Women in sports continue to make strides in history every day. Xaria Wiggins knows firsthand about making history in women’s sports. At the young age of 5, Wiggins fell in love with the game while witnessing her sister playing and building relationships with coaches and teammates. Xaria began to take the sport seriously by the time high school arrived. During her high school career at Princess Anne High School, Wiggins helped the team collect five state titles in the many seasons as they became the first team in the Virginia High School league history to complete that feature. Xaria’s contribution to helping the team win five state titles where she averaged 16.3 ppg (points per game), 8.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.8 steals in her junior year and 11.2 ppg, 6.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.0 steals in senior year. In both of those years, Wiggins secured many accolades to her legacy at Prince Anne High School such as All-USA Virginia Girls Basketball Second Team, First Team All-State in 5A by VHSL, Third Team All-America Honors by MaxPreps, Class 5A Player of the Year, 2018 All-Tidewater First Team, and named VHSL’s Class 5 Region A Player of the Year twice, and All-Tidewater Player of the Year in Class 5A. Outside of school ball, Wiggins was invited to the 2015 USA Basketball U16 National Team Trials. After concluding her high school career, Xaria committed to playing college ball for the Bulldogs at Mississippi State University. 

Xaria began her collegiate basketball career at Mississippi State University (MSU). During her three years at MSU, Xaria was a member of the 2018-19 MSU women’s basketball team that secured both the regular season title and the SEC Conference Tournament Title as well as making it to the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament that same season. While playing for the Bulldogs, Wiggins totaled 245 points, 104 rebounds, 66 assists, 30 steals, and 26 blocks in 867 minutes and won the silver medal with the USA Team in the World Games at the World University Games. However, Xaria faced some setbacks from freshman to junior year, including concussions, knee injuries, shoulder injuries, and a Pulmonary Embolism. Wiggins would soon explain a specific day that would change everything. “On October 2, 2020, around 3:00 am, I woke up to a really sharp pain on the right side of my abdomen that shot up to my shoulder. The pain sort of felt like a really bad cramp that you get when you’re running but the feeling was 10 times worse than the normal cramping pain,” Wiggins describes. Xaria noticed she was having difficulty breathing and couldn’t lie on her right side due to the pain increasing as she attempted to force herself to sleep hoping the pain would go away. “ I ended up waking up again around 6 am and texted my athletic trainer informing her of what was going on,” Wiggins states. “She continued to ask me questions about my symptoms and ended up telling me to come to the facility to get my vitals checked and do an evaluation.” The pain continued to increase as Xaria was on the way to the facility to meet with her trainer to check her vitals and was sent to the health center where the doctor explained to her the symptoms of appendicitis from the evaluation and immediately had to go to the hospital. At the hospital, a CT Scan was performed on Xaria where the doctors diagnosed her with pneumonia and explained that her lungs on the right side were inflamed and that’s what caused the pain. “I was very confused because I didn’t feel sick, nor did I have any symptoms of pneumonia,” Wiggins expressed. “They gave me some antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicine and I reported back to my team doctor and informed him of what was going on. During that time, I also had to get tested for COVID because they agreed that if I had pneumonia, then it was a high chance of COVID, too.” Throughout the weekend, Xaria was quarantined and soon got the test results came back negative. The doctors soon ordered Wiggins to go back to the hospital for another scan. When she went to get a full CT Scan, Xaria noticed the results were different from the previous scan on the last visit. Wiggins found out that she had a Pulmonary Embolism in her right lung (a blood clot in the lung), not pneumonia. “I remember immediately googling what it (Pulmonary Embolism) was and became instantly scared because it was something very serious and could be fatal,” Xaria states. “During the time of the clot, I then had to go on blood thinners and sit out from basketball for around 4 months so that the clot could go away.” It was the first time that Wiggins had been away from the game of basketball. Being absent from your sport for a long period of time can take a toll on the person. Xaria expressed how being away from the sport was a depressing time and was hard to watch, knowing that she wasn’t going to play.  However, Wiggins made sure to continue to contribute to the team at games and practice through drills, cheering for her teammates, and keeping the energy up.  “Although I couldn’t physically help them on the court, I was the court in spirit. I definitely positively impacted my team,” said Xaria. After three years at Mississippi State, Wiggins transferred to Auburn University and returned to play. Before the season started, Xaria was out for a few weeks due to the result of COVID, which impacted her heart. Wiggins ended up coming back to play at the beginning of her senior season to finish her collegiate career and graduated with a degree in Psychology.  Due to the continuous health issues with both her heart and knees, Xaria decided to not take her fifth year on the court. However, Wiggins wasn’t done with sports yet as she is currently getting a Master’s Degree at Auburn University in I/O Psychology and was given the opportunity to continue to be in the athletics department working as an On-Campus Recruiting Assistant for Auburn’s Football team. “This job allows me to continue to be around sports and give back to the guys whose dreams are to play their sport at the collegiate level in the SEC as I did,” states Xaria. “Auburn has really taken good care of me on and off the court during those hard times, and now it’s my turn to give back and represent the school in the best possible way that I can just as they did for me while I was an athlete for that one year.” 

