Gonzaga senior Yvonne Ejim watched the Grammy Awards on Sunday and felt a kinship to 26-year-old Doechii, who received a standing ovation for her acceptance speech after becoming just the third woman to win for best rap album, “Alligator Bites Never Heal.”
“I know that there is some Black girl out there, so many Black women out there that are watching me right now and I want to tell you: You can do it. Anything is possible. Anything is possible,” Doechii told the audience. “Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you . . . You are exactly who you need to be, to be right where you are, and I am a testimony. Praise God!”
Ejim has her own special year, starting with her participation in the Paris Olympics as a member of the Canadian national team. In recent weeks, as the Zags left behind a slow start to the season with nine straight victories, Ejim became the first woman in West Coast Conference history to total more than 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career.
Doechii’s speech was an inspiration for Ejim, who hopes her own example can show others what is possible.
“That speaks a lot of power. I am doing all this stuff this year, but I hope I’m a role model and inspiration, like a beacon for other young, old, whoever, to say they can do it. I did it, they can do it,” Ejim said. “It doesn’t even have to be basketball. It can be anything that people want to pursue in their lives. Hoping that I can be a little bit of light toward their hope of achieving that.”
Ejim, 22, grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and arrived at Gonzaga in the fall of 2020, joining a veteran team in a tumultuous time in the U.S. Just months earlier, police killed George Floyd, sparking the Black Lives Matter movement.
“She came here during a very unstable time to be in the United States, with COVID and the (presidential) election and the Black Lives Matter movement,” Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier said. “Even then, she was willing to use her voice and be thoughtful. She’s very articulate. She’s a good listener. She finds a way to understand others, even though, of course, she doesn’t always agree.”
Ejim has lent her time and efforts to an assortment of leadership roles on campus, starting as a freshman with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), a nationwide organization that represents all 160,000 Division I student-athletes.
She called the timing of her arrival here “definitely monumental.” She found Spokane to be similar in some ways to Calgary, very different in others.
”Just coming into a new environment, navigating that as the Black woman that I am, being able to do that not only for myself but for the other people around me, I think that’s also very important,” she said. “I felt very drawn and passionate toward that part of the movement. How do I support myself within other people? A calling toward that led me to try to do more and advocate and spread awareness during that time."
This is Black History Month, but Ejim says the message needs to be delivered every day, every month.
“I think just being the person that I am, carrying myself in the way that’s genuine to who I want to reflect, I think that speaks power in itself,” Ejim said. “At the end of the day, Black History Month will come and go, but it always stays forever. We still have a presence, to be able to continue that and unfold it throughout our lives is the purpose.
“How I show up and who I represent is really a testimony to how I reflect on Black History Month and those who came before me and will come after me.”
Looking back on her recruitment of Ejim five years ago, Fortier said the Zags expect every player they bring into the program to be “pretty good.” The unknown, she said, is how hard the player is willing to work to develop her game.
“I don’t know if we could have known she was going to be as good as she’s been,” Fortier said. “Vonne has transformed her game based on how she works. When she came here, she was not what she is now by any stretch.”
Ejim played just 6.5 minutes per game as a freshman but in the WCC Basketball Championship game, with six players including three starters, sidelined by illness that ran through the team the night before, Ejim delivered.
She had career highs of 13 points and nine rebounds as the Zags held off BYU 43-42. “I think she’s going to be a great player for us,” Fortier said after the game, “and today she was a great player for us.”
“It was a breakthrough moment,” Ejim said. “I think a lot of that confidence led into my sophomore season.”
Still coming off the bench the next season, Ejim was voted the WCC’s Sixth Player of the Year after averaging 10.1 points and 5.6 rebounds with 18 double-digit scoring games.
She amped up her production to 16.8 points and 8.4 rebounds in 2022-23, earning first-team All-WCC honors. Last year, she averaged 19.7 points and 8.7 rebounds and was named WCC Player of the Year.
Once more the WCC’s most productive player, Ejim this season is averaging 21.4 points and 8.8 rebounds — both best in the conference — and shooting 55 percent from the field. She flirted with a triple-double on Nov. 24 against New Mexico, posting 26 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists.
But this has been a far different season than her first four in Spokane. After compiling a four-year record of 110-20 with four NCAA Tournament bids, the Zags labored through the early portion of this season. Four starters from last year’s 32-win team graduated and Gonzaga was 7-8 overall, 1-2 in WCC play after a Dec. 28 loss to Oregon State.
Since then, the Zags (15-8, 10-2) have won nine in a row and climbed to first place in the WCC. Both player and coach said Ejim’s ability to be patient has been critical to this season’s journey.
“Definitely a little bit weird. Especially being a fifth-year senior on this team, new team, a lot of new players, players stepping into different roles . . . I’ve never been in this position,” Ejim said. “Taking a step back and not letting anything over-boil or be too much. It is a process and being able to accept that and move forward instead of trying to control everything, that’s what my patience and attention is going toward.”
Fortier said Ejim’s belief in the Zags’ program has allowed the team to grow this season. “If there was ever a product called `the process,’ they should endorse Vonne. “She’s a product of trusting the process. This year, as a team, we’ve had to trust the process. We had a bunch of new people. We had a bunch of injuries. We had a tough non-conference. She never got rattled.
“Our team is getting better every day now. And I think if she and our other leaders had not been so steadfast, then I don’t know if we would have been able to make that transformation.”
This season also has featured Fortier’s very personal battle after being diagnosed last Feb. 6 with breast cancer. In her 11th season as the Zags’ coach, Fortier had surgery in April before undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments.
Ejim called her coach’s approach to battling the disease “inspiring” and “super heartwarming.”
“She just shows up to her fullest. She sounds, she looks, she acts, she does exactly what she’s always been,” Ejim said. “I’m just glad that part of Coach Lisa was never taken away or never broken by the cancer and everything she was going through. She stayed herself throughout the whole process.”
Ejim hopes to play in the WNBA but her long-term career goal is to become a doctor.
“If you look at her and think of what would I like my doctor to look like when they were 22, just like Yvonne. High-achieving, high success, good at most of what she does, diligent,” Fortier said.
“We’ve joked about how when you’re experiencing greatness in real speed, you don’t necessarily know that. But we see her every day and I think we’re experiencing one of the greats and we’re trying to enjoy every bit of the time we have with her.”