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Anaya Peoples started off as a point guard, winning back-to-back Illinois State Championships with Schlarman High (2018-19) while becoming one of the top recruits in the nation. She took her talents to Notre Dame, where she played wing because her team needed that. But in the meantime, she lost her passion for basketball. After three years in South Bend (2019-22), she transferred to DePaul for her senior and graduate seasons (2022-24) and regained the love of the game.
Peoples currently is dominating in Portugal, playing for Basquete de Barcelos in the Portuguese Liga Feminina—and just enjoying whatever life brings. She recently spoke to Swish Appeal about being coached by her dad, her favorite Portuguese sweets and, most importantly, working with a mental coach in order to find who she really is. Some of the highlight from the conversation include:
On being coached by her dad:
If I told you, “Oh, it was so easy, he would yell at me at court and we would be the best friends at home,” that would be the biggest lie of 2025. It was extremely hard. Every athlete whose parent coaches them can relate. As I’m looking at my coach, I’m looking at my dad. I’m not calling him “coach,” I’m calling him “dad,” during practice, during a game, and that’s how I see him…I don’t regret playing for my dad at all. I loved playing for my dad. Now I’m more appreciative of that than ever, but just knowing, at the end of the day, you’re not only getting yelled at by your coach, but also by your dad as well. And you’re going home to him!
On working with a mental coach:
I credit everything to this. Derek Grant (@dgmindset on Instagram) and I would meet once a week and we would just talk about the deep stuff, like, “Why do you feel this way? Why do you think they look at you like this? Why do you think they perceive you like this? Why do you perceive yourself like this?” A lot of work. Journaling, meditating, podcasts. And if I didn’t go through what I went through at Notre Dame—the injuries, not playing well—I would never got to this part of myself. You just have to go through things and see life from a different perspective sometimes [to see] what it’s trying to teach you and how are you going to learn from this.
A special thank you to Aaron Lockett from Next Page Sports for arranging the interview.