Over the years, student-athletes have been taught to balance both academics and athletics especially if they want to play for a college. For Xaria, she made sure all of her academic responsibilities were handled every day before practice. Wiggins describes the importance of putting academics first before athletics, particularly at the college level. “When you get to the collegiate level, the coaches really do emphasize academics first,” Xaria states. “They provided me with all the help I needed to make my schedule manageable so I could have time for study hall, tutors, and class. Once you get the hang of blocking certain times of the day out for priorities it makes everything easier.” As a psychology major, Xaria saw how her major is utilized in the sport. “Basketball is both a physical and mental sport,” states Wiggins. Mental health in athletes has been a huge topic over the years as student-athletes are faced with different challenges every day. Over the years, athletes have been placed with the stigma of being hard-nosed, tough people, and are often viewed as entertainment for people. Xaria reminds us that she and every student-athletes also faces tough life situation that affects their mental health; but, most importantly, she (Wiggins) reminds us that she is more than an athlete. “In reality, we all have a heart and a mind, too!” Xaria states. 

Women’s basketball continues to be on the rise! With the recent match-up of the LSU-South Carolina Women’s Basketball game being shown on ESPN, it became the most-watched regular-season college women’s basketball game since 2010 with 1.5 million people watching it. Wiggins sees women’s basketball making an increase through publication and viewership. “The more we publish it (women’s basketball), the more it will increase in viewers,” states Xaria. 

Keep Going! The two powerful words that Xaria advises future athletes that want to pursue their dream of playing at the next level. “No matter where life brings you, keep fighting and don’t look back,” Wiggins exclaims. “The journey will not be easy. There will be people fighting for where you want to be every day but that shouldn’t determine your path in life.” Wiggins emphasizes that extra studying, extra rep, and extra sprint will help prepare for the next level and to trust the process. “Trust in the process and believe in yourself that you are good enough to be anywhere you desire,” Xaria declared. 

Serena Williams is considered one of the greatest athletes of all time. Williams is also a role model to many including Xaria. “Similar to my story, she also went through having blood clots in her lungs which were life-threatening to her. Although this was a slight setback for her, she continued to fight and be an inspiration for other black female athletes that could possibly be going through the same thing,” Wiggins states. Throughout her journey, Wiggins continued to read up on William’s story and used it as motivation to continue to fight. “She (Serena Williams) wasn’t just dominating athletics, she was dominating her fight against those clots while continuing to inspire me and others. I was determined to not let the clots get me into a headspace I couldn’t recover from. She (Williams) continued to be successful in her sport after her blood clot journey and didn’t let it stop her from being the best that she could possibly be. Although it was scary, everything is God’s plan.” 

Xaria’s story exemplifies strength and overcoming adversity. When asked what makes her story stands out, Wiggins confidently answers: “A lot of people expected me to continue to play the sport that I still love to this day. As I matured, I realized that it had a huge impact on my life not only in a physical way but in a mental way as well.” Wiggins cites that basketball has opened up many doors for her to tell her story as she continues to inspire other athletes and be a mentor to future athletes. “Although my story isn’t going how it was expected, it is still being written to this day as each chapter is getting better and better,” Xaria states. “The best thing about it all, if I could change it, I wouldn’t!” 

To learn more about Xaria and her story, be sure to follow her on Instagram: x.monaae