What They Are Doing Today -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WHAT THEY ARE DOING TODAY -- JAZZ COVINGTON

Before The KFC YUM! Center and before Jeff Walz found his way to Louisville -- there was a bonafide star on the University of Louisville women's basketball squad. It was silky, smooth forward Jazz Covington, out of Adel, GA. 

Recruited to Louisville by Martin Clapp, Jazz found a new and different coach in place when she arrived on campus for the 2003-04 season. Tom Collen was the Cardinal WBB coach, but Covington soon found her way as a Cardinal leader. she averaged 16.1 pts. as a freshman and 8.2 rebounds. 

The Cards went to the NCAA tournament each of her final three years at Louisville and she ended her career with 1805 points and 942 rebounds. With Angel McCoughtry as a teammate her final two years, her numbers dropped a bit her senior season but she was the Cards leading scorer in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons, plus having the highest field goal % those years. 

After her student/athlete time at Louisville, the WNBA did not come calling, though.  Europe did, however, and Covington became a "journeyman" of sorts, with her first stop at the Belgian team Elfrid Friborg. In 2008-09, she moved to Hameenmaa (Finland) and 2009-10 found her averaging over 16 points per game for Spanish powerhouse Cadi La Seu 'd Urgell. 

Jazz's "tour of Europe" next stop was France and the Hainaut squad for 2010-11. She did return to Spain for 2011-12, playing for Mann Filter Zaragoza...then spent the summer in Mozambique at Desportivo Maputo. In 2012-13, she remained in Spain but played for Cadi ICG Software. She was on the team that won the Swiss Championships in 2013-14 Helios VS) and averaged `15.4 points and 8.5 rebounds for them. 

Back to France for 2014-15 and a stint with COB Calais and then to spain again for a season with Campus Promete in 2015-16. 

The last two seasons, Covington has played in Turkey, first with Edirnespor and then with Izmit-Belediyesi. In 2018, she played for the Turkish Super League Championship with Izmit-Belediyesi. 

Honesstly, there just isn't a whole lot out on the internet. A scan of her Facebook Page doesn't show any activity since December 2018. I'm not sure if the business she founded and owns "Dream It- Claim It" is still functioning...but the company mission statement:

 "designed to positively inspire and assist people of all ages to believe in their dreams, pursue that dream, persevere and never stop dreaming." is certainly a paragraph of words we all can use for inspiration and ones to reflect on. 

Jazz's dream was quite basic. To play and succeed at the game she loves. She's pursued it in more countries than I'll ever see and had some incredible experiences along the way.  

This is the second time we've "caught up" with Jazz. My article from 2011 is linked up below: 

Jazz -- 2011

Here's to continued success for Jazz!

paulie
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