Is everybody ready? Give her now your attention. Ready to go? Marth, ready? One of the things,
I have this book, The Art of War. My mother, of all people, sent it to me. One of the quotes
in that book is, the battle is won before it's fought. We have worked hard, we've gotten
ready to do the right things. We're in a different league, and we're in that league if we work
hard and do the things we're capable of doing. You make an effort to do the right things.
We're not satisfied with where we're at and how we're playing. We want to get better.
Let's have a good game. Let's go. In the two short decades, women have had the opportunity
to play varsity basketball at Stanford. The game has changed dramatically. So have the
athletes, their abilities, and their goals.
This is the story of one coach, one team, and the season they tried to live out the
biggest dream in college sports, to win a national championship. The 1989-90 season
would be Tara Vanderveer's fifth at Stanford. Hiring Tara was a coup for the university.
She came from Ohio State, where she had built a successful team and had a bright future.
Other coaches were shocked by Tara's move. Stanford had won only 14 games and lost 42
over the previous two seasons. It was a challenge of it. It was everyone saying it's impossible
that you can ever win, and part of it was, it was a challenge of having people really
be students and for women recognizing that you're not going to go on to the NBA so your
education is really important. Stanford presented unique problems. Tara would
have to aggressively search the whole country to find top athletes who could also meet Stanford's
high academic standards. In the summer of 1985, Tara's assistant coach Amy Tucker spotted
a player they believed could be the foundation of a new team. Amy saw Jennifer playing and
basically said, here's a great high school point guard. We want her. She's smart. She
can run. I said, great. And she said, one problem. I said, what's the problem? She's
from Tennessee. I said, oh, that's a problem. Tennessee is a powerhouse of girls' basketball
and the best players are usually snapped up by the University of Tennessee. But to Tara's
surprise, Tennessee passed on Jennifer Azee. That same summer, Tara took another gamble
by recruiting moody but talented six-foot Katie Stedding from Lake Oswego, Oregon.
She was a successful high school player, but she wasn't someone that every single college
team was beating down her door to recruit. Some of the scouting reports on her were,
you know, average player, below average attitude, below average effort. Six-foot-three center
Trisha Stevens from Philomath, Oregon, and Sonya Henning from Racine, Wisconsin, both
straight-A students, were recruited the year after Jennifer and Katie. Trisha lived for
six months, but Sonya saw a basketball scholarship primarily as her ticket to law school. By
the 89-90 season, Jennifer, Katie, Trisha, and Sonya had been joined by Julie Zylstra
from Vernal, Utah, and a nationally acclaimed freshman Val Whiting from Wilmington, Delaware.
Tara's first recruits are now seniors. If these young women are to win a championship,
it's now or never. Just 20 years ago, Stanford didn't have a women's team. It wasn't until
1972 that women were given a real chance to compete. That year, the Education Amendments
Act included a provision, Title IX, which stipulated that no person on the basis of
sex could be denied the benefits of any educational program or activity receiving federal financial
assistance. The person who hired Tara Vanderveer, athletic director Andy Geiger, took Title
IX seriously. I love women's athletics like I love men's athletics, and I don't see
a difference. I smile when I think about the reaction of boosters to women's athletics.
I've had so many men oppose women's athletics until their daughters become 15, and all of
a sudden they say, wow, this is pretty terrific, and you mean she might be able to get a scholarship
too. Ironically, 80 years before Title IX, Stanford had a women's basketball team. In
1896, they made history when they played in the first intercollegiate women's basketball
game ever against neighboring University of California at Berkeley. Stanford won the game
by a score of 2 to 1. But three years later, a faculty committee would ban Stanford women
from all intercollegiate team sports. This ruling, the committee said, is to guard the
health of the individual player. Today, Stanford women are expected to play all out, all the
time. They play the same number of games as the men, and use the same equipment. But their
program gets only half as much money. Still, by national standards, this is progress. Before
Title IX, women's programs received no scholarships, almost no funding, and less than 1% of national
media coverage.
All the players are on full sports scholarships, around $22,000 a year each. They must maintain
a C average to stay on the team. But they will devote five hours a day, six days a week,
to basketball during the season, and spend over a month on the road.
If I were them, you know, and I had that team, I would have called up Boston College. They're
the only team we've been behind at halftime. They're the team that's played us the closest.
And I said, well, how did you take an average team, and how do you ever stay close to Stanford?
Sarah recalls the strategies and outcomes of most of the hundreds of games she's coached,
and remembers the birthday of every player who has played for her. She finds meaning
in numbers, the clothing she wears, and random events.
