‘Squid Mom’ Represents K-State on Netflix
Dec 20, 2023 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Revered as the first fully-scholarshipped women's basketball player in Kansas State history and admired for her silky-smooth shot, LeAnn Wilcox Plutnicki was known as Contestant 302 in late January 2022. Yes, nearly one year has passed since the 65-year-old retired New York Times editor joined her only son, Trey, 26, in London to partake in the most taxing challenge of their lives. It was a game, yes, but it was more than a game. It was a quest, it was a battle against self, a race against time, a mental, physical, emotional and spiritual undertaking so great that tears couldn't help but spill as the hourglass emptied amid hands-on-knees exhaustion.
It was Netflix's "Squid Game: The Challenge" that broke the chains of mundane routine with a shock so great and so new and so exhilarating that LeAnn couldn't help but ratchet back to herald competitive fire — some that she perhaps even displayed as a fierce competitor at Ahearn Field House years ago — that so brilliantly burned within her belly on the unscripted reality show.
"My kids had never seen me act like that," she says. "They'd never seen me have the opportunity to be like that. They just heard me talk about it — go the extra mile, do the extra work. It was just words. This was a way for me to not only show them but to discover it within myself. That happened in a hurry in the game with our first challenge — Red Light, Green Light."
A total of 456 contestants competed for a $4.56 million prize during "Squid Game: The Challenge," which debuted on November 22, 2023, on Netflix. The first challenge, Red Light, Green Light, "Squid Game's" most iconic challenge, took place inside a Royal Navy aircraft hangar amid sub-30 degree temperatures. In the challenge, the 456 contestants, all adorned in green sweatsuits, attempted to sprint across the hanger's studio set to safety in under 5 minutes, with contestants who moved during a red light-period being eliminated from the show. The contest, which appeared in Episode 1, received one hour of play time on Netflix, but it required nearly eight hours to film with some contestants buckling after holding their pose for upwards of 30 minutes on the set during taping.
Trey, Contestant 301, made it successfully across the finish line, as one by one, fellow contestants were eliminated around him. As time ticked, tears came to his eyes, as he saw his mother, many yards away, successfully halt during a red light, then sprint during a green light, and suddenly halt at another red light. Would she make it? Netflix cameras, which had focused on other contestants, panned to LeAnn and followed her every move, and cameras panned to Trey, who hopelessly stared ahead with tears in his eyes. Their genuine, prolonged embrace after she finally crossed the finish line made for compelling video — the mother and son reunited after an extensive, soul-searching journey.
She became known as "Squid Mom" and Trey became known as "The Son" — an indomitable mother-son duo that helped steal the show, a pair of "Squid Game" standouts that Netflix staff and cameras adored. Netflix even visited LeAnn, who was ultimately eliminated 14 days into her journey, in her New Jersey home months after the show's conclusion.
"Netflix came to my house twice to film us at home," she says. "They flew Trey, who is an actor, in from his home in Chicago a second time to film with him. Each of those shots were like 10 hours, and they probably used 30 total seconds of all that video. It was so much video."
In one video, LeAnn took the opportunity to give a shoutout to K-State in "Squid Game."
"They filmed a little bit of a background story, and I talked about how I was the first women's basketball player to receive a full-ride scholarship at K-State," she says. "I was just lucky I came along when I did thanks to Title IX. Judy Akers was head coach, and she was a real champion for women."
LeAnn grew up in the inner city of Kansas City, Missouri, and she attended St. Mary's High School in Independence. Upon graduation from K-State in 1980, she worked for a small weekly newspaper in Chicago, moved to the Kansas City Star, and then jumped to the Miami Herald. It was during a pick-up basketball game in Miami that she met her husband, Ken. Then she went to the New York Times sports department. Once she gave birth to Ali (currently 28 years old), Trey (26) and Emma (22), she sought more of a 9-to-5 schedule and became editor of the Weddings section of the New York Times.
"All my friends laughed because I was the most tom-boy mom there was," says LeAnn, who retired in May 2021.
Nobody chuckled at LeAnn's continued success on "Squid Game."
"There was former Division I football players, someone said there might've been a pro football player there, and there were professional wrestlers, and there were Navy Seals," LeAnn says. "They did not get through Red Light, Green Light, and this oldie did, so it just shows you, it might be the turtle and not the hare."
