Sebnem Kimyacioglu and Cori Enghusen (now Korel Engin) are members of the Turkish national team that recently competed in EuroBasketWomen 2007. Unfortunately, Turkey was 1-2 in the qualifying round last week and did not advance to the quarterfinals.
Here is an interview with Seb about her EuroBasket adventure, Seb's player profile and Korel's player profile.
Christina D. Batastini and Frank J. Sheehan III were married June 29 at St. Pius V Church, Providence, by the Rev. Ken Letoile, OP. The bride is the daughter of Armand and Mary Batastini of Providence. The groom is the son of Jane Sheehan of Canton, Mass., and the late Frank Sheehan Jr.
The honor attendants for their sister were Laurie Batastini and Maria Dell’Ovo. The bridesmaids were Kara Batastini, Chandra Benton, Caroline Kautzman, Nicole Marchand and Jen Tutalo. The flower girls were Olivia Pallister and Emilia Dell’Ovo. The best man was Dan Bohane. The ushers were Armand Batastini III, brother of the bride, Tom Dempsey, Ron DeVincenzo, Joe Davis, Paul Frisone, Abbott Burrell and Scott McGowan. The ring bearer was Paul Joseph Dell’Ovo.
The bride graduated from Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif. She is the owner of Batastini School of Basketball. The groom graduated from the University of New Haven in Connecticut. He is the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach for Brown University football. They honeymooned on the Amalfi Coast in Italy and make their home in Providence.
Brooke has now played two "friendly games" in Italy. Viterbo beat Pomezia 45-43 and then Santa Marinella 73-28. In the second game, Brooke scored 23 points, and Michelle Maslowski, the other American on the team scored 24 points. They pretty much owned that game. The articles on the Viterbo website have this to say about them:
Brooke Smith ... arrived in Viterbo on Monday afternoon, but appeared already in good physical condition. Thanks above all to the defense and the initiative of the two Americans Smith and Maslowski, more and more integrated in the games and the group.It's nice to see that Brooke has started her international basketball career so well! Here is a link to the Viterbo website. Most of the information there (roster, schedule, results) is for the 2006-07 season, but hopefully that will be updated soon when the season starts. You can use Google Translate to translate the Italian information to English. The result is fairly understandable. Thanks to Anna, the Stanford WBB fan who provided the information for this post.
Katie Denny was the teaching assistant last year for Hans Steiner's Psych seminar "Mental Health in Women Athletes".
She earned her M.A. in psychology at Stanford and will apply to graduate school this year. She plans to launch a mentoring program with the Stanford women's tennis team, offering advice to student-athletes on dealing with stressful situations.
Here is the article from Stanford Magazine.
Kristen Newlin will be playing professional basketball for Botas in Adana, a large city in southeastern Turkey nineteen miles from the Mediterranean coast.
One of her teammates will be Cori Enghusen (Korel Engin). Sebnem Kimyacioglu is also playing professional basketball in Turkey, but for a different team -- Galatasaray in Istanbul.
Here is the Botas roster (New's not listed yet).
Brooke will be playing professional basketball with Viterbo, an Italian team based about 70 miles north of Rome. Here is the team roster. (There's not much more information available on-line without a subscription to Eurobasket.com)
Basketball is not Kate's only sport. She has been playing Gaelic football since she was in school.
"My sister was dating an Irish bartender for a while, and she got involved with some of his friends in Gaelic," Starbird explains, "and she told me it was a lot of fun and that I should come watch them play. I went to a tournament and watched a match, and told a basketball friend who was with me, 'Wait! We need to be out there! I could do this game.'"
Kate has been a dominant force for the Seattle Gaels women's gaelic football team the last several years, and is managing the team this year.
Here's more about Kate and football.
Jennifer Azzi was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame on April 28th, along with Will Clark, Jerry Rice, and Jerry Coleman.
Dave Albee, Marin Independent Journal columnist, attended the induction banquet, and reports:
Mill Valley resident Jennifer Azzi delivered the most eloquent and emotional acceptance speech on Thursday night at the 28th annual Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame enshrinement banquet, which attracted a record turnout for the event at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. Jerry Rice, Will Clark and Jerry Coleman were also inducted. Azzi likened the support and encouragement she has received from family, friends, coaches and teammates over the years to the interconnected roots of a redwood tree. She concluded her speech by thanking her parents ("You gave me everything"), her sister, Susanne, and asking people to pray for her 41-year-old brother-in-law, Todd Kramer, a Major in the reserves who was deployed to Iraq last week.Albee also reports:
The BASHOF banquet will be shown on KTVU Channel 2 on Sunday, May 6, at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. It's must-see TV.Here is the complete article.
By: Dave Albee, Marin Independent Journal
Brooke Smith's first day as a pro was certainly eventful.
"It's like you just wait until you're told you're drafted," said Smith, who had to wait even longer later in the day when her connecting flight home was delayed on the ground by snow in Cleveland. "I'm definitely excited about the girls I'll be playing with. They are talented and they are good people. That'll be fun." (More ...)
By: Patrick Schmiedt, Casper Star-Tribune
When Kristen Newlin saw her name pop up on the television screen -- pick No. 34 in the WNBA draft -- she had to take a moment to let it all sink in.
"It was just awesome, it was surreal," Newlin said in a telephone interview with the Star-Tribune on Wednesday. (More ...)
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.
