UConn women’s basketball point guard to be transfer to WNBA Chicago sky…..
Why Tonya Cardoza returned home to Connecticut and UConn women’s basketball: ‘Changed my whole life’
The UConn women’s basketball assistant coach and Way Veney were on their way back from a lunch break when they found themselves running late to watch recruits during a summer basketball game in northern Virginia.
Veney, then an assistant coach for Providence, had volunteered to drive Cardoza to the lunch even though the two had briefly just met hours before. But when they got back to the school there were no longer any open parking spots.
Cardoza suggested Veney park in a non-parking zone since they were running late and the place was packed. Veney did so and when the two coaches came back out at the end of the day, her car was gone. Towed due to violation.
“From there, we just became best friends because now I had to figure out how the heck I was gonna help her out because it was my fault that her car got towed,” Cardoza said recalling the memory that sparked a near-20 year friendship.
It’s a friendship that has shifted from Big East competitors to colleagues to chosen family with Veney, now coach at Central Connecticut State, her wife Dalila Eshe, the head coach at Yale, and their kids.