Washington State guard Johanna Teder follows fortuitous route from Estonia, through West Texas, to Pullman

PULLMAN – In pursuit of a career in basketball, Johanna Teder took a leap of faith. Actually, she took a few.

The sharpshooting guard from Estonia, now a junior standout at Washington State, moved across her home country at the age of 16. She opted to leave her public school in Tartu to attend a sports-specific prep academy 115 miles away in Tallinn – the capital of the small Baltic nation in northern Europe.

“It was the hardest decision of my life,” she said. “But I wanted to play basketball at a higher level.”

Two years later, she was drawing recruiting interest from college programs in the United States, but Teder was forced to go the junior college route in order to qualify for Division I. She settled on a program in rural West Texas that had offered her early in the process. Teder will admit it was a gamble.

“I didn’t take a visit, just flew straight there,” she said. “I’m telling you, it was a shock at first.”

She played one season at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, and was notified in March 2020 that she’d met D-I eligibility standards and would have three weeks to make her choice on whether to transfer. About 30 schools quickly came calling.

Right down to the wire, Teder weighed her options. In the end, she acted on trust and took a chance on WSU, which was in the midst of a rebuild at the time.

“I’m just so happy to be a part of it,” she said.

Seemingly by fate, Teder has become a key cog for the Cougars during what has easily been the best two-year stretch in program history. She started every game last season and helped WSU snap a 30-year NCAA Tournament drought, then elevated her level of play.

Teder is the Pac-12’s reigning player of the week for the first time in her WSU career after scoring 41 points on 14-of-24 shooting in a weekend sweep of the Arizona schools.

Coach Kamie Ethridge tabbed her the “X-factor” of WSU’s late-season surge – the Cougars have won nine of their past 12 and Teder is averaging 13.5 points per game in that stretch.

“Everyone believes in her,” Ethridge said. “Everyone has grown into a tighter-knit, really good-functioning team on and off the court. Everyone appreciates that and works toward that, and Jo’s been spot-on in all those areas. She’s a big part of what we’re doing.”

The 5-foot-8 Teder is the Cougars’ No. 2 scorer on the season with 10.9 ppg one year after she averaged 7.1 ppg while “finding my place” in an unfamiliar home.

She has made a team-high 54 3-pointers on a respectable 35.8% mark and is a threat to score on penetration plays. WSU is 10-1 this season when she scores in double figures.

She’s a rising star, but she’d never acknowledge that. Teder speaks with an amiable modesty and has earned a selfless reputation among teammates and coaches. Ethridge called her a “sensitive soul.”

“People tell me, ‘You have to give more credit to yourself,’ ” she said. “Maybe one day. There are moments I’m proud of myself, like after this weekend. It was like, ‘Wow, I can do great stuff.’ I’ve just always been like this. I haven’t always been the best player. I feel like there’s always growth and you can do better.”

Her development over the past year has been crucial for a team that’s marching toward a second consecutive NCAA Tournament berth. The Cougars (18-8, 10-5 Pac-12) travel to No. 2 Stanford for an 8 p.m. tipoff Thursday.

“She just responds better to mistakes or misses,” Ethridge said.

“She’s gotten to the point where she just needs to think about it and she’s very aware of what she needs to do for us. … We need her to stay in this groove and take the shots she gets, whether they go in or not.”

Teder’s whirlwind route to Pullman began its course in an elementary gym in Tartu. Her sister and mother had some experience in basketball, so Teder gave the sport a try while she was in grade school. She elected to stick with it after forming bonds with other students interested in the American game, which has a considerable following in the Baltic states.

The first critical juncture of her hoops career came at age 16, when Teder accepted an invitation to attend Audentese Spordigumnaasium, a prep institution that selects high-potential athletes from around the country for enrollment. That meant moving away from her family, friends and departing an elite educational public school in her riverfront hometown of Tartu – one of the cultural and artistic centers of Europe – and residing full time in the coastal city of Tallinn.

“It was hard at first. At the age of 16, you want to do so many different things,” she said. “It took me a while to decide, but I wanted to try it and see where it takes me

.”

Teder lived in a dorm room for two years and adhered to a strict training regimen that included two daily practices. She visited home on the weekends.

“It got me prepared for life here,” she said of her time in Tallinn. “It teaches you discipline and how to live your own life. When I went to South Plains, I was used to it. And having so many people around me with the same path helped.”

Teder built her resume and attracted NCAA suitors over her final two years in Tallinn. She participated in the national Estonian youth league and was a member of the country’s U18 3-on-3 club in 2018.

“It was always a big thing to represent my country,” Teder said. “That’s why I got recruited to the states, as well.”

Her dream school was the University of San Francisco. She committed to the Dons after she and her mother took their first trip to the U.S. and visited the city, but circumstances prevented Teder from enrolling at USF.

“I went straight to Texas,” she said. “It was shocking. I didn’t expect it. When I looked the place up on Google Maps, I was like, ‘OK, I don’t know about this.’ I’m not sure I ever got used to it. What helped is I ended up on a really good team and really liked the girls. It’s just the people around you. The small communities, they support you so much and that kept me going.”

South Plains compiled a 32-1 record, and Teder posted 7.9 points and 5.5 assists per game, shooting 47% from the field in her one season in Levelland – located just west of Ethridge’s hometown of Lubbock.

“I still joke with Coach E, ‘It’s my favorite place on earth,’ ” Teder laughed.

A first-team all-conference player, Teder posted 13.6 ppg over her final nine games for the Texans before the season was canceled because of the emerging coronavirus pandemic.

“We would have been in the national championship tournament, but it never happened,” she said. “Our goal from the start was to win it. Things just happen in life. I’m lucky I went there. Being on such a good team, I got so many offers.”

A coaching friend at South Plains gave Ethridge a heads-up about Teder, who had qualified for D-I eligibility earlier than anticipated.

“A lot of international players, you just assume they’re not qualifiers and have to stay two years, but she was a qualifier and he said she can play,” Ethridge said. “We jumped all over it.”

In-person visits had been wiped out due to COVID-19, leaving Teder with limited information to decide. She met with dozens of interested parties online.

“I talked to so many people who told me good things about their schools and they told me, ‘It’s hard to show you around and show you what we’re about if you can’t see us,’ ” Teder said. “But I feel like the coaches (at WSU) didn’t make me worry about Pullman. They made me feel welcomed with the family and I was comfortable talking to them.

“You don’t need crazy cities or downtowns. You need good people and how special they make you feel. That’s what I value.”