.”

The Westbeld sisters were two of 12 former Notre Dame players on WNBA rosters as the season began. The Mercury and Sky play on May 27 in Phoenix. Westbeld called it “divine timing” that she and Maddy made it to the WNBA in the same season.

“This is a dream for many young girls and for anyone who has ever played the game,” Kathryn said. “It really is a milestone I‘ve been trying to get to for a while. I’m really proud of myself. Playing overseas, being away from family, and doing all those things, people don’t know what goes on overseas. You have good experiences and bad experiences. Luckily, I feel I‘ve been able to make most of them good experiences, but it is a grind. I‘m just proud of myself for being able to stick with it.”