Executive Producer Brenda VanLengen and the If Not For Them production team have been busy this year collecting new stories for the docuseries.
It started in January with a trip to St. Louis to one of the top high school girls basketball programs in the nation, Incarnate Word. This program holds the longest winning streak in girls basketball history and has generated 16 Missouri state championships. VanLengen appeared on camera in the vaunted IW gymnasium to share stories that will be included in the series. Additionally, she spoke to the current IW team just two months before they won their ninth straight state title.
Also in January, our team traveled to Miami to visit Unrivaled, the professional women’s basketball 3×3 league started by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. This league has presented a really unique opportunity for top-tier WNBA players to stay in the United States in the offseason and compete, while also holding a stake in the future of Unrivaled.
Collier is a proven winner at every level of the game, starting with three Missouri Class 4 state championships at Incarnate Word. Then, she went to UConn to play for Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma and won the 2016 national championship. Collier was drafted by the Minnesota Lynx in 2019 and has played there ever since, earning five All-Star and four All-WNBA selections. She has also won two Olympic Gold medals with the U.S. women’s national team.
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Collier to discuss the history of women’s basketball that will be revealed in the “If Not For Them” documentary series and how it connects directly to success in the WNBA and Unrivaled today. Collier will be featured in the opening scenes of the first episode and throughout the docuseries.
In February, our team went to Nashville to visit Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball, which is another innovative offseason league. Started by Athletes Unlimited in 2022, this league rotates five-player rosters each week and tracks players’ individual scores across the season.
There, VanLengen met with Sydney Colson and Dr. Bessie Stockard, who stopped through Nashville to see the competition. After introducing the two, we captured an incredible conversation between them, bridging decades of women’s basketball history. You probably remember Stockard from our 2022 interview or her unforgettable appearance on the 2023 panel at our preview event in Dallas. Stockard was celebrated in the arena at the AU games on February 13, 2026, and on the television broadcast on which Sydney Colson provided commentary.
The first episode has been finalized while the second is in post-production. Over 70% of the budget has been raised through charitable contributions from 475 individual donors. Join our team to preserve this important history by going to: https://ifnotforthem.com/join-the-team/#donation-level
Check out our Gallery page for updated pictures from our 2026 trips: https://ifnotforthem.com/gallery/
