Leticia Romero González (born 28 May 1995) is a Spanish

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player from

Agüimes Agüimes is a Spanish town and municipality in the eastern part of the island of Gran Canaria in the Las Palmas province in the Canary Islands. Presentation Agüimes is situated 5 km from the coast, and 26 km south of the island capi ...

who plays for

Valencia Basket Valencia Basket Club S.A.D., commonly known as Valencia Basket (), is a professional basketball team based in Valencia, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague, with home games played at the Fuente de San Luis. The club is spons ...

and the

Spain women's national basketball team The Spain women's national basketball team ( es, Selección Española de Baloncesto Femenina) represents Spain in international women's basketball competition, and are regulated by the Spanish Basketball Federation, the governing body for baske ...

. She played three years in the Spain's top-tier league before spending her U.S. college career with

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

and

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

. She played the

2018 WNBA season The 2018 WNBA season was the 22nd season of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The Minnesota Lynx are the defending champions. The regular season began on May 18, with the Phoenix Mercury hosting the Dallas Wings. The season ended ...

with the

Dallas Wings The Dallas Wings are an American basketball team based in Arlington, Texas. The Wings play in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team is owned by a group which is led by chairman Bill Cameron. Greg ...

Club career

Romero started playing basketball in local clubs from the CB Agüimes, Baloncesto Telde and

CB Islas Canarias Club de Baloncesto Islas Canarias, better known for sponsorship reasons as SPAR Gran Canaria, is a Spanish women's basketball team from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Founded in 1980, it has played in the Spanish Women's League since 1983. 1998-99 ...

, where she made her debut in the Spanish top-tier league in 2010, at only 15. She spent three seasons in the senior team, averaging 8.4 PPG. In her last season in the club ( 2012-13) she averaged 14.9 PPG, 3.6 RPG and 3.5 APG before turning 18 years old. In the 2011 and 2012 seasons she played a total of 16 games in Europe's second tier tournament, the EuroCup.

U.S. college career

Romero, a native of the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, was widely sought after by major U.S. college programs going into the 2013–14 season, ultimately choosing to play at

largely because of her rapport with the coaching staff. At the time, she was not fully comfortable with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, and according to ESPN journalist

M.A. Voepel M.A. Voepel (formerly Mechelle Voepel) is an American sportswriter. He has reported on women's sports for ESPN since 1996 and has been described by the company as "the foremost authority on women's basketball". Biography M.A. Voepel was born i ...

, was "seeking a place she would feel taken care of and safe". While the Wildcats only finished 11–19 in her freshman season, she enjoyed considerable personal success, averaging 14.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game on her way to being named unanimously to the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

all-freshman team and also earning second-team All-Big 12 honors. Shortly after Romero received a release, she received a call from

Sue Semrau Susan Paige Semrau (born March 9, 1962) is the former head women's basketball coach at Florida State University. From 1997 through 2022, Semrau compiled a 468-252 career record at FSU. She retired after her 24th season at FSU. During the 2020–2 ...

, head coach at

, one of the schools she had visited during her original recruitment. The two quickly reconnected, and as Romero considered her options, she found herself drawn to the Seminoles' style of play and willing to meet the expectations Semrau was setting for the program. She then enrolled at FSU, initially planning to sit out the 2014–15 season due to NCAA transfer regulations. Given the situation surrounding Romero's transfer from Kansas State, Florida State petitioned the NCAA for a waiver to allow her to play after the end of Kansas State's 2014 fall academic term. Semrau had told Romero that the chances of a successful petition were low. Since Romero could not travel with the team as a redshirting transfer, she went to her home of

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spain, Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in th ...

for a short Christmas break. During that time, the NCAA granted the petition, allowing her to immediately play for the Seminoles. Despite missing the first 13 games of the 2014–15 season, she was second on the team in assists, also averaging 10.1 points and 5.3 rebounds in the regular season while being named to the all-

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

second team.

