Sophie Cunningham is once again playing basketball in her own backyard.

The Missouri native, after spending the first six seasons of her WNBA career with the Phoenix Mercury, returned to the Midwest after being traded in February to the Indiana Fever.

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“My Midwest roots, I’m excited to be around Midwesterners again,” she told reporters after the trade . “It’s my type of people.”

But Cunningham never really left her people.

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In 2022, she launched the Sophie Cunningham Classic, a three-day event showcasing the top female high school basketball players in the region, with the goal of helping other athletes from the Midwest remain in

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