The reason that it kind of comes to mind, you know, I'm kind of funny about my clothes,
but I wore this, last time I wore this was Louisiana Tech, and I've been thinking a lot
about Louisiana Tech, and about beating them. You know, this outfit's got to get back in
instead. I need a win on this outfit, all right, to wear it again. So you got to work
really hard, and I'm thinking about rebounding. This has been on my brain the whole time,
and how we want to get to where we want to get in terms of...
Jennifer eats an orange before every game, and Val Whiting has a friend wish her good
luck standing in exactly the same spot in front of the dorm before each home game.
Let's go, let's go, let's go!
Stanford came into the 1989-90 season ranked second in the country, just behind the school
that beat them in the regional finals the previous season, Louisiana Tech.
It's mid-season, and the NCAA tournament is two months away. Playing at this level requires
a delicate balance of talent, luck, healthy players, and team chemistry.
One of the things that I'll always remember about the game is someone makes a good play,
or after, you know, you make a good play. It doesn't have to be you personally. Just
the feeling of, you know, just, you know, you're so, you're all celebrating it together.
Everybody on the team is celebrating it together.
While the game's actually going on, I think the part that I like about it the most is
when you're running, because I think once you start running and then you get momentum
on your side, then there's sort of a feeling within me and within our team that we can
pretty much do anything.
Thinking that you can pretty much do whatever you want to do at a given time, and knowing
that, boom, at a certain time you might have to do it, and believing in yourself that you
can get it done, it probably does a lot for all of us, confidence-wise, because it gives
you the confidence to know if you put your mind to it, you can succeed.
The team has played 15 games and won them all. But there is a long way to go.
Winning like you have and so easily, are you worried about maybe going through a flat period?
We just know that this is our season, you know, and we want it all, and so there's nothing
going to get in our way. The thought never crosses our mind that we're
going to lose, and honestly it doesn't cross my mind either, you know, and I'm not worried
about it. Real quick, who can beat you?
Nobody. Okay.
We can only beat ourselves. Okay, really, there's nobody left on your schedule
then that's going to... Anybody that's on our schedule can beat us
if we don't come out ready to play and do what we're capable of doing, and if we come
out ready to play and do what we're capable of, then it's on our court.
The team has played two road games in the last five days. Their record is now 20 wins,
no losses. They will play their next game here in Seattle
tonight against the University of Washington. Washington was the strongest team in the conference
when Tara took the coaching job at Stanford. They lost to Stanford by 40 points in their
first matchup this year. Washington's coach, Chris Gobrecht, has made
sports headlines in Seattle this week after saying that Stanford is at the top of her
team's hate list. The Pac-10 conference office has urged Gobrecht
to apologize to Tara for unsportsmanlike comments. Edmondson Pavilion, which holds 8,000 fans,
is sold out for the rematch, making this one of the largest attendances ever at a Pac-10
event. The event is being televised nationally. Now, this whole town is extremely excited
about Washington, and they're going to be very, very rowdy. Don't let them change your
focus from what we're here to do. Just take the crowd out right away. Come out and do
your thing. In the first half, Washington and White keep
Stanford's post players Val Whiting and Trisha Stevens off balance. At halftime, Washington
has a seven-point lead, only the second time this season that Stanford trails at the half.
In the second half, Washington continues to hold its lead. With a little over six minutes
left in the game, Stanford is down by eight points. The team fights its way back, and
with little over two minutes left in the game, Stanford is up by two. But Washington regains
the lead. With
time running out, Stanford is down by four. Then with five seconds left, Jennifer Azee
hits a three and quickly signals for a timeout. But Stanford has used up its timeouts, and
she is called for a technical foul. Washington makes both free throws and gets to take the
ball out of bounds. Stanford fouls quickly, hoping to rebound a missed free throw, race
across mid-court, and hit another three. Washington misses, but a Washington player grabs the
rebound. Stanford has lost for the first time this season.
I think they played a great game. I do not think that we showed up playing with the intensity
that we need. They didn't like getting beat by 40, and they worked very hard, and they
changed that. We've got to have people running your offense. You've got to learn from this.
You're going to have to listen and practice and do the things that all the time we're
trying to get you to do. You don't win on your terms. Do you understand what I mean?
