Anne Donovan, Basketball player- Biography
USA Basketball Player
Anne
Donovan is 6' 8" (2.03 metres) tall 6 foot 8,
Size 16 shoes
Weight, 175 pounds in 1984 180 pounds in 1988
Born November 1, 1961 in Ridgewood, New Jersey
Anne Donovan is one of the most decorated figures in women's basketball, both as a dominant player in college and as a head coach in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). With the Seattle Storm, she became the first female coach to win a WNBA title, and the only person to have both played to a national women's college title and coached a team to a professional title. She is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
After attending Paramus Catholic High School in Paramus, New Jersey, the 6' 8" Donovan was the most recruited player in the nation going into college. At Old Dominion University (ODU), the center led the Lady Monarchs to the 1979 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (this was before the NCAA sponsored the women's championship). She was the first female Naismith College Player of the Year in 1983, being the most dominant female player in college basketball at the time. She set ODU career marks for points (2,719), rebounds (1,976), and blocked shots (801), and seasonal marks for most games played (38), most minutes played (1,159), most field goals (377), and field goal percentage (.640). She averaged a double-double for her entire career, with 20 points and 14 1/2 rebounds per game.
As there were few professional opportunities for women professional basketball players, Donovan played pro ball in Shizuoka, Japan and Modena, Italy from 1983 to 1989. Upon her retirement as a player, she became an assistant coach at ODU from 1989-1995, then head coach at East Carolina University from 1995-1997.
Her coaching career moved to the pro ranks with a brief stint with the ABL's Philadelphia Rage in 1997-1998. As the ABL folded, she joined the rival WNBA, where she coached the Indiana Fever for the 2000 season, then led the Charlotte Sting to the WNBA Finals in 2001, losing to the Los Angeles Sparks.
In 2002, Donovan was hired as the second head coach of the Seattle Storm, inheriting a team with two players as dominant as she once was, the Australian Lauren Jackson and University of Connecticut star Sue Bird. In her first year, Donovan's team narrowly missed the playoffs, but in 2004, after Donovan became director of player personnel and added Betty Lennox, the Storm gave the city of Seattle its first national championship in 25 years. With Lauren Jackson their star player.
In the 2005 season, in which Donovan became the first female coach to win 100 games, the Storm made the playoffs but lost in the first round. At season's end, Donovan was given a large contract extension to keep her in Seattle for several years.
With her 120th victory on August 6, 2006, she became the coach with the third most WNBA victories, passing former Los Angeles Sparks coach Michael Cooper. She trails only Van Chancellor and Richie Adubato in victories.
A three-time Olympian, she earned gold medals in 1984 and 1988. Her team did not go to the Olympics in 1980, due to the 1980 Olympic boycott.
In January 2006, USA Basketball named Donovan head coach of the 2008 Beijing Olympics US women's team. She had been the assistant coach of the team four years earlier.
One of the highs of her career was playing the 7 foot Soviet Basketball player, Semenova, who when Donovan was standing behind her, people could not see here. Donovan enjoyed seeing how difficult it was to defend against a taller player, something she saw from the opposite view 99% of the time. But in the mid 80s, she finally got the btter of her more often, when this player started to retire.
Her family members are almost all tall, with some over 7 foot, but some down to just below 6 foot. All are good at basketball.
Her mother Ann Matthewsraised the family, as her father died when she was young, but she re-married.
Like some other but not all tall women she was self concious about her height when young, and was sometimes mocked for it, and did not like much the criousness, or the cruelness of some.
But in the end she was named one of the 100 greatest female sports figures of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated and was made national player of the year in High Schools, and most MVP, while playing in High Schools, nationally. That school achievement made her prouder of her self. She was also the first woman to win a WNBA title as coach.
She still gets fed up if people are finding her height anything other than normal..
US achievements
1988 U.S. Olympic Team 5-0 Gold
1987 USA Pan American Games
Team 4-0 Gold
1986 USA World Championship Team 7-0 Gold
1984 U.S. Olympic
Team 6-0 Gold
1983 USA World Championship Team 6-2 Silver
1983 USA Pan
American Games Team 5-0 Gold
1981 USA World University Games Team 6-1 . Silver
1980 U.S. Olympic Team DNC
1979 U.S. Olympic Festival East Team 4-0 Gold
1978 U.S. Olympic Festival East Team 4-0 Gold
1977 USA R. William Jones
Cup Team 3-4 Fifth
This site was
written in December 2006.
Pictures of Anne Donovan
Sitting almost to the same height as slightly above average woman's height Sue Bird
Picture of her towering at a award ceremony
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