Brooke and New selected in WNBA draft

Brooke and New were selected in the WNBA draft today -- Brooke in the second round by the Minnesota Lynx and New in the third round by the Houston Comets. Here is the story from GoStanford.com Here are the complete WNBA draft picks Here is Michelle Voepel's story about the draft.

A letter & pictures from Krista

Hej FBC members!! (hej = hi!) How are you? You must be having fun cheering on the team this PAC-10 season! Wish I could be there to cheer too (well actually, I wish I could still be playing with them!). Nothing beats Stanford basketball! You are truly part of something special!! I thought it would be fun to give you an update about what I’ve been up to and perhaps see if you might be willing to be involved in a future adventure of mine. As you know (or might not), I’m currently in Sweden playing basketball for 08 Stockholm Human Rights . We travel throughout Sweden playing games in the Swedish national league. We are one game behind the league-leaders and every game from now until playoffs is very important. Swedish basketball is different from American basketball, but the ball is still round, bounces, and seems to find its way into the net (most of the time!). Even though nothing will ever compare to my time at Stanford, I’m having fun with my team and grateful for the opportunity to still be playing! While living in Stockholm, I’ve also had the tremendous opportunity to conduct research in the Bacteriology Department at the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control. I’m learning lots of new lab techniques and I get to work with strains of bacteria that cause pneumonia! Additionally, I’ve been able to shadow physicians at Karolinska Hospital (thanks to the help of Dr. Lambert, the Stanford team physician), coach basketball for children, and I’m hoping soon to begin teaching English in the schools. Yes, I’m keeping busy – but I love how each day brings something new! Basketball has really enabled me the chance to live in another country, and God certainly has provided me with lots more opportunities to get involved with other activities I love too! This coming April, after my team here advances as far as possible in the playoffs (and Stanford makes a special appearance in Cleveland!), I am going to participate in a 10-day basketball tour of Turkey with a Christian basketball team sponsored by Athletes-in-Action (AIA), the athletic ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC). Our team will be working with AIA/CCC in-country staff to help build relationships with basketball players, fans, coaches, and officials to help their ministries through conversations, games, and basketball clinics. I have always wanted a chance to combine two of my loves, God and basketball; now, I have the chance to do it! I wanted to let you know about this specific opportunity, in hopes that you might be willing to support this passion of mine. The team is made possible by those people willing to invest in this ministry, and thereby become a part of our team as we travel and compete. Each member of our team is asked to raise $3,000, which is a portion of the team’s goal. You have already provided me with so much support and encouragement during my time at Stanford, and the last thing I want to do is ask for more; however, because you care so much, I thought I would just tell you about this adventure in hopes that you might want to help. If you would be interested in helping me raise my portion of the team’s goal or if you just want to hear some more stories about my time here in Sweden, I would love for you to contact me (all the info is below!). Whether it is getting to play basketball here in Europe, volunteering in a research lab, or coaching kids during gym class, Stanford has impacted all of these experiences. My Stanford education – in the classroom, on the court, and off the court too! – has armed with the skills and support to go out and explore the world! And, yes, for all of you wondering about me and med school… I still VERY much cannot wait to start! I’m working on my application now, hoping that I will be accepted somewhere (maybe Stanford?!), and ideally will start my first class in the fall of 2008. Katie Denny and I visited Susan and Curtis Borchardt to celebrate New Year’s in Granada, Spain! We made a roadtrip to Madrid, toured around Granada, played with Sammy (their dog), watched Curtis play a terrific game, and – yes, of course - were led in challenging workouts by Susan! (see pictures below) I really do hope to hear back from you! Tack så mycket (thank you very much!). GO CARDINAL!! Hej då, Krista Rappahahn Contact Information: Email Blog Swedish address: Hökens Gata 3 116 46 Stockholm Sweden *** If you are interested in investing in my AIA Turkey adventure, please email me for more details about getting the check where it needs to go and so that I can give you a BIG thanks! ***

