Born in Georgia to a basketball family, Katie Powell played her first year of college ball in the powerhouse SEC for the University of Arkansas before transferring to UNLV in the summer of 2015. After sitting out the mandated year, she hit the court in Las Vegas for the first time during the 2016-17 campaign and quickly became a key part of a UNLV squad that pushed its way into the postseason with a WNIT bid. In 2018 she earned first team all-conference honors while helping the Lady Rebels to their first Mountain West championship. Powell entered this, her final season, as a Lisa Leslie Award candidate as one of the top 20 centers in the nation before an ankle injury caused her to miss the entire month of December. Now healthy for Mountain West play, the sociology major is among the league leaders in scoring while looking to spark a late-season surge by the Lady Rebels. Here is her story in her own words:
 
iREBEL by Katie Powell
 
My mom played basketball in college. She played at UGA (University of Georgia) and then went overseas to play in Turkey and China, I think. So, obviously, she wanted her kids to play basketball too. It started with my sister and she was actually really, really good. But she had to stop playing, sadly, because she had ACL surgeries on her knees four times. My mom encouraged me to play because I was pretty tall as a kid so I started out very young and then just kept playing and playing.
 
I got really good in middle school. Actually I first started in my driveway and then after I was old enough to get on a team, I was just four years old playing with six- and seven-year-olds. After that we had what was called the Good at Basketball League in Georgia -- my mom actually kind of runs that now -- and we started off playing in that. Basically all the schools in our county play against each other in fifth, sixth and seventh grade. My mom coached me literally the whole way until high school and she still helped me then. She taught me post moves. She taught me basically everything except for shooting threes -- that I did that by myself. 
 
In high school, I did pretty well. I was a Naismith Basketball Award honorable mention and I played in a region with (current WNBA players) Diamond DeShields and Lexie Brown. My freshman year in high school is when I really started to think that playing in college could happen for me since was already starting on varsity. And Georgia basketball is actually really good. Like I said, I played with Diamond DeShields as a freshman. She is older than me and playing with that kind of competition as a freshman and feeling like I could hang, I was like "Okay, I can play college basketball."
 
My mom was pushing me to go to Georgia ever since I could walk. She loves her alma mater and her head coach was still there when I was playing. So, she was pushing for Georgia but I didn't want to go there – I ended up trying another school so that I was close to home but still in the SEC.
 
When I decided to leave Arkansas after a year, I had a ton of offers. This is going to sound cocky, but I could have transferred anywhere I wanted to. But I wanted to go somewhere where I knew I would feel at home. Somewhere I knew I would be accepted into the program and I would make an impact. When I talked to the (UNLV) coaches it was actually kind of late in the recruiting process and they followed me on Twitter. I remember this like yesterday, I was sitting in my living room and they followed me. I said, "Oh, Vegas, I've never been there." My mom said I should give them a call and I started talking with (associate head coach Caitlin) Collier. When I came on my visit, they were just super personable and welcoming and I knew I wanted to go here. I thought the city was pretty cool. I hadn't necessarily wanted to go super far from home, but I wanted to be around a second family and the coaches here were that second family so I didn't feel as bad going as far away. Als,o my mom and aunt both like to play Bingo!
 
I struggled adjusting to sitting out during my transfer year. I worked my butt off though, every single day just to get my mind right for the season when I could actually play. The type of season I had last year and the season I'm having so far this year is kind of what I expected when I made the move here so I'm definitely happy with my choice. Obviously last season was a great year both for me and the program because we won the (Mountain West) championship. I had never done that before, even in high school.
 
I feel like coming to Las Vegas and my four years here at UNLV made me grow as a person. Obviously I got into that fight (on the court) a couple years ago. That was one thing that made me look at basketball differently. I learned that you can't be so emotional about something but you can be passionate about it. I changed my emotions -- my anger emotions -- into passion and I feel like that's why I upped my game so much. I was playing with emotions before, but now I'm playing with more passion.
 
Las Vegas is a good place for what I want to get into after college so after basketball I want to start a YouTube channel within the beauty industry. I want to make it a confidence platform for tall women. And I feel like Vegas is a good place to start because I can start working on my makeup and getting clients.
 
I do have thoughts about playing professionally as well. I've talked to Coach KO (head coach Kathy Olivier) about invites to a pro combine. So do I want to keep playing after UNLV? Short answer -- I would like to see if I can go pro. And if not, I would rather just pursue the dream that I have for myself.
 
Coming into this season, I had high expectations for our team and me personally but my goals have changed considering how the non-conference season went for us. The main goal is still to finish out the season really, really strong and then try to win the conference tournament and get that bid to the NCAA tournament.
 
I've had some great experiences here at UNLV, looking at some of the friends that I made on the team with Nikki and Alyssa, RJ, Krista and the rest. Krista (Jackman) is like my little sister. Another good experience is having met my boyfriend on the men's team (Runnin' Rebel junior Nick Blair). He really got me through last year and this year and has been a big supporter of mine. I'm super, super happy for him now that he's gotten into the starting lineup. He deserved it. It's always hard when you don't have the chance to show what you can do. But after the injuries, he finally got his chance. He's been really positive and patient and now his time has come and I couldn't be happier for him.
 
I definitely feel like my years at UNLV have changed me. I've grown as a person and matured a lot. Being away from home, especially this far away, I kind of had no choice. I mean, I've been living on my own. So it's, all right, now is your time to grow up. The experience here really has changed my life for the better.
 
The Lady Rebels next host Utah State Feb. 2 starting at 2 p.m. For tickets, visit UNLVTickets or call (702) 739-FANS (3267).