With spring in full swing, many are hopeful for the sun to keep shining. But for basketball fans in Kingston, Ont., the Sun they’re looking for is in Connecticut.
Limestone City native Aaliyah Edwards is getting set for her third season of professional basketball, her first full season with the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA.
The former Frontenac Secondary School standout was moved to the Sun before the trade deadline, after being seldom used by the team that drafted her sixth overall in 2024.
“It’s tough stuff that I had to go through that,” Edwards said from her hotel room in Toronto, where she is getting set to take on the Toronto Tempo in pre-season action.
“But at the same time, I’m grateful that I went through it so early on in my career.”
She adds that league veterans have encouraged her to keep her head up, as trades and team movement are far too common in professional sports.
But Edwards says she’s not dwelling on her turbulent sophomore season and is instead using it as motivation to keep progressing as a professional basketball player.
“I want my name to be thrown around the league, and I want to prove people wrong,” she said.
“Going to my third year, obviously, I’m going to be team first. But individually, I’ve been working really hard to kind of get back to what I do best, which is just to dominate.”
During her rookie season with the Mystics in 2024, Edwards averaged 7.6 points and 5.6 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game. But her production dipped in 2025, averaging 5.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. However, that came in an average of seven fewer minutes per outing.
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Heading into this season, Edwards says she’s been told by Sun management and coaches that she’ll be an integral part of the team in 2026.
“I’m really excited and just embracing that role and embracing just having that responsibility and accountability,” she said.
Part of the reason she’s caught the eyes of the Sun brass is her outstanding showing during Unrivalled, the off-season 3-on-3 league, where Edwards averaged a double-double.
“I was able to really show that and just perform and it really just gave me that, that joy of the sport again, after having such a tough season with a lot of adversity thrown my way.”
And although Edwards will be more heavily relied upon in 2026, she is hoping to use the season to be a mentee to league veteran, Britney Griner, who signed with Connecticut in the off-season. Griner is a 3-time Olympic Gold Medalist, as well as a former NCAA and WNBA champion.
The addition to the Sun caught her off-guard, but she’s excited at the opportunity to learn from one of the best to ever play in the WNBA.
“To kind of like pick her brain and to utilize her to help me be a better player is going to be great for me this summer,” Edwards said, before joking that it will be nice not to play against her.
“She to this day is one of the toughest people I’ve had to guard, just with her size and her mobility at six-eight, like that’s really unheard of in this league. So to have her on our side of the team wearing our jersey, we love to see it.”
Earlier this off-season, the WNBA announced the sale of the Sun to a group from Houston, who will relocate the long-standing club to the Lone Star State. It’s bittersweet for Edwards, as last season’s trade was a homecoming of sorts after spending her four years in the NCAA with the University of Connecticut Huskies.
While she admits it will be tough to leave her second home again, she’s excited for the opportunity to be part of the league’s return to the city that won the first four WNBA titles back-to-back from 1997 to 2000.
“It’s going to be great for us to relocate there. A lot of old fans are going to come out and support us, but we’re also going to get a lot of new fans,” Edwards said.
“That’s a great mix for me because, you know, you’re not only paving the way for the next generation, but you’re also respecting those that came before us.”
But before she gets a new postal code, Edwards has to focus on this season and the Sun’s first exhibition game — a game that happens to be her first professional game on home soil when Connecticut pays a visit to Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto against the expansion Tempo.
“Isn’t that crazy?” she remarked.
Edwards admits her phone has been busy ever since the league’s schedule was announced, with many friends and family reaching out in hopes of securing tickets to the game. She’s exhausted the number of tickets allotted to her by the league, and says that close relatives and former coaches will be in attendance for the exhibition matchup.
But the fact that tickets for the game are so hard to come by shows how far the league has come.
“You know, they’re not only playing games in Toronto, they’re playing in Vancouver. And Montreal, so they’re going across the country. So yeah, I’m just super proud that it’s finally come.
“Little girls can look up and see a pro team playing on their home soil. It’s even more of a motivator for them to continue to do that and play the sport that they love.”
Edwards and the Sun will return to Toronto on June 10th, for Connecticut’s only other visit to Canada this season.
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