WNBA Makes History Again With New League President

The WNBA tipped off its 15th season last night and the rest of the league's team get in the action today.  

But when Laurel J. Richie took over as the third president of the WNBA on May 16, one of the things that escaped the notice of most media outlets is that she became the first African American (male or female) to head a major American sports league.   She's not only the first African-American president of the WNBA, she's also the first one who wasn't a basketball player herself.

Richie's roots are in the business world as a veteran marketing executive who last worked as the Chief Marketing Officer of the Girl Scouts of America.    She also worked for the national advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather and developed advertising campaigns for such companies as American Express and Pepperidge Farm.

Those skills will suit her well in her current position as WNBA president.   One of the jobs she'll have will be to continue marketing of the WNBA to the mainstream sports audience.

"The WNBA is comprised of the best female basketball players in the world, and I'm looking forward to working with these talented women as they strive to achieve their professional goals both on and off the court."

 As when y'all finally get around to expansion, hope Houston's at the top of the list for cities to return to.

UH Softball Team Two Wins From 2011 Women's College World Series

The UH softball program has only been in existence for 11 years, but is on the verge of a breakthrough season in terms of becoming a nationally recognized program.   They played a tough non-conference schedule this year and compiled a 22 RPI along the way.    They were one of five teams C-USA that made it to the NCAA playoffs.   

And if anyone overlooked them, not anymore after rolling to the Austin Regional title with a 3-0 record over three ranked teams, with one of the three being softball powerhouse Texas who hosted the event..

They are one of the final sixteen teams standing along with the big girls from the SEC, PAC-10 and Big 12 after qualifying for only their second super regional in school history in the last four years.    They are the only school left from a non-power conference and the only one of the 16 teams that aren't are ranked in both the ESPN.com/USA Softball and USA Today/NFCA Coaches top 25 polls.
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The 43-16 Cougars are building toward that power team status.  They can take a giant step toward stamping the University of Houston softball program as a big name one by winning two more games and earning their first Women's College World Series berth in school history. 

The Cougars take on the Oklahoma State Cowgirls in Stillwater, OK tonight and tomorrow with the winner moving on to the WCWS. 

Will be watching to see if the Cougars can do it.

Brittney Griner In Mix For 2012 Olympic Basketball Team

As you TransGriot readers are aware of, I'm a big hoops fan, especially on the women's side.

I've been following the career of my hometown lady baller Brittney Griner ever since one of my readers told me about the viral YouTube videos of her dunking on her high school competition enroute to taking Aldine Nimitz to the Class 5A state finals a few years ago.

The evolution of Brittney continues as she along with Gonzaga point guard Courtney Vandersloot were invited to attend a recent three day training camp for the USA national squad in Las Vegas as the road to determining who will make up the 12 woman squad in London next summer starts .

She was the only collegiate player there in Vegas and bad news rest of FIBA basketball world, she is in the mix to be on either next summer's or a future final twelve woman USA Olympic b-ball squad or a USA FIBA championship team. .   

And yes, despite the rough first day of camp,  the current national squad players and coaches were excited about the prospects of Brittney's 2.08 meter frame (6' 8" inches for the metrically challenged) blocking shots and patrolling the lane for us either at the London Olympics or the 2014 FIBA world championship in Turkey


"Brittney made tremendous progress in the three days she was here," said USA coach Geno Auriemma. "The first day she was completely lost and out of it. The second day she looked like a completely different person. Each time she's together with us you'll see her get better and better and better. Her size, her length are impact things."

"She does a spin move from the free-throw line, takes one dribble and slams it with two hands," coach Jennifer Gillom said. "’I said, I’m done.’ she got my respect right away. Wow, that was amazing. I’ve never experienced anything like that with any player. That was quite impressive. This kid has a future, an unbelievable future. To think what she could become is amazing. I’m telling you, this kid is something special, very special."

"She is the most special player I’ve ever seen," Diana Taurasi said. "She will be a help in 2012. She will."

And it's going to be fun watching her play..

Canada Will Host 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup

The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup tournament kicks off in Germany June 26 and the reigning CONCACAF champion Canadian team will be playing the defending two time FIFA world champion Germans in the opening match in Berlin.

The Canadians regardless of how they fare in this 2011 event already know they have qualified for the next FIFA women's world cup tournament.

FIFA recently announced that Canada will be the host nation for the 2015 Women's World Cup event. In addition to Canada getting the automatic bid as the host nation, the women's tournament is finally being expanded from 16 to 24 teams.  


The details are still being worked out in terms of the dates (which will be June-July) and sites, but Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa, Moncton, N.B., and Halifax were the cities mentioned as potential  World Cup match sites.  Only six cities will host games at the 2015 tournament, so one city will eventually be eliminated from the potential host mix.

The cool thing is the FIFA Women's World Cup tournament will be back on the North American continent for the first time since the US hosted it in 2003 and knocked off the Canadians 3-1 in the bronze medal match.   The US hosted and won it in 1999 with that memorable shoot out over China..

If you're wondering where's Toronto in this list of cities, it wasn't included in the FIFA bid because it will be busy hosting the 2015 Pan American Games from July 10-26.

Happy that our neighbors got the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, and we look forward to playing them on their home soil four years from now.

Caster Semenya To Tackle 1500m As Well

The London Olympics will be taking place next summer, and 2009 800m world champion Caster Semenya of South Africa has decided she will attempt to go for the gold in the 1500m as well.

"I'm going for my second successive gold medal in Daegu in August," she said to the Guardian. "This will also be part of my preparations for the 2012 London Olympics. I'm looking forward to my first Olympics and the plan is to include the 1500 meters."

She's prepping for the 2011 World Championships by  not only running races in her homeland, but an upcoming May 28 event in Dakar, Senegal and the Nike Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, OR on June 4.  

The Nike Prefontaine event will be a major test as to whether Semenya is close to being back to her championship level form that shocked the world in Berlin.       

The 2011  IAAF World Championships will be held in Daegu, Korea from August 27-September 4.   I'm  hoping that after all the unnecessary drama she was put through she not only wins gold at Daegu, but I hope she does the same next summer in London as well.

Maya Goes To Minnesota

Lost in the blizzard of news I've been covering this month was the WNBA draft.   Now that they've hired a new president for the league, I'm somewhat ready to forgive them for screwing my Comets since Donna Orender resigned in December.

And who was the WNBA's overall number one pick in the draft.   Give you one guess who it was, and UConn Huskie fans can probably tell you.

Yep, it was UConn's Maya Moore, .who will be spending her WNBA summers when she's not playing for Team USA next summer in London playing for the Minnesota Lynx.