You've got to commit to what we're doing. We're in a situation where we're hosting a regional,
and we want to be in that regional. We want to go to the Final Four. We made 8,000 people
and their fans happy. That's great. This is the middle of the season. We're working for
the NCAA. Don't get excited reading press releases or newspaper articles or any other
of that bullshit. Get the ball, go up strong, and start playing and listening and really
concentrating on the things that we need to do. I'm not discouraged. We are better than
them. We did play well tonight. We have a great team. Whether we're one, two, or three,
in the contrary in terms of any of that stuff, it doesn't matter. We know where we want to
go. Let's remember where we want to go and work hard to get there. Let's go. We're working
for the next seven games getting ready for the NCAA. Team, one, two, three. Team. Stanford's
ranking has dropped to third after the loss at Washington. Teams were intimidated by us
before, Tara tells the players. Now they're not. One, two. Julie Zylstra, the only sophomore
who starts, is playing with an inflamed Achilles tendon. Trisha Stevens has been playing with
severe tendonitis in both knees and is in constant pain. If her knees don't hold up,
a championship seems unlikely. Martha Richards' nose is broken, but she will
be back playing tomorrow. What I'd like for you to do is to fill those out. You'll find
sexy personality characteristics there. What I'd like you to do is circle each one of them
and how you view your head coach, Coach Vanderbeer. This is for thesis research. Your head coach
will receive the results from me to share with you. I feel distantly close to people
on our team. I'm the one that puts them in the game. I'm the one that has basically a
lot of power over whether they play, whether they travel, what they do. I'm best around
other people who want to be the best. I am totally into it and I love it. I'm not going
to say I don't. I do it for me. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel good when I see
our team come out and do what they're supposed to do. And if they don't, it really makes
me mad and I'll tell them. Whatever, they have to be doing it the way I want them to
do it or I'm not going to watch it. She is very concerned with our team playing
as a team and one person spoiling that. She wouldn't tolerate one person spoiling that
and people are expendable. Make adjustments. See what they're beating us with.
Not everyone enjoys playing for Tara. When Katie Stedding was moved to forward her sophomore
year to make room for Trisha Stevens at center, she was reluctant. For her, the position was
new and awkward. If someone asked me about her as a freshman,
I would just say, well, she's a good player but she whines and pouts and gets upset if
you try to correct her. She just, you know, she's hard to deal with.
When I got here, it was quite an adjustment, not just basketball but just life in general,
being on my own and stuff. And it was hard for me, really hard for me at first.
Jennifer and Katie and I were on a flight down to LA and things had not been going really
well in practice and I just said to Katie on the plane and in so many words, well, enjoy
this media day because you're not ever going to be Pac-10 again the way you're playing
and the way you're working. And she just, you know, she said to me, I might not be Pac-10
again, you know, I'll Pac-10 or whatever, but I don't think I can even stand playing
on a team that, you know, you're coaching. I think we both got pretty upset by it, you
know, and then her junior year, I think that more than anything, we worked at working together.
If I didn't start giving now, this is my last chance, you know. If I don't do it now, I
may never get another chance to be on something this wonderful.
It doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl, there's a right way to play the game.
I love Val Whiting. I mean, she just gets right into the middle and it's over.
You pass the ball head. Who should be filling in the post?
But it gets frustrating if someone is supposed to be somewhere and we do this every single
day and they're still not there.
Well, it's frustrating for us when we watch the same thing every day and we still see
it. I mean...
Jennifer didn't know what it felt like to lose until she came to Stanford. Her combined
junior high and high school career included 94 wins and one loss. Jennifer's freshman
year at Stanford, the team lost half of its games.
Jennifer puts in an additional workout every day.
You know, there are times after practice when I'm tired and I'll have to say, you know,
look, stay and shoot. You know, you're going to be glad that you did. And I think there's
something inside me that always says, you know, you have this ability. You know, why
not use it? Why not make it, you know, the best you can?
There are times when I questioned myself, why am I so interested in athletics? I do
not want a Barbie doll. I do not want all these things that I'm supposed to want as
a young girl. And then I started questioning myself a little bit, maybe. Like, am I just
different or something? You know what? Is this not normal?
That's pretty much the focus of the interview. And I'll also ask you some basic basketball
questions.
Basketball was just something that, I don't know, I just started liking. And I think I
remember liking it really in about the fourth grade. And it was really frustrating not to
have the opportunity to get the experiences that the boys had. We had no coaching. I think
that in a lot of respects, sports is one of the last bastions of a lot of male chauvinism
and sexism. And it's, you know, when you're young and you're growing up, you don't understand
those things. It's just very painful.