Azzi moves to Mill Valley

By: Dave Albee, Marin Independent Journal The magnificent view from Jennifer Azzi's new hillside home overlooking Tam Valley in Mill Valley is expansive, which is just perfect for her. She's a big-picture person. Why? "Why not Marin? It's one of the most beautiful places on the planet," Azzi said from her living room. "I've lived in Europe. I've lived in a lot of cities in the U.S. and grew up in the South and been all over the place and I really fell in love with the Bay Area. For me, this is so much my personality. There is, what, 80 percent open space here and I am in heaven discovering the trails. I think it is like the way life should be." (More ... )

Alumni in Europe in 2006-07

Bethany Donaphin is playing for Famila Basket Schio, in northern Italy east of Milan. This is Bethany's third season with Famila Schio. She played in Turkey and Italy in the prior two years. Nicole Powell is playing for Halcon Avenida in Salamanca, Spain. Nicole played in Turkey and Spain in the prior two years. Sebnem Kimyacioglu is playing for Besiktas in Istanbul. This is her second year with that team. One of her teammates is Sheri Sam, who you may remember from the ABL. Cori Enghusen is playing for Botas in Adana, a large city in southeastern Turkey nineteen miles from the Mediterranean coast. Cori played for a different Turkish team in the prior two years. Enjoli Izidor is playing for Migros in Istanbul. In prior years, she played for a different Turkish team and in Greece. Krista Rappahahn is playing for 08 Stockholm in Sweden. One of her teammates is Erin Grant, who graduated from Texas Tech last year.

Azzi Changed Our Way of Thinking About Women's Basketball

By: Ann Killion, Mercury News Can one naive teenager change the mindset of an entire region? You bet. Beginning 20 years ago, Jennifer Azzi changed the way the Bay Area thought about women's basketball. Azzi, who will be inducted into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame tonight, turned the Bay Area into a hot spot. She helped change the way people thought about basketball. About women's team sports. Maybe even about women. "It always felt like it was about more than just basketball," said Azzi, 38. "Basketball was a vehicle to change perceptions about women." First came the coach. Tara VanDerveer arrived from Ohio State in 1985, ready to change things. But to do it, she needed a player. Not just any player, but a star to build around. "One person does make a difference," VanDerveer said. "What Jennifer brought was exactly what we needed." Her staff scoured the country and found Azzi. A hard-nosed, competitive, charismatic point guard who had the grades to get into Stanford and the desire to leave home. Which just happened to be in Tennessee -- one of the nation's true hotbeds for women's basketball. That Tennessee mindset was an important attribute that Azzi brought to Stanford. Fortunately for VanDerveer, Pat Summitt wasn't interested in Azzi. "They said they had an extra scholarship if I wanted it," Azzi said. "But I didn't feel like they wanted me to come there. And I never wanted to go there. I wanted a different experience." She wanted adventure and academics. And she just assumed that -- no matter where she went -- people would like to watch women's basketball. "We had 20,000 fans at our state tournament," she said. "I grew up in that atmosphere." The first time she got on an airplane was her recruiting trip to Stanford. The first time she set foot in California was that trip. She didn't have any second thoughts, no concerns about homesickness or adjustments. "I'm blessed sometimes with not being very realistic," Azzi said. "It didn't hit me until I got there, my first night in the dorm." That wasn't the only adjustment, when she arrived in 1986. When the team played, they didn't pull out the bleachers. No one came to the games. The team was terrible. "It was pretty depressing," she said. Azzi called her father and said she wanted to come home. He said he'd come and get her, but to get a good airfare he needed to purchase something a month in advance. Meantime, he wrote her every day. "By the time he came out, I was fine," she said. Except for the basketball part. One night after a loss, Azzi sat in darkened Maples Pavilion by herself, wondering what she'd committed herself to and despairing. Also sitting in the dark, having similar thoughts, was her coach. VanDerveer moved next to Azzi and told her, "Picture this place full. Picture us selling out by your senior year. Now picture us winning the national championship. Can you do that?" Azzi, still not very realistic, told her coach, "Sure." "I'd seen 10,000 fans at high school games," Azzi remembered. "Why not here? Why can't we make that happen?" Azzi helped make it happen. She and her teammates papered the dorms with fliers. She helped recruit other key players, such as Sonja Henning. Fans started to come. Victories started to pile up. "It was an obsession almost," she said. "We were so passionate about it." She made the Bay Area notice. She ran VanDerveer's up-tempo offense and embodied the coach's mantra of selling the sport every time she took the court. By Azzi's junior year, the team won the Pac-10 title and she was the league's player of the year. By her senior year, Maples was sold out. Azzi was the Naismith player of the year. And the team won the NCAA championship, in Azzi's home state. Azzi graduated in 1990. She was a member of the national-team pool and in 1995 was reunited with VanDerveer, who took a sabbatical from Stanford to coach the Olympic team. After the triumphant Atlanta Olympics -- where the team won the gold medal -- Azzi and a handful of other stars helped launch the American Basketball League. Azzi played for the Lasers at the Event Center at San Jose State. "That was my favorite 2 1/2 years of my career," she said. "I remember seeing people lined up around the Event Center on opening night. It was amazing what we had accomplished." But the ABL eventually folded because of stiff competition from the WNBA. Azzi played for the WNBA, in Detroit, Utah and San Antonio. She retired in 2004. Now she does public speaking and continues a relationship with the NBA. She's moving back to the Bay Area from Utah -- recently closing on a house in Mill Valley. She's sad that the excitement about women's sports that peaked in the late 1990s has died down. She's concerned that players don't realize they still have to sell the game. "I wonder if we've gotten a little bit lax," she said. "Each person has to earn their own respect." She'd love to see the Bay Area become home to a WNBA team, building around a local name such as -- for instance -- Candice Wiggins. For now, Azzi plans to catch some games as a fan at Maples, where the Cardinal will be putting together a run it hopes ends at the Final Four. Azzi can sit in the bleachers -- which will be pulled out and packed. And she can witness what she helped start two decades ago.

