Sterling High School graduate heads to Greece for basketball opportunity that clears path to the pros

A former Sterling High School basketball player’s goal of going pro is starting to seem like a real possibility as she gets ready to participate in a nine-day international camp.

Hailey Walters of Sterling will set off for the Eurobasket Senior Trip to Greece on May 20 where she’ll get to meet and compete against professional players. Walters told Shaw Local that it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of her parents and the Sauk Valley community.

“I’m excited. I feel very grateful and thankful that I’ve gotten this opportunity to go all the way to Greece and get an opportunity to open new doors [professionally],” Walters said.

Walters started playing basketball around 3 years old and has stuck with it ever since, she said.

“I’ve played basketball my whole life so it’s just who I am,” Walters said. “It’s something that I love very much and I look forward to when things get rough. It’s kind of just like a safe place [for me].”

After graduating from high school, Walters played on the Sauk Valley Community College team for two years before transferring to Clarke University in Iowa where she wrapped up her last season in February and will graduate May 9, Walters said.

As for playing basketball professionally, Walters said, “I’ve always thought it was an option.”

Since high school, Walters’s dad always encouraged her and believed in the prospect of her going pro, but, Walters said, “I never believed that it could actually happen.”

With the Greece trip, “it kind of just came into reality and I was like, ‘OK, this is really happening,’” Walters said.

“I definitely wouldn’t be here without them and put in the position where I am today,” Walters said, referring to her parents.

The Greece opportunity came up after basketball season ended in 2026 and a coach who works with Eurobasket, helping college players go overseas, asked Walters if she’d be interested in going on the trip. It’s aimed at players looking to go pro and provides them opportunities to meet with professional teams and play games against those players, Walters said.

“At that time, I was like, ‘OK, it’s definitely an opportunity,’” Walters said. “But he mentioned the cost, and I was like, ‘Well, I don’t really know if I can do that.’”

To raise the money Walters needed to buy a spot on the trip, her family started fundraising. They started sharing it on Facebook and partnered with Boss Roofing-Siding Experts, a Sterling construction company, to hold a raffle.

“I’ve received a lot of love and support from everybody in the community, which is a really important thing,” Walters said. “I couldn’t do it without the people that have helped me get to this point. It was something I didn’t think was possible.”