{"id":4972,"date":"2026-01-05T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=4972"},"modified":"2026-01-05T10:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:00:05","slug":"passport-to-a-professional-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2026\/01\/passport-to-a-professional-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Passport to a Professional Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eyes of three former women\u2019s basketball standouts, Seton Hall is the chosen family that provided the roots and wings they needed to play professionally overseas.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alexia Allesch, Azana\u00a0Baines\u00a0and Sidney Cooks all started their college careers\u00a0elsewhere, but\u00a0say that\u00a0a strong sense\u00a0of family and community helped draw them to Seton Hall.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Coach Tony Bozzella credits their international success with boosting the Pirates\u2019 recruiting profile. \u201cEveryone wants to have the opportunity, when they first start college, to play professionally,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0really helped us recruit American student-athletes. They see that if they come to Seton Hall, the coaching staff can help develop them into the best basketball player they can be.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For these three, that opened the door to a whole new world.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ALEXIA ALLESCH\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A native of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, Alexia Allesch was the first member of her family born in the U.S.\u2014 her parents and siblings are all natives of Austria. This summer she\u00a0represented\u00a0Austria in the FIBA 3×3 competition, and now\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0playing in Germany\u2019s pro league first division.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even so, playing and living in another country has been an adjustment for her. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0a big\u00a0culture\u00a0change.\u00a0Everything\u2019s\u00a0different \u2014 the food, the way of life,\u201d she says. The same goes for basketball. \u201cThere\u2019s\u00a0a lot more technical stuff here. In the States,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0quick basketball, and more athletic.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Allesch graduated with a bachelor\u2019s degree in business and an M.B.A., and appreciates the lessons learned in the classroom and\u00a0on\u00a0the court. \u201cCoach B. always talked about being on time, being disciplined. It helped prepare me for here,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I think Seton Hall really prepared me for this life.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

AZANA BAINES<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of years playing and learning at Virginia Tech and Duke left Azana Baines hungry for\u00a0a different experience, and she found it in South Orange. \u201cAll the staff really take care of their players, while you\u2019re there and even after,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s\u00a0something that I really, really value because\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0a family-oriented person. The fact that I could come into an environment like that was\u00a0very important\u00a0to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Baines went on to earn first-team All-BIG EAST honors after the 2023-24 season.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She graduated with a bachelor\u2019s degree in sociology and plans to pursue a masters in sports psychology, but meanwhile her basketball journey has taken her a long way from her roots in Blackwood, New Jersey \u2014 to Spain, and even Mongolia. \u201cPro basketball has always been a dream of\u00a0mine, and\u00a0was always something I knew I was capable of doing,\u201d she reflects. \u201cI feel like God just always placed the right people in my life to make sure\u00a0<\/span>that I did the things I needed to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SIDNEY COOKS\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sidney Cooks had enough experience at Michigan State and Mississippi State to make an enlightened decision about where she wanted to finish college. Friend and former teammate Andra Espinoza-Hunter, who also completed her career at Seton Hall, thought the Pirates would be a great fit for\u00a0Cooks.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She was right. Cooks earned All-BIG EAST first team one year and second team the other. She\u00a0hadn\u2019t\u00a0been quite sold on Seton Hall at first, but the University\u2019s community and culture convinced her. \u201cI\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0even visit the campus or anything. I hopped on a Zoom call with Coach B., and of course, you\u00a0gotta\u00a0love him. His energy is contagious,\u201d she recalls.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since earning her master\u2019s in public administration, the native of Kenosha, Wisconsin, has traveled the globe so much \u2014 playing in Argentina, China, Mexico, Puerto\u00a0Rico\u00a0and Taiwan \u2014 that she had to get a new passport when the old one filled up with stamps.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She notes that when an American signs with an international team, expectations are high. \u201cThey\u2019re\u00a0expecting you to come in and to\u00a0immediately\u00a0impact\u00a0their\u00a0team, and\u00a0change the dynamic. It can be a lot of pressure,\u201d she says.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0adapted nicely, though. \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0definitely living\u00a0my dream. I am a professional. I get paid to do what I do. This is everything I ever wanted.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Harris Fleming is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the eyes of three former women\u2019s basketball standouts, Seton Hall is the chosen family that provided the roots and wings they needed to play professionally overseas.\u00a0\u00a0 Alexia Allesch, Azana\u00a0Baines\u00a0and Sidney Cooks all started their college careers\u00a0elsewhere, but\u00a0say that\u00a0a strong sense\u00a0of family and community helped draw them to Seton Hall.\u00a0\u00a0 Coach Tony Bozzella credits their…<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingPassport to a Professional Career<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":5820,"featured_media":4957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,351,317,10,323],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-articles-2025-2029","category-profile","category-sports","category-sports-2","entry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5820"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4973,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4972\/revisions\/4973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}