Later, in a different challenge, the "Dalgona" challenge, when LeAnn finished the task, Trey was nowhere to be found. It was LeAnn's turn to be concerned for her son.
"It was probably the scariest challenge because I didn't know if Trey made it through," she says. "I finished before he did, and thank God there weren't cameras between sets because I was sobbing. I didn't know if he made it, and nobody would tell me. They were just waiting for the big reveal. They wanted my reaction to be on camera as I found out (he made it). That was an emotional one."
LeAnn and Trey did not win the $4.56 million, of course. But LeAnn remains tight with some of the people she met over her couple weeks in the game.
"I was just on the phone this morning with a show producer and one of the players tried to call me," she says. "We have chats, we meet each other in different cities around the world and in the U.S. It's just really nice. It's almost like having gone to college with someone and your friends for life, you know? It's just one of the best experiences ever.
"There are people from Seoul, Atlanta, Florida, Chicago, LA, Nashville, Overland Park, Kansas City North, Springfield, London, France, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Boston. It's just the fraternity-sorority experience and unexpected joy for everybody. It's just a really great connection."
It's remained busy times for LeAnn. First, she and Trey flew to LA twice to promote "Squid Game" for Netflix. Then they flew back to New York to attend the "Squid Game" finale. Last weekend, they attended Ali's wedding in Austin, Texas.
"Now," LeAnn says, "we're trying to recover."
Today, LeAnn pays it forward. She coaches a fifth-grade basketball travel team because "you just want to do for the little girls what was done for you and to help inspire them to be good teammates and how to play the game and be good sports," she says.
"I was proud of them in their first game yesterday," she says. "They did a good job."
The ultra-competitive fire and anxiety that tested the limits of sanity on "Squid Game" has since calmed, but a valuable lesson remains.
"I came out OK," she says, "just with a new resolve. Now a year later, I'm still like, 'Yeah, you can do hard things, or at least try.' And that's what you need to do — just try."
Turns out few tried — and performed — any better than LeAnn, "Squid Mom," who years ago began a new era when she was awarded a full-ride women's basketball scholarship at K-State, and four decades later, on an unscripted reality show, proved herself to be one of the hardest-working and most-determined players ever to conquer Red Light, Green Light.
At age 65, she's a superstar.
Photos courtesy of Netflix
Revered as the first fully-scholarshipped women's basketball player in Kansas State history and admired for her silky-smooth shot, LeAnn Wilcox Plutnicki was known as Contestant 302 in late January 2022. Yes, nearly one year has passed since the 65-year-old retired New York Times editor joined her only son, Trey, 26, in London to partake in the most taxing challenge of their lives. It was a game, yes, but it was more than a game. It was a quest, it was a battle against self, a race against time, a mental, physical, emotional and spiritual undertaking so great that tears couldn't help but spill as the hourglass emptied amid hands-on-knees exhaustion.
It was Netflix's "Squid Game: The Challenge" that broke the chains of mundane routine with a shock so great and so new and so exhilarating that LeAnn couldn't help but ratchet back to herald competitive fire — some that she perhaps even displayed as a fierce competitor at Ahearn Field House years ago — that so brilliantly burned within her belly on the unscripted reality show.
"My kids had never seen me act like that," she says. "They'd never seen me have the opportunity to be like that. They just heard me talk about it — go the extra mile, do the extra work. It was just words. This was a way for me to not only show them but to discover it within myself. That happened in a hurry in the game with our first challenge — Red Light, Green Light."
A total of 456 contestants competed for a $4.56 million prize during "Squid Game: The Challenge," which debuted on November 22, 2023, on Netflix. The first challenge, Red Light, Green Light, "Squid Game's" most iconic challenge, took place inside a Royal Navy aircraft hangar amid sub-30 degree temperatures. In the challenge, the 456 contestants, all adorned in green sweatsuits, attempted to sprint across the hanger's studio set to safety in under 5 minutes, with contestants who moved during a red light-period being eliminated from the show. The contest, which appeared in Episode 1, received one hour of play time on Netflix, but it required nearly eight hours to film with some contestants buckling after holding their pose for upwards of 30 minutes on the set during taping.
Trey, Contestant 301, made it successfully across the finish line, as one by one, fellow contestants were eliminated around him. As time ticked, tears came to his eyes, as he saw his mother, many yards away, successfully halt during a red light, then sprint during a green light, and suddenly halt at another red light. Would she make it? Netflix cameras, which had focused on other contestants, panned to LeAnn and followed her every move, and cameras panned to Trey, who hopelessly stared ahead with tears in his eyes. Their genuine, prolonged embrace after she finally crossed the finish line made for compelling video — the mother and son reunited after an extensive, soul-searching journey.
