If you love bikinis, basketball, or women who get into both, Christmas has come early for you this year. The Miami Spice Bikini Basketball team has chosen its roster, and we're serving up photos and interviews of 12 of its newly named members. Consider it our (extremely belated) Christmas gift to you.
Ashlee Rosa Villard is the strong, silent type. The 22-year-old bikini baller explains, "I'm quiet off the court, but my presence is loud on the court...not vocally."
The Haitian-American Villard was born and raised in North Miami Beach, showing off her b-ball skills in Catholic and Christian private schools until her sophomore year, when she entered Miami-Dade public schools as a student at North Miami Beach Senior High School, and was made captain of the basketball team. Villard led the team to the playoffs all three years she was a student there.
All those years of religious school must have gotten someone on high to notice her, because she went on to help the Florida Memorial University Lady Lions basketball team (a team of which she was also captain) win the 2011 Sun Conference. Villard is so much more than a bodacious baller though. She also graduated Magna Cum Laude from FMU with a bachelor's in criminal justice, and is currently preparing for the LSAT for admission to law school.
See also:
- Bikini Basketball Exists and It's Coming to Miami
- Bikini Basketball Tryouts Brought Out Fame Seekers, True Ballers, and a Whole Lot of Cleavage (Video)
We vote that Villard's Miami Spice nickname be "Cap'n." Just saying we're glad someone tagged her on Instagram to notify her of the tryouts, although she was skeptical at first, and didn't show up for round one. Thankfully, her old college roommate told her about her experience at tryouts and talked Villard into showing up for the second round.
She loved it and is looking forward to Bikini Basketball season. Says Villard, "I am proud to be a member of the Miami Spice, and I am looking forward to our first game and many more to come."
So what can we expect from Villard, who will most likely play point guard, this season? "I am very competitive; although I'm not a sore loser, I hate to lose. I'm very quick and I push the ball on almost every possession. A lot of guys like to play me because I tell them go hard, and I make them play hard, so in the end I know when I win, I've won fair and square. And if I lose, I play right after in a rematch."
It's not surprising that her biggest strength on the court is getting to the hole.
Cap'n (just go along with it) believes her role with the team is to lead her teammates to a championship. We have to agree.
The 12 Girls of Bikini Basketball, so far:
Tina Caccavale
Delilah Barefield
Mysha Love
Andrea Gomez
Melissa "Mel" Caplan
Camreon Dyer
Catherine Gibson
Erica Caldwell
Aisha "Lee" Poitier
Brittini Fuller
Ashlee Villard
Catch Villard and the rest of her team when Bikini Basketball games start in 2013. Follow the team on Twitter @SpiceMiami.
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