Written By Carrie Edelstein

Photo Courtesy Of Christopher Mikals

She was just 23 when she decided to rule the court. It was eight years ago Khalia Collier became the general manager and owner of the St. Louis Surge women’s basketball team. Under her management, the team has won several national championships, and the attendance numbers have grown from about 50 visitors per game to a few thousand. Head to a Surge home game at Washington University’s Field House Complex, and you’ll see the team’s biggest cheerleader running around the court in high heels.

“Basketball was by far my first love,” Collier says. She earned a collegiate scholarship and played Division I basketball for Columbia College. But when her excellence in golf was rising, Collier shifted her focus, putting basketball on the back burner. Yet the sport found a way back into her heart through the business route.

Collier says it’s a business that booms on the off season as she tries to secure new partnerships and also recruit new players and staff. “Everyone knows I love the quote, ‘If better is possible then good is not enough.’ We’re never complacent and we’re always pushing for the ultimate goal which is the pursuit of perfection,” says Collier. When asked what she does for fun, Collier tells friends, “I go to basketball games.” Her list of things she can’t live without would tend to support that answer as well.

1. St. Louis Surge fans. 

2. Her cell phone. 

3. Basketball and sports 

4. Her mom's Spaghetti. “I don’t know what her secret is, but it is definitely her signature spaghetti.” 

5. “My Amex. When I first started I was part of a group that was far more experienced in business and they told me ‘Khalia, you have to charge everything.’” 

6. Traveling “It keeps you cultured and it keeps you hungry and that’s just a part of meeting new people.”

7. Comedy specials on Netflix. 

8. White t-shirts. 

9. Working out and push-ups. 

10. All things Drake related. “I feel like it’s definitely on my bucket list to meet him. Hopefully my wish comes true to be able to meet him in the next year.”