Paccione Concedes Loss, May Try Again

By: Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News FORT COLLINS — Angie Paccione, who fought a spirited uphill battle in a district that has not elected a Democrat since 1970, acknowledged defeat shortly after noon today outside her campaign headquarters. The winner, Marilyn Musgrave, retained the Congressional seat with just over 7,000 votes. The loser offered a gracious speech and the victor remained out of public view today, long after Marilyn Musgrave was established as a narrow winner in Colorado's 4th Congressional District. Musgrave, who won by about 7,000 votes, had no plans to meet with reporters until Democratic challenger Angie Paccione acknowledged defeat, according to a Musgrave campaign spokesman. Paccione, who had fought a spirited uphill battle in a district that has not elected a Democrat since 1970, did so shortly after noon today outside her campaign headquarters. Paccione, who has served two terms in the state House representing Colorado's District 53, also said she will consider another bid for the seat Musgrave will now occupy for a third two-year term. "I think we have a great shot at it" in 2008, said Paccione, who spoke with a few dozen staff, volunteers and friends looking on. "I think the trend is certainly moving in the right direction." Musgrave won her seat by 13 percentage points in 2002, and 6 percentage points in 2004. It wasn't until about 4 a.m. today that she realized she wouldn't be the winner, Paccione said. "I went to bed about 5 a.m., and then I only tossed for a while" before getting back up to face a disappointing morning after. Paccione and Musgrave, and independent committees supporting them, spent about $8 million on the race. Paccione said the outcome might have been different, had the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee thrown money into her contest sooner. The DCCC did so only in the final days, with an anti-Musgrave ad for which they paid $500,000. "Next time around I would certainly try to have buy-in earlier, from the DCCC," said Paccione. Also, she credited the Republican Party's efficiency at encouraging early voters and promoting the use of absentee ballots. "We need to match that," Paccione said. Paccione's immediate plans are to take what she said would be her first vacation in several years, and then turn her attention to studying Tuesday's voting trends more closely, with an eye toward deciding on a second run for Musgrave's seat in 2008.

