U.S. Olympic Coach Anne Donovan shares USA Basketball’s 2008 National Coach of the Year Award

January 15, 2009 – USA Basketball today announced that it has chosen U.S. Olympic Team head coaches Anne Donovan and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University as co-recipients of the 2008 USA Basketball National Coach of the Year award.

Donovan and Krzyzewski each piloted their respective USA team to a perfect record in Beijing, securing the USA two Olympic gold medals and automatic berths into the 2010 FIBA World Championship for both the USA men and women.

This is the second such honor for Donovan, who shared the USA Basketball National Coach of the Award with Krzyzewski in 2007 as well. Having also won Olympic gold medals as a player in 1984 and 1988 and as an assistant coach in 2004, Donovan’s 2008 medal made her the first person in USA Basketball history to be a part of Olympic gold medal winning teams as both and athlete and head coach.

“I take great pride in the award, but it’s certainly not just for me,” Donovan said. “It’s a culmination of a lot of hard work by our players, the assistant coaches and the USA Basketball staff, who stuck through a very difficult three-year period of transition in our Women’s National Team program. I feel so full of pride and very blessed about what we accomplished in those three years, but there are a lot of people who have a hand in that trophy.”

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Women’s roster set for Olympic basketball team

July 10, 2008 - Tamika Catchings, Delisha Milton-Jones and Kara Lawson are going to play ball in Beijing.

The WNBA stars have earned the final three spots on the U.S. women’s basketball team going to the Olympics, a person familiar with the choices told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was planned for today.

Catchings would have been among the original nine picks in May had she not been slow to recover after tearing her right Achilles tendon last September. She started all eight games in Athens on the gold medal-winning 2004 Olympic team, averaging 6.9 points and 5.4 rebounds.

The other nine members of the 12 member squad heading to Beijing are headlined by three-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks) and two-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Smith (Detroit Shock). In addition to Leslie and Smith, the initial roster includes 2004 Olympic gold medalists Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) and Tina Thompson (Houston Comets); while Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks) and Cappie Pondexter (Phoenix Mercury) will participate in their first Olympic Games.

Listen in as Anne Donovan & Lisa Leslie talk about USA’s training plans

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (19.0MB)

March 05, 2008 – USA Basketball announced today the spring training plans for the USA Women’s National Team and followed that up by co-hosting, along with the U.S. Olympic Committee, a teleconference that featured 2008 U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team head coach Anne Donovan, three-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie and two-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Smith.

A variety of questions posed were posed to the trio and in addition to the talk on this year’s spring training, Lisa talks about getting back to her ‘A’ game after the birth of her baby girl, Anne & Katie discuss last year’s training camps, Lisa and Katie answer a question about how they are able to take care of their bodies for an extended basketball career, what they think of seeing Sheryl Swoopes this summer in a Seattle Storm uniform, what it will be like having Candace Parker in Los Angeles … and more!

Listen to the audio at USA Basketball.

Storm staying in Seattle with new owners, hiring new coach

SEATTLE, Wa. Jan. 9 2008 – A group of Seattle Storm season ticket-holders, with the financial means to be taken seriously, is making sure the Storm isn’t leaving Seattle.  Force 10 Hoops (great name for the group of women who have obtained an option to purchase the team), along with the stepped up support of the fans, corporate partners and the city, bring a vision and enthusiasm to the championship team.

And on the same day as the purchase announcement come reports that the team’s new coach will be Brian Agler. An assistant coach with the WNBA San Antonio Silver Stars, Angler succeeds Anne Donovan who resigned Nov. 30.

So who, or what, is Force 10? On the historic Beaufort scale, Force 10 is the point at which bad weather officially becomes a storm. Force 10 Hoops, LLC was created to ensure that the WNBA’s Storm continues in Seattle. 

Political dynamo Anne Levinson brought the new ownership group together and led the $10M deal. Levinson has served as a judge, chairwoman of the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission and deputy mayor of Seattle. She is also a Storm season-ticket holder, and by the time the deal closes at the end of February, she and three well-heeled friends will own the team they spend summers rooting for.

Force 10 also includes Ginny Gilder, who owns an investment business, is president of a family philanthropy and won a silver medal at the L.A. Olympics in rowing; Lisa Brummel, senior vice president of human resources at Microsoft and a Yale athlete named to the Ivy League Women’s Hall of Fame for Softball and Dawn Trudeau, who formerly headed Microsoft’s database division and now works with nonprofits.

The sale, which needs to be approved by the WNBA board of governors, would make the Storm the seventh independently owned WNBA team, joining Atlanta, Chicago, Connecticut, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington. It’s the third team with a majority female ownership, along with Washington and Los Angeles.

The group expects the team, led by players such as Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson, will continue to play at the KeyArena, located at the Seattle Center.

Get ready for storm watch!

Storm moves forward after Donovan’s surprise resignation

SEATTLE Nov. 30, 2007 – After five seasons as head coach of the Seattle Storm, Anne Donovan today announced her resignation. Donovan informed Storm Chief Operating Officer Karen Bryant that she will not return for the 2008 season. Donovan has one year remaining on her three-year contract.

“After five years and a great experience with the Storm, I have decided it’s time for a change and a new direction in my career, an opportunity for me to explore new experiences.” Donovan said. “The level of support the fans in Seattle have shown for the Storm has been incredible. I will miss it, but feel I am making the right decision.”

“We regrettably accept Anne Donovan’s resignation as head coach and director of player personnel and wish her the very best,” Sonics & Storm Chairman Clay Bennett said. “She has been an integral part of the Storm’s success over the past five seasons and will forever be remembered for bringing a WNBA championship to Seattle in 2004.”

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