She became known as "Squid Mom" and Trey became known as "The Son" — an indomitable mother-son duo that helped steal the show, a pair of "Squid Game" standouts that Netflix staff and cameras adored. Netflix even visited LeAnn, who was ultimately eliminated 14 days into her journey, in her New Jersey home months after the show's conclusion.
"Netflix came to my house twice to film us at home," she says. "They flew Trey, who is an actor, in from his home in Chicago a second time to film with him. Each of those shots were like 10 hours, and they probably used 30 total seconds of all that video. It was so much video."
In one video, LeAnn took the opportunity to give a shoutout to K-State in "Squid Game."
"They filmed a little bit of a background story, and I talked about how I was the first women's basketball player to receive a full-ride scholarship at K-State," she says. "I was just lucky I came along when I did thanks to Title IX. Judy Akers was head coach, and she was a real champion for women."
LeAnn grew up in the inner city of Kansas City, Missouri, and she attended St. Mary's High School in Independence. Upon graduation from K-State in 1980, she worked for a small weekly newspaper in Chicago, moved to the Kansas City Star, and then jumped to the Miami Herald. It was during a pick-up basketball game in Miami that she met her husband, Ken. Then she went to the New York Times sports department. Once she gave birth to Ali (currently 28 years old), Trey (26) and Emma (22), she sought more of a 9-to-5 schedule and became editor of the Weddings section of the New York Times.
"All my friends laughed because I was the most tom-boy mom there was," says LeAnn, who retired in May 2021.
Nobody chuckled at LeAnn's continued success on "Squid Game."
"There was former Division I football players, someone said there might've been a pro football player there, and there were professional wrestlers, and there were Navy Seals," LeAnn says. "They did not get through Red Light, Green Light, and this oldie did, so it just shows you, it might be the turtle and not the hare."
Later, in a different challenge, the "Dalgona" challenge, when LeAnn finished the task, Trey was nowhere to be found. It was LeAnn's turn to be concerned for her son.
"It was probably the scariest challenge because I didn't know if Trey made it through," she says. "I finished before he did, and thank God there weren't cameras between sets because I was sobbing. I didn't know if he made it, and nobody would tell me. They were just waiting for the big reveal. They wanted my reaction to be on camera as I found out (he made it). That was an emotional one."
LeAnn and Trey did not win the $4.56 million, of course. But LeAnn remains tight with some of the people she met over her couple weeks in the game.
"I was just on the phone this morning with a show producer and one of the players tried to call me," she says. "We have chats, we meet each other in different cities around the world and in the U.S. It's just really nice. It's almost like having gone to college with someone and your friends for life, you know? It's just one of the best experiences ever.
"There are people from Seoul, Atlanta, Florida, Chicago, LA, Nashville, Overland Park, Kansas City North, Springfield, London, France, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Boston. It's just the fraternity-sorority experience and unexpected joy for everybody. It's just a really great connection."
It's remained busy times for LeAnn. First, she and Trey flew to LA twice to promote "Squid Game" for Netflix. Then they flew back to New York to attend the "Squid Game" finale. Last weekend, they attended Ali's wedding in Austin, Texas.
"Now," LeAnn says, "we're trying to recover."
Today, LeAnn pays it forward. She coaches a fifth-grade basketball travel team because "you just want to do for the little girls what was done for you and to help inspire them to be good teammates and how to play the game and be good sports," she says.
"I was proud of them in their first game yesterday," she says. "They did a good job."
The ultra-competitive fire and anxiety that tested the limits of sanity on "Squid Game" has since calmed, but a valuable lesson remains.
"I came out OK," she says, "just with a new resolve. Now a year later, I'm still like, 'Yeah, you can do hard things, or at least try.' And that's what you need to do — just try."
Turns out few tried — and performed — any better than LeAnn, "Squid Mom," who years ago began a new era when she was awarded a full-ride women's basketball scholarship at K-State, and four decades later, on an unscripted reality show, proved herself to be one of the hardest-working and most-determined players ever to conquer Red Light, Green Light.
At age 65, she's a superstar.
Photos courtesy of Netflix
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