Finding a new purpose when sports end

When concussions ended her Purdue basketball career, Léony Boudreau started down a path that led to a dream job with the NBA

Léony Boudreau remembers the exact day that Purdue’s team doctors delivered the news she desperately did not want to hear. 

It was Dec. 31, 2019, two months into her junior season as a member of the Purdue women’s basketball team. But rather than celebrate the start of a new year, Boudreau instead learned that the long-term health risks associated with the series of concussions she had suffered since age 12 meant she could no longer compete as a college athlete. 

“The doctors basically brought me into the office and said, ‘Leo, this is your last concussion. We’re stopping your career right now,’” says Boudreau (BS biomedical engineering ’21, MS BME ’22). “I had defined myself as an athlete my entire life, so that created a huge void for me right then and there.” 

All of a sudden, she was at a crossroads, prematurely reckoning with the questions all athletes ask as their careers draw to a close. 

What do I do next? 

Who am I if I’m no longer an athlete? 

How will I function without the daily regimented schedule of sports? 

“Now I can look back and be thankful for that moment, but at that time, I didn’t see it,” she says. “I just cried the entire day.” 

Her response is easy to understand. It had been Boudreau’s goal since childhood to become an NCAA basketball player, and factors beyond her control prevented her from fully experiencing the result of her hard work. But it’s also easy to see why she’s thankful now because of the many positive outcomes — including a new dream job at the NBA — that emerged after her life unexpectedly changed course.

Now I can look back and be thankful for that moment, but at that time, I didn’t see it. I just cried the entire day.

Léony Boudreau (BS BME ’21, MS BME ’22)

On learning in 2019 that concussions had ended her career as a Purdue basketball player  

Finding other pathways

While competing was no longer an option, sports still remained part of Boudreau’s life. 

She accepted an offer to serve as a student coach with the Purdue basketball team and found that she enjoyed helping her former teammates pursue their potential. 

The extra free time also allowed the biomedical engineering student to explore her interest in sports technology. She was able to grow Wheel RIISE, a wheelchair basketball event she co-founded in 2019 to increase the visibility of Paralympic sports. She also launched a complementary Purdue student organization, Reinventing the Interface of Inclusivity, Sports, and Engineering (RIISE), to carry on the work that she and Wheel RIISE co-founder Shelby Gruss (PhD agronomy ’21, former captain of the USA wheelchair basketball women’s national team) started to uplift Paralympic sports and improve sports accessibility. 

Each April, the student organization continues to host Wheel RIISE and invites student-athletes and the public to attend. Highlights include a wheelchair basketball game, engaging speakers, and a showcase for the group’s engineering projects. 

“I got a lot of energy from doing that, and it felt fulfilling to be able to do that. So thankfully, I had people around me that helped me find those other pathways,” Boudreau says. “I’m thankful for all the connections and the friendships I built through it, and for the fact that I can still be involved and go back to campus every year for RIISE.”

Now an advisor to the group, Boudreau enjoys seeing current Boilermaker students take ownership of the organization. She likes it even more when they propose an ambitious idea that she hasn’t even considered yet. 

“They are absolute rock stars, and hopefully it gives them an experience early on in their college career — real, tangible, concrete experience — that they can talk about in interviews, that they can use for jobs afterward,” she says. “Leadership skills, cross-functional collaboration, navigating ambiguity — those are all skills that members are building through their RIISE experience, and that I’ve leveraged in every role since then.” 

The students can use Boudreau’s own career as a model for translating their efforts into a professional path. She has been able to apply the engineering mindset she honed at Purdue in two jobs since completing a master’s degree in engineering and business in 2022 — first as a content manager at indoor cycling startup Zwift and now as a basketball strategy and operations manager with the NBA. 

“I say all the time that I was raised as an athlete, trained as an engineer,” Boudreau says. “It’s about understanding where to find a problem, why it’s important, how to solve it, and then get it done. Going through this whole process is what Purdue taught me at its core. The values that Purdue instilled in me — the grit, persevering through challenges, reaching for excellence together — those are principles that I’m living by now and will follow me throughout my life.”

An unexpected dream job

Believe it or not, Boudreau landed her dream job with the world’s most prominent professional basketball league when she wasn’t even looking for a new gig. The NBA reached out because of her background at the intersection of engineering, basketball experience and product experience in a tech environment. 

“When I read the description, it was basically, ‘Engineering background with a business mindset. Bonus: played basketball before.’ It felt like they were describing who I was,” Boudreau says. “And so I said, ‘Absolutely. Let’s go on and chat.’” 

Boudreau moved to New York City in March to begin working with her new team that functions as the R&D arm of the large global organization, aiming to find innovative ways to implement technology within the sport. As a product manager, Boudreau gets to give back to the sport she loves by defining a vision for different projects, creating the necessary structure and implementing solutions through collaboration with key partners who bring their own expertise to each project.

“It’s really cool to have such a cross-functional role because you get to learn from so many different perspectives,” she says. 

While Boudreau can’t discuss specifics, she generally shares that she and her colleagues are developing cutting-edge technologies for projects like automated officiating, youth development, fan engagement and player health, among other topics. 

“I’m finding a unique space at the interface between business and technology and then translating to engineering language to go from collaborating with key partners and taking strategic decisions to bringing products to life,” she says. “I’m so glad I studied all of those things at Purdue because I’m using everything that I’ve learned.”

‘Stay open to what comes next’

When she first learned that playing basketball was no longer possible, Boudreau knew the road ahead was not going to be as she envisioned. It was going to be hard, but she was confident in her ability to adapt. 

In fact, learning to redefine herself through this transition inspired her to create a blog, “Your.Y,” designed to empower athletes who find themselves asking the same big questions that she did when concussions derailed her basketball career. 

As a college freshman, Boudreau determined that her purpose was to empower people to pursue their full potential. Basketball was originally the vehicle that allowed her to pursue that purpose, but concussions forced her to find other ways to continue living it. And now basketball has made its way back into her life. 
 
While she wouldn’t wish the circumstances on any athlete, they helped her develop a new perspective about how to define success in her own life and career. 

“I’ve learned not to let perfection block you from getting to where you want to be,” she says. “Go to your next thing. Learn as much as you can. Make connections. Learn from the people around you. Ask a lot of questions. And then stay open to what comes next. 

“I am fortunate to be surrounded by friends and family who are guiding me through my journey. Make sure you cultivate those relationships. Those are the people who help you see beyond what you even see for yourself. Stay close to those people and do the same for them,” she says. “And then that helps you grow into your full person — who you are.”