Josie Aslakson
Josie Aslakson, paralympic medalist and college basketball coach wants to talk about music and poetry.
Aslakson’s desk is scattered with her own poetry manuscripts, hand-drawn basketball plays, and a loved journal. She is often found writing with a yellow pencil in her office, by the floor-to-ceiling window facing a palo verde tree.
She creates basketball plays and weaves the players together just as she weaves the words together of a poem.
Aslakson, 28, is the head coach of the University of Arizona women's wheelchair basketball team. She spends her 9-5 training her team of 13 players. After 5 p.m., she plays her acoustic guitar and gardens.
She practices playing songs by her favorite artists, like Maggie Rogers, Lana Del Rey and Bon Iver. In her garden, she grows rosemary, lilacs, kale and tomatoes.
Her creativity doesn’t stay off the court, rather, it is a fundamental aspect of her coaching style.
“The creative side of me makes me a better coach, I’m not going into the gym strumming my guitar or writing poetry, but the fact that my brain is wired creatively makes me better at drawing up plays, or coming up with new ideas for the team,” Aslakson said.
The intersectionality of her creative side with her athletic side brought her to a place of contentment and is a critical part of her well-being today.
“On one hand, basketball allowed me to reconnect with my body, and writing allowed me to reconnect with my mind,” said Josie.
Creativity’s Position on the Court.
“Sports can be an art. Art is subjective, what you find as art, a beautiful play in basketball is a piece of art,” said Ted Aslakson, Josie’s father.
Josie sees her sport as an art form and has been praised as a creative coach for her team and a creative player.
During the Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2021 she won a bronze medal playing for Team USA, however, she doesn’t believe basketball is the entirety of her identity.
“I was always half art kid half sports kid… I don’t feel like I have to compromise either side of my identity,” said Josie. She finds a balance between having an athletic career and an artistic personal life by embracing both aspects of herself.
“Here in Tucson, I found the perfect fit, I can have a creative lifestyle, it's a very artsy and fun place. But I am also able to have a sports career that is very fulfilling,” said Josie.
She credits her creativity to her success as a coach for UA.
“She is not like a coach I've had before…It’s always something new and always something creative during practices,” said Emilee Gustafson, a fifth year senior on the UA wheelchair basketball team.
Gustafson is a fine arts major and feels her creative side has influenced her athletic side. “The way I go about my art practice ties in how I play, I play with finesse, and it's how I do my art as well,” said Gustafson.
The UA Women’s wheelchair basketball team has been a collegiate team since the 2019-2020 season. It placed fourth at the 2024 National Championships, and its success is only continuing to climb.
“I have found success being creative as a coach, when I am more open as a person and not so structured and old-school in a coaching mentality…That idea of you don't do it my way is not going to work, that doesn’t work for this generation they are very empathic and you have to build a relationship and build trust,” said Josie.
The creative side of Aslakson allows her to collaborate with assistant coach Courtney Ryan, and together they create a “dynamic duo team,” said Gustafson.
“She is a very creative coach with what she can do and what she can come up with. She thinks of new ways to train our athletes at points where we are struggling in certain scenarios,” said Ryan.
Josie’s family, colleagues, and players all admire her unique coaching style.
“She will read the game it's almost like a canvas, like a painting, she just lets it happen. It's like contemporary art, she imparts that idea to her players. I see her creative side flourish on the court as a player, and as a coach trying to impart that to her players,” said Ted.
How Josie Discovered Basketball.
When Josie was 5 years old, she was in a car accident in her hometown of Jordan, Minnesota. She was paralyzed from the waist down, and she was the only person injured, her mother was driving.
Being the only kid in her hometown in a wheelchair, she grew up more introverted and learned to love art.
“I was the kid who would sit and draw for hours quietly at my desk growing up, especially after the car accident,” said Josie.
“You either persevere or not. It's a sink or swim, It's on that spectrum, you’re either thriving or you're not. She tackled it. Never complained. You know it was her reality. I don't know if it was a silver lining in the cloud or thunderstorm, her being injured so young, but that was her reality,” said Ted.
However, after discovering wheelchair basketball at the age of 13, it was a new aspect of her life that allowed her to thrive.
“Basketball brought me back into my body because you have to connect when you're playing sports…It was a really good thing that I got into sports because I may have just stayed in that limbo of being unsure of myself,” said Josie.
Since Josie had always been a creative person she never wanted to fully give up that side of herself. In high school, she knew playing college basketball was an option for her future, because coaches would approach her. However, a part of her wanted to explore her creative side.
From the fall of 2017 through the spring of 2018, she studied dramatic writing at New York University. However, she found it difficult to navigate being in a wheelchair in New York City. So later, she decided to transfer to UA in the fall of 2019 to play basketball.
Today, she still embraces her love for writing. “I have been working on multiple poetry manuscripts, it's something fun that can help me track back my journey through my early twenties until now … poetry is so abstract and just writing it down and not having the structured ways of sports involved at all, it's so nice to not have any rules,” she said.
What’s next?
Adaptive athletics is key for Josie. Growing up in a town of 5,000 people, she was the only child she knew in a wheelchair growing up, leaving her feeling isolated.
Josie commuted an hour's drive to Golden Valley, Minnesota to The Courage Center, to play basketball, where she found a community she could relate to for the first time.
As a coach at UA, she emphasizes the importance of this community. “I think a lot of our athletes find comfort in having people like them, they can branch out and meet friends, but they always know they have this group of athletes that live with a disability,” said Josie.
The women’s wheelchair basketball team only continues to grow at UA.
“It's a beautiful thing to be a part of…we are getting girls and women coming to us wanting to be coached by her, wanting to be a Wildcat,” said assistant coach Ryan.
As for the team, Josie aims for more exposure and recognition.
“When I was young I don’t remember there being as many wheelchair Barbies, or commercials, or representation in the media at all, but now that is different,” said Josie.
Her personal goal is to win a gold medal at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, France, where she will play for Team USA. For the team, she is hoping for them to place in the top three at next year's national championships.
“I think the world is changing with all the diversity and inclusion, a perfect example is this story, having a journalist approach a wheelchair basketball coach for a story like this, I believe the world is changing,” said Josie.
Music is one of the creative forces that has inspired Josie.
Listen to five pieces of the music that matter to her:
“Scott Street” by Phoebe Bridgers
“One of the first songs I ever played on guitar was “Scott Street”, and I always find myself going back to it,” Josie said.
Josie remembers listening to Phoebe Bridgers in her high-rise New York City apartment, with a view of the skyline.
Josie often takes her guitar on camping trips with her friends.
“Once we went out on a hike and I had my guitar on my back just in case, we ended up plopping down right on the dirt, and I got to play some oldies, like “Wonderwall”,” said Josie.
“Where The Green Grass Grows” by Tim McGraw
Josie is from rural Minnesota and grew up listening to country music.
“Sometimes if I’m missing home, I’ll listen to Tim Mcgraw, he’s so nostalgic, I have such good memories of driving in the car with my mom listening to his music,” said Josie.
“Blonde”, the whole album, by Frank Ocean
“You know those albums that you put on and you listen to over and over, that is “Blonde” for me,” said Josie.
Josie found comfort in Frank Ocean’s music at transition times when she felt lost.
Josie likes to sit in her yard outside, in the grass, and play her guitar. Maggie Rogers is an artist who she enjoyed practicing recently.
“I like to attempt and see, sometimes a song is maybe not fully acoustic but it’s enough to work with for me, it’s just for fun,” said Josie.