Debi Gore-Mann is a Bright Addition to USF Athletics

By: Janie McCauley, Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO - The main door to Debi Gore-Mann's office is usually open, and there's a comfy couch and a jar of candy on the desk. The University of San Francisco's energetic new athletic director has made this an inviting place, a rare bright spot in the basement of Memorial Gym. So far, Gore-Mann has been an equally bright addition to a school striving to get the Dons back on the national map the way they were when Bill Russell and K.C. Jones starred for the basketball team a half-century ago. "Really, the only long-term goal is winning, and winning with integrity," she said. "We want to be champions or near champions without tipping the field in our favor. College sports, it's so pure. Your career in some cases can hinge on a 19-year-old." USF hired Gore-Mann away from Stanford in July, making her the first female athletic director in school history and only the third ever in the West Coast Conference. She knows of only two other black women ADs in the country, though the NCAA doesn't track race. Gore-Mann loves it when athletes or coaches come by and plop down to take a load off or share what's on their mind. She even painted the walls white, covering up the aging wood paneling, and replaced a large conference table with the sofa. Anything to rid the room of potential barriers. "It was more like a lodge. I guess that door hasn't been open in like 20 years," she said. "The first day I was like, 'Boom' and I opened this door. For me, I've got to have an open-door policy." Everybody has noticed how approachable she is. Gore-Mann sees her coaches in the mailroom and invites them to stop by for an informal chat. She was all for her staff dressing up for Halloween and acknowledges that ideas sometimes come to mind while she's at home baking cookies. "At the end of the day, we work with 18- to 22-year-olds," she said. "We're not IBM. We deal with young people. We need to keep it fun." Once a staunch business woman, the 46-year-old Gore-Mann has an upbeat, outgoing personality and a refreshing blend of humility and competitive fire. She has been a sought-after executive in athletics almost from the first day she set foot on Stanford's campus again in 1999. She played basketball for the Cardinal from 1978-82. "She's very bright and extremely hardworking," said Ted Leland, the former Stanford athletic director now working at Pacific. "She has a passion for sports. I thought she really had leadership potential. She has a certain effervescence in her personality." Leland hired Gore-Mann, who has a master's degree in business administration from Stanford, away from Bechtel Enterprises, Inc., a premier engineering, construction and project management company. He'd heard about her from some alumni. "After the first 15 minutes, I thought it was a deal I had to make," he said. "She was an ex-athlete with an MBA and had worked on Wall Street." Gore-Mann served as senior associate athletic director and senior women's administrator at Stanford and the Cardinal won 14 Division-I national titles during her tenure. At USF, Gore-Mann replaced Bill Hogan, who left the Hilltop after 15 years to take the same position at Seattle University. The Dons are coming off the most successful spring sports season in school history, highlighted by the baseball team's first NCAA regional berth. "I will be transparent and honest," she said. "I have no secrets with my coaches." In the mid-1950s, San Francisco won consecutive NCAA titles basketball championships. The Dons have a talented men's team this season that is counting on improved camaraderie and staying healthy to make them a contender in the WCC, which has been dominated by Gonzaga for most of the last decade. Gore-Mann already had been commuting from Oakland to her alma mater, so now her drive is a shorter one. "We've got some new energy with our new athletic director," said first-year USF women's basketball coach Tanya Haave. "And she's a ballplayer, which is great." Gore-Mann's husband, Anthony, attended USF and played basketball for the Dons. The couple has a 10-year-old daughter, Quinci. Finding a school in an urban, diverse setting was paramount before Gore-Mann was going to leave Stanford. She became the second woman in recent years to leave Stanford for an athletic director job. Cheryl Levick accepted an AD job at Santa Clara before taking over at Saint Louis University. "I hope she does a good job," longtime Stanford women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer said of Gore-Mann. "It does say something that two women left Stanford and became athletic directors." While Gore-Mann realizes she is definitely in the minority as a black woman running a college athletic department, she doesn't make an issue of it. Others, she says, paved the way. "It's still a small number," she said. "I don't think about it. I just do the job. I know there are women who have come before me and it wasn't like that, and I respect that completely. I don't want to make it seem like 'Gee, it's so easy.' They are the women who paid the dues so that it is easy, that people are respectful."