During the 1990 season, Tara's team has begun to outdraw the men's, but her salary of around
$65,000 a year is half the salary of the men's coach. This disparity is common across the
country and could be a violation of Title IX. But the courts have not taken a clear
stand.
Now I see it as a start of a new season for us. You know, I know you guys think I'm absolutely
crazy, but I know I wore this for the very first, very first game we had. And I thought
about it tonight and said, I'm ready for a new beginning for this team. It would be a
crime to have the talent and all the hard things that we've worked on all year go down
the tubes because we're not making the effort.
Stanford's first game since the upset is against the University of Southern California.
Stanford struggles. At the half, Stanford is ahead by only three and there is fear of
a repeat of the Washington upset.
But in the second half, Stanford pulls together and wins by twenty-six points.
It's an unusual event for the coach of the
opposing team to come to the locker room and give a talk to the players.
You did tonight what good teams do. Second half, you did what you needed to do to put
the game away. You came out like that and jumped on us. I thought you executed better.
I saw fire in people's eyes and I knew we were in trouble after about thirty-five seconds.
That's what good teams do. I haven't seen you play enough to know, do you have killer
instinct? I guess I just asked the question, do you have killer instinct? That's something
you're going to need to carry you through the rest of the way. I don't want to tell
you right now, I hope you do it. Let me ask you a question. What goals did you set for
yourself when you started the season?
Did you set that as a goal? You did set that as a goal? If you can't think it, you can't
possibly do it. So that's great. Don't think about, let's just make it to the final four.
That's the kiss of death. You think about winning it all. That's why I asked what your
goals were. Don't think about, oh, we got the regional tournament here, let's just make
it to the final four. Go for all of it. And I'll be sitting up there saying, yeah, I told
them, we're going to be there, don't worry about it. I'm going to be back.
To me, Sonia is the soul of our team. Jennifer might be the heart of our team, but Sonia
is the soul. She is what makes us go. We are not the same team without Sonia. We're above
average team without her. With her, we're a great team.
If Sonia were on another team, she'd be the player advanced for All-America consideration.
But here, she is overshadowed by her teammate and good friend, Jennifer.
It really kills me when Sonia doesn't get what she deserves. If she doesn't make the
All-Pack 10 team, or if she doesn't get the recognition she deserves, it probably hurts
me the most. It doesn't hurt her. And she just takes it in stride. She understands how
things work. Jennifer is the only returning All-American
in the country. If Stanford makes it to the NCAA finals, sports writers predict she could
be national player of the year. If she was a male athlete, she'd be a top
draft pick in the NBA, making a million dollars or more. I mean, she brings an incredible
amount to her team. She's a Magic Johnson. She's a Larry Bird. She's just, you know,
Isaiah. She, unfortunately, won't be able to do the
things that she wants to do. And maybe the way that she's going to have to channel that
is to play on the Olympics. The regular season is almost over, and the
tournament will begin in two weeks. These are the last games Jennifer and Katie will
play in college. Basketball has given me self-knowledge that
I can see the changes that I've made just in basketball. And that gives me confidence
to know that I can do things in other areas of my life. Basketball has given me ten wonderful
friends that I see every day and that I get to come out and play with.
Stanford beats UCLA, 91 to 65. California, 112 to 84.
Oregon, 75 to 45. And in the last regular season game, Oregon State, 94 to 48. The season
ending 27 wins and one loss is a new Stanford and Pacific 10 record. Stanford has reclaimed
their number two ranking in the national polls. Behind Louisiana Tech, the only team in the
country still undefeated. At this point, only one team wins the rest
of their games. We want to be really working hard. We can go to the final four. We can
win our regional championship. We can win a national championship. If people are willing
to give a little more, work a little extra hard. We need people to really get ahead in
their studying. The regionals is during finals week and I thought we had a good effort. We're
going to need more for where we want to go. There are four regionals across the country.
Stanford is seated first in the West regional, which they will host. They must win three
games to advance to the final four in Knoxville. Tara is concerned about exam pressures and
let the team get through the tournament without major injuries.
I watched these young ladies give up a lot through socially, you know, in pain. They
still practice. But the love that I feel for them, this group of girls, I mean, they were
just so unselfish and so giving, you know, something that I don't think I'll ever be
around that again. You hope you climb the mountain with them,
you know. You hope you get to the top and they get to see the view, you know, because
this is it for them. Since Tara's first Stanford games, when she
saw the bleachers empty and interest in the team almost non-existent, she has carried
a vision inside to bring the sport to a level where one night she'd look up into the highest
corners of the bleachers and see them crowded with fans. Maples Pavilion, where the team
plays, has never been sold out for a women's game until tonight.
