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There’s a rule in New Zealand basketball that some might unofficially call the “Charlisse Leger-Walker Rule.”

Back in 2014, before Charlisse and her older sister Krystal were putting up big numbers for Washington State and leading major upsets in the Pac-12, they were two sisters playing for and alongside their mom Leanne on the Waikato Wizards team in New Zealand’s top women’s basketball league, the Women’s Basketball Championship (WBC).

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Leanne Walker had long been associated with the sport in New Zealand. A member of the country’s first women’s basketball Olympic teams in 2000 and 2004, Leanne only added to her legacy by having three daughters who all showed basketball abilities early in life. By 2014, Krystal had been named to New Zealand’s junior national team. A few years later, Charlisse would become the youngest player to ever suit up for the senior national team, the Tall Ferns.

In 2014, a decade removed from her own Olympic playing days, Leanne was coaching and playing a bit for the Wizards. Krystal, then a 16-year-old, was a mainstay on the team while Charlisse, then only 12 and playing on the Wizards’ youth team, was along for the ride. But in one tournament in particular, with the Wizards’ bench players dwindling, Charlisse kept asking her mom to get her into the game.

Leanne finally caved to her 12-year-old. She told Charlisse she had one minute and then would come right back to the bench.

With the Wizards up by three points, Charlisse subbed in for one of the team’s starting guards and entered the game. Remembered Leanne: “My point guard at the time, my captain, when she saw (Charlisse) was coming in, she looked at me as if to say, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Just give her one minute.’”

The point guard called a play designed to get Charlisse the shot. With the defender slow to get over a screen, Charlisse knocked down a 3-pointer. And on the next offensive possession, the Wizards ran the exact same play and she hit the shot again. The opposing coach immediately called a timeout as the Wizards extended their lead to nine.

Not long after, Leanne called Charlisse back to the bench, where she’d spend the rest of the tournament. But her play didn’t go unnoticed.

Later that summer, the WBC instituted a new rule that a player had to be 15 years old to enter a game. Charlisse would have to wait another three years before she could see her name in a WBC stat sheet again.

But with coach/player Leanne and her two eldest daughters leading the Wizards, local news stations picked up the story and interviewed Krystal and Charlisse after the game.

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When Krystal was asked what her eventual goals were in the sport, she said she wanted “hopefully to get over to the States” to play college basketball. Charlisse nodded along and added that, “in the long term,” she also wanted to play in the U.S.

At the time, the name Leger-Walker didn’t resonate much outside of New Zealand — the Leger-Walkers had not yet led Washington State to its first-ever AP women’s basketball ranking. But in the country of five million, people recognized the sisters and their mom as part of the growing popularity of women’s basketball. Though netball remained the top sport for girls, the Leger-Walkers were helping turn the tide for those choosing basketball over the national pastime.

Later in high school, Krystal started to see her dream of playing in the U.S. as a reality. She knew if she wanted to continue to grow as a player for her country, she would first have to leave. Surveying her options led to a wave of emotion.

“Honestly, I was very naïve to how big basketball is over here and how many Division I schools there actually are,” Krystal said. “Being in a small country on the other side of the world, you only hear about the big-name schools — the Dukes, the Kentuckys. … I was kind of overwhelmed.”

Her parents urged her to list her priorities, which were culture, education and community environment. And when she did take her visits, she ended up going to a wide range of schools — Northern Colorado, UTEP, Cal Poly, University of Portland and UMass-Lowell. At Northern Colorado, Krystal met coach Kamie Ethridge, who made the cross-world move seem less daunting, and she committed. Following Krystal’s sophomore year, when Northern Colorado advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history, Ethridge got the job at Washington State.

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Krystal played one more year at Northern Colorado, and after 87 total starts for the Bears, she too departed for Washington State to reunite with Ethridge. When Ethridge took the Northern Colorado job, she inherited a program that had won at least 20 games in two of the previous three seasons. When she got to Pullman, Ethridge was overseeing a Cougars program that hadn’t won 20 games in the previous two decades.

