The sky is the limit for Maddy Westbeld.
The 6’3″ athlete made waves during her Notre Dame tenure as a sweet-shooting post player with the skills to fill the box score. She became one of the most honored players in Irish history, pushing into the storied program’s top 10 for rebounds, blocks, starts, and minutes played. That success, combined with her balanced skill set, led to Westbeld being selected 16th by the retooling Chicago Sky, headed by their star post players Kamilla Cardoso and Unrivaled champion Angel Reese.
Sitting down with Newsweek, the new WNBA player reflected on draft night and her professional experiences so far. “I was in Dayton, Ohio, with my family, a lot of hometown friends, a lot of high school, old teammates, old AAU teammates. So it was a really, really big full circle moment for me,” Westbeld recounted.
“When it came to draft night, all I felt was gratitude. It was like, regardless of what happens, I made it to this point. When my name got called, it was so loud in the room because there were so many people there. It was just overwhelmingly grateful. I think that’s the only thing that I can explain and describe it as.”
Along with Sonia Citron, the 3rd pick of the 2025 WNBA draft, Westbeld was one of two players from Notre Dame to be selected, joining a deep pool of talented players from the school, like Arike Ogunbowale, Marina Mabrey, Skylar Diggins-Smith, and Jackie Young.
The South Bend school, though, has become known as “Guard U.” Westbeld may be one of the few Fighting Irish pros to play in the post, but that’s not a problem. If anything, her college experience is still a source of pride.
“I take a lot of pride in the fact that I’m a post coming from there, because the W has amazing guards,” she explained. “They have amazing posts. And so for me to be able to play with the dynamic guards that I was playing with, in Hannah [Hidalgo] and Liv [Miles] and Sonia [Citron] and you go down the line, I feel like it has equipped me for being able to play with such versatile, dynamic players like Mo [Jefferson], like Hailey [Van Lith], like Sloot [Courtney Vandersloot].”
All Sorts of New Challenges
Though the quick turnaround to start the season has been “long” and “tough on the body,” Westbeld has leaned on her team’s veteran presence to teach her the ins and outs of the WNBA.
“I truly have some of the best vets in the league, just for their willingness to help. [Elizabeth Williams] today, after practice, was sitting there passing for me, you know, just getting shots up, and I know she doesn’t have to do that. She’s hanging around after practice, passing for a rookie,” she said.
Leaning on veterans like Rachel Banham and Bec Allen has also helped Westbeld adjust to the learning curve that comes with the highest level of play. “You know, they know how difficult it is, and it’s really little details. I’m asking them, ‘What does one specific thing mean?’ There’s so many new terms. There’s so many little things that you can really tell you’re on a new level. And so with that, come challenges,” Westbeld said.
And while rookies still do land at the bottom of the metaphorical food chain, everyone is ultimately pulling in the same direction. “You make it to this level, and you know there’s definitely a pecking order, but at the same time, the character of the people on this team is really, really important,” the Ohio native added.
But there’s more to life than just what happens on the court; going pro also means adjusting to a new day-to-day reality. Chicago, for example, is quite a bit different than South Bend.
While that transition may come with growing pains, the physical relocation was made less stressful by the regular trips Westbeld and her teammates made to the Windy City during their days off in the summer.
“I kept saying I feel like I manifested this for myself, because me and my teammates would come here all the time,” she remembered. “After I got drafted, the energy of me coming straight into the city, knowing that this was about to be my home, it was like, I don’t know, it was just a different feel, and it was so beautiful. And I was so overwhelmed with gratitude.”
Stepping up from college to the pros, though, provides another challenge in terms of on-court physicality.
That might sound daunting, especially for a player who goes to work under the rim, but Westbeld is excited to embrace it.
“I think going into college, I was very much a physical player,” she explained. “You know, I had a little bit of everything, but I really honed in on my physicality. And I think throughout my college career, people would kind of scout against that, try to take charges on me and whatnot. So to adapt to that, I became more of a finesse post. The identity of the W is just the physicality and the pace of it. I’m really, really excited to embrace that part of my game again.”
1 Special Matchup
The WNBA season offers Westbeld ample opportunity to play against the wealth of legendary Notre Dame alumni, including her mentor, Jewell Loyd. “She was always texting me after my games, telling me good job, telling me to hold my follow-through,” laughed Westbeld.
While there is no shortage of Notre Dame royalty in the WNBA, no matchup means more to Maddy than the game against her sister Kathryn, who joined the Phoenix Mercury’s starting lineup this season after playing the previous season with KSC Szekszárd of Hungary. “We’re six years apart and so never got to play together or against each other. And now having the opportunity to play against each other, it’s like, I don’t know. We keep telling each other we’re about to meet each other at the rim, and we really are. I’m excited for it,” said Westbeld, beaming.
A little sibling rivalry doesn’t preclude Maddy from being effusive in her praise of her sister Kathryn. “She’s always been my mentor. And the fact that now we’re kind of on the same playing field, level playing field. I think it’s just a testament to both of our hard work and the fact that we stuck with it, and the fact that she stuck with it,” Westbeld said. “I think her story alone is the embodiment of perseverance and the embodiment of just endurance. Her story is incredible, so I’m so excited to see her, and I’m just so proud of her.”
The key factor to preparing for that massive match-up? A good outfit. “People always say, ‘You look good, you feel good, you play good.’ And that is really true. I think the way that you do anything is the way that you do everything.” Even the tunnel walk sparks the competitive drive in Westbeld.
“A tunnel fit is just another opportunity to stand out, and fashion, in general, is something that I’m really into,” she added. “It’s been cool to see all the trends, and you know how W players are already popping out, I feel like it’s a competition off the court.”
And whether she’s popping out in the tunnel or on the court, Westbeld is ready to show the world what she can do.
“I feel like I’m unguardable one-on-one. I’m excited to see what sticks.”
The post Maddy Westbeld Talks Notre Dame, Adjusting to the WNBA and Sibling Rivalry appeared first on Newsweek.