Wherever we play, people that get a chance to watch our team will see some of the most
intense basketball they've ever seen in their life because we want it and we want it bad.
In the regional tournament, Stanford beats Hawaii by 30 points, a tough Mississippi defense
by 13, and in the regional final, a young Arkansas team by 27, a regional tournament
record. Tara describes the Arkansas win as one of the best games she has ever watched
one of her team's play. The team runs its fast break perfectly. Jennifer's full court
passes astound the crowd, and Stanford hits a regional record number of three-point shots.
It's great that we have so much support that I think we can't lose the essence of the greatness
of where we come from, just the love of the game, playing for each other and playing for
the team. While Stanford is securing its place in the final four, Virginia, Auburn, and Louisiana
Tech win the other regionals.
Stanford is on its way to Tennessee after playing in front of two sellout crowds in
a row. But as the team arrives in Knoxville, disturbing news breaks from the University
of Oklahoma. This is the first of our four press conferences today that will surround
practices here at the NCAA tournament, and we will begin. Tara, could you talk a little
bit about Oklahoma's decision to drop women's basketball and your reaction to it, and maybe
what ramifications that might have around the country? We just had a sellout crowd at
both of our regionals, just tremendous media attention, and it is something that people
on our team are going to remember for the rest of their lives, and it's such a special
experience that I really, it's really disappointing to see that women at Oklahoma won't get the
same opportunities that men will. It feels like a major slap in the face and a major
step backwards.
Women must win the semifinal game against Virginia to play for the championship on Sunday.
Tara and her assistants have watched many hours of videotape on every Virginia offense.
The press is calling Stanford's appearance at the final four a storybook ending for Jennifer
Azee. A young woman leaves a state known for its great basketball tradition to play for
a mediocre team and comes back a star. It won't be storybook, Jennifer says, unless
Stanford wins it all. Stanford leads by just a few points most of the game.
Tara tells the team at halftime, you'd better wake up or you're going to give this one
away. Val Whiting is very nervous, a freshman playing in the final four on national television.
Her shots aren't going in against Virginia, but she rebounds aggressively. And the team
gets a break. Dawn Staley, Virginia's leading scorer, is forced to sit out critical minutes
of the second half because of severe leg cramps.
The final score is Stanford 75, Virginia 66. Later that day in the other semifinal game,
a surprising upset takes place. Louisiana Tech, undefeated, ranked first in the country, loses
to Auburn. Tara will not face the team that has loomed before her all year. Now she worries
that she hasn't spent enough time scouting Auburn.
Most of the players have trouble sleeping the night before the championship game. Tara
watches videotape until the early hours of the morning. On the bus on the way to the
arena, an assistant glances over at Tara, whom she describes as looking positively ill.
Jennifer is suited up and on the court long before Auburn gets to the arena. She says
to Tara in surprise, Tara, I'm not nervous. Tara says, neither am I.
Auburn has a tough pressure defense and Stanford must break Auburn's traps. The most critical
thing Tara feels is to stop Auburn's small forward. Tara tells Katie privately, if you
let Evelyn Thompson drive left, you'll have to deal with something bigger than her scoring.
If you stop her, you stop them.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Thompson Bowling Arena in Knoxville,
Tennessee for today's women's championship game.
Again, the Oklahoma women's basketball program has been terminated. Here, the national championship,
Stanford and Auburn, we're set to go. The tip is controlled by Jennifer Azee, the player
of the year from Stanford. Sonya Henning up top, it's her own defense. Henning fires from
three. Long rebound followed by Zylsko, and she walks.
You saw all the room that they gave Sonya Henning up against. It's very traditional
for them.
Nice spin move. Thompson can't get it to go down. Stephens pulls the rebound. This is
Stanford.
Tim, I don't expect the shot clock to be much faster today.
Katie's setting for three.
Tara feels that the team comes out strong.
She's fouled.
Both of her shots are coming up short.
Nice pass inside to Henning.
She's fouled.
Katie's setting guards Thompson effectively, but Auburn's six-six center and all-American
shooting guard lead a run.
It's a chance to catch up. Hit them to see Katie sloughing off into the middle.
And with just minutes left in the half, Auburn is up by nine points. Tara, to the surprise
of some fans, doesn't take a time out.
Stanford makes a run. And at the buzzer, the score is tied 41 to 41.