Last season, as Krystal sat out per NCAA transfer rules, the Cougars improved their win total from nine games in Ethridge’s first year to 11 in 2019-20. And by the time the season was cut short due to COVID-19, the Cougars were already done, having lost in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament.

As Washington State moved to virtual learning, Krystal got a flight back to New Zealand. Charlisse was waiting for her there, already eager to head to Pullman for the 2020-21 season with her older sister.

“When I finally did make the decision that I was going to WSU and we were home together, we were focused in on that, and we really wanted to work hard to make the season something special,” Charlisse said. “We just wanted to make the most out of this season.”

With Krystal home during the prolonged offseason due to the pandemic, and Charlisse waiting to figure out if she’d even get to Washington State in the fall as a first-year international student, they and their 14-year-old sister, Tannika, began training every day in the family’s backyard. There was a lot of one-on-one, which Charlisse tended to win (though both older sisters say Tannika might have the most upside of all three). And in the evenings, the competition was taken to board games.

For that, it’s hard to say who won the most.

“We almost never finish a game,” Charlisse said, due to the arguments that start when someone is winning (Leanne admits she’s a sore loser). “But when we do, there’s always someone who’s super upset or the others are just rubbing it in their face. … (My dad) is the mediator between all of us girls.”

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In the fall, Krystal, a senior, and Charlisse, a freshman, left for Washington State with high hopes. Charlisse felt a familiarity when arriving in Pullman with her older sister. She says the rolling hills and small community remind her of home, and Krystal being there only reinforces that feeling.

Even when Washington State was picked to finish last in the Pac-12 before the season, the Leger-Walkers and their teammates believed they could accomplish something special.

From New Zealand, friends and family watched the games as much as they could (which, understandably, can be very complicated). And as the Cougars started the conference season 2-0, more people in New Zealand took notice. Now nearly two months into the season, Washington State has already passed its conference win total from a year ago. At 5-1 in the Pac-12 and 7-1 overall, the Leger-Walkers lead the Cougars in points, assists and steals per game and 3-point percentage. Charlisse has been named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week four times.

Senior national team coach Guy Molloy found a profound level of optimism in those Washington State wins. Not only was he seeing the growth in Krystal’s and Charlisse’s games, but also that their performances — even on the other side of the world — would help New Zealand women’s basketball grow.

While Molloy and others fight to invest more money in the country’s women’s basketball program, they need role models. And when the majority of young athletes still see far more female athletes in netball than in basketball, players like the Leger-Walkers are put on an even higher pedestal.

“We’re trying to create a game that is a highly skill-based game, where our players can really emerge as good ball-handlers and shooters and passers and, despite the population and resource constraints, be a force on the international scene. That’s been the conscious strategy,” Molloy said. “And when you find good role models, such as the Leger-Walker girls … that embody a lot of those things, as to the type of player that we want to try and find, I think it’s pretty inspiring for young female athletes in the country.”

Last November, the Tall Ferns narrowly missed a qualifying spot for the Tokyo Olympics. Molloy and Leanne Walker both recognize how the sport is growing in New Zealand and how the youth players are more advanced today than they were 10 or 20 years ago.

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The country now has its sights set on the 2024 games in Paris, 20 years after the Leger-Walkers’ mother made her own Olympic debut. With more athletes following their family’s lead, they believe the next Olympic bid is attainable.

Until then, the Leger-Walker sisters will continue to inspire others with their performances on a top-25 team — half a world away.

“Those sorts of performances just help sell that dream a little bit,” Molloy said. “I think that the groundswell is happening, and just more awareness. … The more examples we’ve got that we can put in front of them, to say, ‘Well, this is possible from your own backyard,’ it really does mean a lot.”

(Top photo of Krystal and Charlisse Leger-Walker: Washington State Athletics)

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