Dotti Berry, iDigital Media Pro Empowering Entrepreneurs

Anne Donnovan

Thanks, Mom, for my love of sports!

I have loved sports all my life, and would shoot hoops hour upon hour at the goal in my back yard. I was the “favorite” friend of all the guys in the neighborhood? Why? Well, first of all the basketball goal, and secondly, we had a coke machine by the fence where you could buy the old small bottled cokes for a dime. Just didn’t get much better than that. My love for basketball and working withkids led to me coaching a girls’ 10 & under team when I was a sophomore in high school. I also played on my high school team. For 9th and 10th grade, I played six player basketball. That’s just what girls did. Three guards on one side of the middle line, and three forwards on the other side. In the 11th and 12th grades, we had what was called “six player baksetball.” In this format, we had two guards on one side of the middle line, two forwards on the other side of the mid-court line, and two were rovers, and got to go the length of the floor. I was a rover and I LOVED IT! People always ask, “Did you play in college?” No. There were only a few teams in college for women, and it was until I was out of college that I was aware they existed. There was Delta State, Immaculata, and a few others. The first year I coached high school basketball was the first year in Georgia that girls played five player basketball, with all five running up and down the entire length of the court. From there, I went on to coach women’s basketball at the University of Kentucky. We had great teams, and we beat Tennessee and Pat Head Summit for the SEC Championship in 1982. Ahhh…memories. I truly got my love of sports from my Mom. She loves basketball, football, and baseball. She would put on the alarm so that she could listen to the Braves on the west coast when they played. She grew up in Corbin, Kentucky, so I was automatically indoctrinated early! Thanks Mom!

Tags: "Old Dominion Women's Basketball", "Tennessee Women's Basketball", "UK Men's Basketball", "UK women's basketball", "women's sports", Anne Donnovan, Mom, Sports

Monday, March 2nd, 2009 Sports No Comments

Kentucky loses to LSU in men’s SEC Basketball Championship

Ok, my friend, Michael Montgomery has his passion blog about LSU Sports. And now I have to listen right now on a webinar and hear all about it. While he is talking, I am going to come here and blog about it. Can you believe that Kentucky lost? And lost at Rupp Arena? I remember the first time I met Joe Dean, Sr., who was the Athletics Director at LSU at the time. I was a first year coach for women’s basketball at Kentucky, and only 27 years old. I was fortunate to learn from folks who headed up a top all-star camp at the time…Bill Bolton, who used to be at Florida State and other guys. Anyway, listening to Michael with him mentioning about Kentucky brings back memories. We set the women’s record for attendance in 1981, beating Old Dominion, with over 10,000 fans in the stands. That was when Anne Donnovan was playing. Anne went on to coach in the WBNA and win a champtionship in Seattle. She has coached the U.S. Olympic team. I went on to become a life-long visionary entrepreneur and also represented players in the ABL and WNVA. Well, Michael, thanks for triggering my trip down memory lane!

Tags: "LUS Men's Basketball", "UK Men's Basketball", Anne Donnovan, Joe Dean, SEC Championship

Monday, March 2nd, 2009 Sports 2 Comments