As the teams head into the locker room, Tara turns to an assistant and says, 41 was my
college number. We're okay here. We're going to do it.
You know, in terms of attendance, this has been a record-breaking weekend in Knoxville,
but the success of this tournament has been tarnished just a bit by the disturbing news
out of Oklahoma.
It was just a few years ago, Oklahoma was a top 20 team. But this season, attendance
has dropped to an average of 65 fans a game. That lack of support prompted the university's
action.
Women's programs in general operated at deficit. They produce no revenue. And so you're putting
on programs that do not produce anything. So athletics is a fact. It's becoming a business.
And I don't know anybody that runs businesses that have things that definitely are money
down the drain.
Oklahoma's assertion that most women's sports lose money is correct. But contrary to public
perception, the most recent NCAA study found that almost half of Division I football programs
also lose money.
A few days after Oklahoma's announcement, the women's team would threaten a lawsuit.
Within 24 hours, the women's program was reinstated.
In the halftime locker room, Tower tells the players, you must want this game so badly
that they are not willing to work as hard as you will for it.
In the second half, Stanford takes the lead quickly, and Auburn seems unable to make another
significant run.
Auburn's defense leaves Stanford free to shoot from long range, and Jennifer and Katie hit
a tournament record number of three-point shots.
With minutes left, the team is up by 12, and Tower says to assistant Amy Tucker, we're
going to do it.
Amy points out that there is a lot of time left.
Katie Stedding is keenly aware that it's all at stake. If we let up, she thinks, it will
all be taken away.
Auburn hits a three-point shot at the buzzer, and the final score is Stanford 88, Auburn
81.
Five years after Andy Geiger hired Tara, they have their national championship.
The team broke over 100 records, 40 in the Pac-10, over 50 Stanford records, and 10 NCAA
tournament records.
Tara
would be invited to coach the US team at the World University Games, and would bring home
the gold medal.
A year later, her Stanford team would win a second national championship.
After the second championship, seven years after coming to Stanford, she would receive
a pay raise that would double her salary to make it commensurate in four years with that
of the men's coach.
Sal was voted National Freshman of the Year.
She had the fabulous college career Tara predicted for her, breaking Stanford's all-time scoring
and rebounding records, becoming a two-time All-American, and helping Stanford win its
second national championship.
Trisha Stevens had surgery on both knees shortly after the championship game, but the rehabilitation
was unsuccessful.
She played in great pain her senior year, and in the first minutes of the regional tournament
ruptured the patellar tendon in her left knee, ending her college career.
Sonya Henning never veered from her main objective, to get a college education and apply to law
school.
Her contributions as an athlete were finally acknowledged when she was named an All-American
her senior year.
Katie Stedding ended a sometimes turbulent career on warm terms with Tara, and as a key
contributor to the championship.
She played professionally in Japan until American women were banned from all Japanese leagues
in 1993.
Jennifer Aze received most of the major awards in collegiate basketball.
She went to Europe to play, in Italy one season, and then to France for two seasons.
She did not realize her dream of playing on the 1992 Olympic team.
She was one of the last three players cut from the squad during trials, along with Katie
Stedding.
After graduation, many of the best college players, like Sonya, will put the ball down.
They will walk away from the sport that has consumed most of their recreational time since
they were young girls, and they will pursue other goals.
Some women, like Jennifer and Katie, keep holding on to the dream, reaching their peak
as athletes years after playing opportunities are over in their own country.
By 1993, women's basketball at Stanford Out drew the men's program by more than 1,000
fans a game.
That year, the university announced a four-year plan to achieve equity for its women's sports
programs and is the first Division I school in the country to make such a commitment.
The players from that team think sometimes of the season they won a national championship.
I am always trying to recapture the completeness of that experience, one says, of winning as
a team.
I haven't found it again.
Sonya attended law school at Duke University in North Carolina.
Jennifer is playing professionally in Europe and has her hopes pinned on the next Olympics.
Trisha Stevens is an assistant coach at Boise State University in Idaho.
Her knees are often painful, and she now regrets playing through her injuries.
Sal was accepted to medical school, but hopes to play pro ball in Europe first.
Katie completely severed her anterior cruciate ligament while playing professionally in Spain
and had major knee surgery.
She lost her opportunity to play on the U.S. national team in the Goodwill games, but she
hopes to play in the next Olympics.
Tara was selected to represent the United States as head coach at the Goodwill games
in 1994.
She's the odds-on favorite to coach the next Olympic team.