‘It’s surreal’: National basketball champ Dugalic gets hero’s welcome at Maine West
Former Maine West High School basketball star and current WNBA rookie Angela Dugalic was welcomed back to the Des Plaines campus Friday like the champion she is.
Dugalic, a 2020 Maine West graduate, helped the Warriors capture a state title in 2019 and was part of the UCLA team that won the NCAA women’s basketball national crown this past April before being a first-round draft pick of the Washington Mystics. She walked into a gymnasium during a homecoming assembly Friday and was greeted by hundreds of screaming students and school staffers in blue and yellow.
The applause got louder as the broadly smiling Dugalic waved to the crowd, and even louder when event MC Tom Sochowski announced the school would retire Dugalic’s number with the Warriors, 32, in her honor.
Dugalic’s teammates with the Mystics — who defeated the Chicago Sky 110-80 at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena on Thursday night — were there to cheer her on, too.
“It’s surreal,” the 24-year-old Dugalic said afterward. “It means a lot to have this much support.”
A 6-foot, 4-inch forward, Dugalic was selected ninth overall in April’s WNBA draft, just a week after helping UCLA defeat South Carolina for the NCAA title.
Seven years earlier, she was a senior at Maine West when the Warriors won the IHSA Class 4A title. She wore No. 32 then, and that’s the number that was retired in Friday’s ceremony.
It’s the first time Maine West has retired an athlete’s number.
A framed Warriors jersey bearing Dugalic’s 32 was unveiled during the ceremony. Dugalic held it proudly as students rushed down from the bleachers to mob her and pose for photographs.
The jersey will be displayed in a trophy case at an entrance to the gym.
The number is still important to Dugalic, who wears it with the Mystics. She was also No. 32 for UCLA and for her ancestral Serbia in the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.
Maine West officials sought a way to celebrate Dugalic’s accomplishments in person after she was drafted by the Mystics, said Maine Township High School District 207 spokesperson Brett Clark. The team’s game against the Sky created an opportunity.
“The schedule lined up perfectly,” Clark said.
Mystics center Lauren Betts also was on the championship UCLA team and, like Dugalic, was a first-round draft pick this spring. As she watched Dugalic soak up the adoration at Maine West Friday morning, Betts said she’s “super proud” of her teammate.
“She’s just worked so hard,” Betts said.
Kim DeMarigny, who coached Dugalic and the Warriors to that 2019 state title, echoed that praise.
“She’s one of the hardest workers that we’ve ever had here,” said DeMarigny, who has retired from coaching and flew in from Tennessee for Friday’s ceremony.
Playing professional basketball “was (Dugalic’s) dream from the beginning,” DeMarigny said.
So why did Dugalic choose 32 way back when? Was it to honor some of the NBA greats who wore that number, including Shaquille O’Neal and Earvin “Magic” Johnson?
Nope.
“It was the biggest jersey they had,” Dugalic recalled.
rlissau@dailyherald.com