College statistics

Source

WNBA

Romero was selected as the fourth pick of the second round (16th pick overall) of the

2017 WNBA draft The 2017 WNBA draft was the league's draft for the 2017 WNBA season. On March 30, the WNBA announced that the draft would take place on April 13 in New York at Samsung 837. Draft lottery The lottery selection to determine the order of the top fo ...

by the

Connecticut Sun The Connecticut Sun are an American professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut that competes in the Eastern Conference (WNBA), Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was established ...

. In June 2018 Romero was signed by the

Back in Europe

After four successful formative years in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

and graduating from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

, Romero signed for

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

club

ZVVZ USK Praha USK Praha (official name: ZVVZ USK Praha) is a Czech women's basketball club that was founded in 1953 in the city of Prague. USK Praha plays in the Czech League, the highest competition in the Czech Republic. It is a 21-times national champion. ...

for the 2017–18 season, winning the 2018 Czech League. In 2019, she signed for Spanish team

EuroLeague and EuroCup stats

WNBA career statistics

Regular season

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Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

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Playoffs

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National team

Romero started playing with

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

's youth teams at 15, winning a total of five medals from 2010 to 2015. She made her debut with the senior team in 2014, when she was 19 years old. Up to 2017, she had 58 caps with 2.6 PPG, participating in the

Rio 2016 The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Olympics, one

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

and two EuroBaskets: * 5th

2010 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship The 2010 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship was the 24th edition of the FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship. 16 teams featured the competition, held in Montenegro from August 5–15. Spain was the defending champion. This year's edition was won by Cro ...

(''youth'') * Gold_medal_icon

2011 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship The 2011 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship was the 25th edition of the FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship. 16 teams featured in the competition, which was held in the Czech Republic, from July 28 to August 7. Croatia won the title for the third time ...

(''youth'') * 5th

2012 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 2012 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship was the 29th edition of the FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. 16 teams featured the competition, held in Lithuania and Latvia from 9 to 19 August 2012. Spain were the defending champions. The top 5 teams ...

(''youth'') * Silver_medal_icon

2012 FIBA Under-17 World Championship The 2012 FIBA Under-17 World Championship (Lithuanian: 2012 m. FIBA iki 17 metų pasaulio čempionatas) was the 2nd edition of the FIBA Under-17 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by the U1 ...

(''youth'') * 4th

2013 FIBA Under-19 World Championship The 2013 FIBA Under-19 World Championship (Czech: Mistrovství světa FIBA do 19 let 2013) was the 11th edition of the FIBA U19 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by the U19 national team ...

(''youth'') * Gold_medal_icon

2013 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 2013 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship was the 30th edition of the FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. 16 teams participated in the competition, held in Latvia, from 18 to 28 July 2013. Croatia were the defending champions. Turkey became the new ...

(''youth'') * Silver_medal_icon

2014 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship The 2014 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship was the 17th edition of the FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. The competition was played in Crete, Greece, from 8 to 20 July 2014. The winners were Turkey. To win the title they beat Spain with a score o ...

(''youth'') * Gold_medal_icon

2015 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship The 2015 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship was the 18th edition of the FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. The competition took place in Lignano Sabbiadoro and Latisana, Italy, from 7 to 19 July 2015. Participating teams * (Runners-up, 2014 FIBA ...

(''youth'') * Silver_medal_world_centered-2

2014 World Championship * Bronze_medal_europe

2015 Eurobasket EuroBasket 2015 was the 39th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe. It was co-hosted by Croatia, France, Germany, and Latvia, making it the first EuroBasket held in more than one country. It started on 5 S ...

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

2017 Eurobasket EuroBasket 2017 was the 40th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe and held between 31 August and 17 September 2017. Beginning from 2017, the continental championships take place every four years with a similar ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Romero, Leticia 1995 births Living people Basketball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Connecticut Sun draft picks Dallas Wings players Florida State Seminoles women's basketball players Guards (basketball) Kansas State Wildcats women's basketball players Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic basketball players for Spain Olympic medalists in basketball Olympic silver medalists for Spain Spanish expatriate basketball people in the United States Spanish women's basketball players Sportspeople from Las Palmas