Rappahahn's Playing Days Aren't Over Yet

By Vickie Fulkerson, [Connecticut] Day Writer Krista Rappahahn wants to be a doctor — and she will be someday. For now, she still has the opportunity to be a basketball player. “Everybody I talked to was very positive and encouraging,” said Rappahahn, who graduated from Stanford University in the spring following a four-year career with the Cardinal women's basketball team. “This time last year, I didn't think this was necessarily possible.” Rappahahn, a former all-state selection at Norwich Free Academy and a native of Lebanon, will leave Sunday to play professionally in Sweden, making a six-month commitment to compete for Stockholm 08 of the Obol Basketball League. Rappahahn, a 6-foot guard, started 28 games for Stanford last season, averaging 8.9 points and 2.2 rebounds per game with 40 assists and 21 steals as the team went 26-8 overall and came one win from reaching the Final Four in Boston. She was named the winner of the Donald Kennedy Award, which is presented to the Stanford senior athlete who best exhibits the combination of excellent academics, strong athletic ability and a commitment to community service, and was a Pac-10 first-team All-Academic pick for the second straight season. Rappahahn finished as the runner-up at the ESPN College 3-Point Championship at the men's Final Four in Indianapolis. “I'm so excited,” said Rappahahn, 22, who hired an agent over the summer. “At the end of last year I was debating doing different things, going straight into medically related jobs. But you can only play basketball for so long, so I decided when an opportunity in Stockholm came up.” Rappahahn, who will leave for Stockholm from San Francisco, remained in California over the summer, she said in a telephone interview Wednesday, and was able to shadow doctors at the children's hospital at Stanford. She trained in Palo Alto, using the Stanford facilities and engaged in a few pickup games with her former teammates. As part of her contract in Sweden, Rappahahn said, she is set to coach a high school or middle school team there. Through a contact at Stanford who went to medical school in Sweden, she also hopes to be able to job-shadow doctors while in the country — and to learn Swedish. Rappahahn will be playing on the same team as former Texas Tech point guard Erin Grant. The Stockholm regular season begins Oct. 24 and the exhibition season has already begun, but because Rappahahn can only stay six months, she was forced to join the team already in progress. Rappahahn can't wait. “I have all these things I want to do, right? I'm trying to choose,” she said with a laugh. A human biology major who would like to become a pediatrician, Rappahahn scored 2,048 points to become NFA's all-time leading scorer, took the Wildcats to four straight state championship games, winning three, and finished with a career record of 106-2. She was named Connecticut's Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior in 2002.

Angie Paccione Played Like a Guy

By:Keith Goldberg, [New York] Times Herald-Record
August 8, 2006

The biggest compliment Angie Paccione ever got on a basketball court came in the fifth grade. Paccione was playing a CYO Christmas tournament at St. Joseph's Church in New Windsor. She was just named the tournament MVP, when a man came down from the stands and walked over to her.

"You play like a guy," the man said.
"That opened my eyes," Paccione, now 46, recalls.

"My whole life is from my commitment to basketball," Paccione says. "I squeezed everything I could out of basketball." (More ...)

Note: Angie is running for the U. S. Congress. You can find news of her campaign at Angie's Congressional Campaign site.

10th Anniversary of USA Basketball's Olympic Gold

From: USA Basketball August 7, 2006 When an athlete is presented with the rare opportunity to help change the perception of the sport they play, rarely will that opportunity be passed by. That was the opportunity 11 American women were given in 1995 to help change the perception of women's basketball in the United States. (More ...) By: Mechelle Voepel, ESPN.com August 8, 2006 ... And it was 10 years ago this summer that the U.S. national team proved that the money, effort, care and time invested in it was worthwhile, winning gold in the Atlanta Olympics before huge crowds. (More ...)