Ashley Battle

Ashley Battle (born May 31, 1982), is a professional basketball player. Drafted by the Seattle Storm in 2005, she played 2 games for them before being waived. She was with the New York Liberty for the 2006 through 2009 seasons. Battle played collegiately for the University of Connecticut women's basketball team.

Early life

Ashley is an only child to a single mother. She started playing basketball at an early age with her cousins. When she was in fifth grade at Manchester Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she was the only girl on the boy’s basketball team. While playing in a school tournament, a few Amateur Athletic Union coaches saw Ashley, and were soon recruiting her to play for them. During the AAU tournaments, Ashley met and became friends with Maria Conlon and Diana Taurasi.

High school

During her high school years she was looking to get away from the dangerous Pittsburgh gangs, so she decided to attend The Linsly School, a boarding school in Wheeling, West Virginia that was strong academically. Linsly was known for academics and not basketball. Ashley helped change that. In her junior season the team went undefeated. Ashley set school records in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and set the trend with more good female basketball players coming to the school to play. Battle was named a WBCA All-American. She participated in the 2000 WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored three points.