The nation watched UCLA cut down the nets this past weekend, but what this team revealed goes far beyond the trophy: they are proof of what happens when a program invests in the person before the player.

But long before college, Lauren Betts, the Most Outstanding Player of the women’s NCAA tournament, struggled with being bullied for her height. Basketball became her refuge, the one place where standing out wasn't something to hide from but rather something to own.

By age fifteen, she was ranked the number one player in the country, and suddenly, the court became a place where she had to prove her worth to everyone.

Two years ago, Lauren knew the headspace she was in was too dangerous to ignore, so she checked herself into the hospital. This is not the story most people know about the player who just led UCLA to their first national championship.

When Lauren returned to UCLA, part of her just wanted to throw on a practice jersey and pretend nothing happened, but head coach Cori Close encouraged her to speak from the heart.

Lauren addressed her team, sharing about her depression, and apologized for having to leave, but what happened next changed everything.

Her teammates and coaches embraced her, and half the team was crying. They told her they were proud of her for taking care of herself.

In that moment, Lauren realized something that had eluded her for years: these people loved her for her, not because of what she produced on the court.

She wrote her essay in The Players' Tribune because she wants other athletes to know they're not alone.

Head Coach Cori Close’s motto is “Our talent is our floor, but our character will determine our ceiling.”

This is the community and culture that Close built. 💙

She has always believed that you can't have a committed team unless you have a connected team, and that connection requires being courageously vulnerable with each other. Additionally, she has an undying dedication to growing the sport of women's basketball and a deep love for her players as people first.

UCLA's championship roster had six players who could have been All-Americans elsewhere. Any one of them could have transferred to a program that would pad their stats and showcase them for the WNBA draft, but instead, they chose sacrifice, and they chose each other.

That kind of sacrifice doesn't happen by accident. It happens when athletes genuinely believe their coaches see them as people first, and when a program's culture is built on selflessness from the top down.

Close's philosophy sounds almost too simple for the cutthroat world of college basketball:

This year, as Close watched her seniors play their final games, she was overcome with emotion. These weren't just players to her. They were young women she had invested in, believed in, and loved, and they had given everything back to the program and to each other.

Our research at Superhera has shown this pattern again and again: female athletes overwhelmingly see other female athletes as strong and confident, but fewer see themselves that way.

Many women wonder if they fit the mold of what a "female athlete" is supposed to look like. They cope with media stereotypes, with gear that doesn't fit, and with the pressure to perform their worth instead of simply being worthy.

But what Coach Close built at UCLA is proof of what happens when you invest in the whole athlete: confidence flows, and confident teams have the power to win.

This is what Superhera was founded on: the systems around athletes are designed to make them feel powerful in their own bodies and perform as themselves.

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