Small World: Team USA Women's Basketball Coach Has Cheering Section in Du Quoin and Pinckneyville
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Literally a world apart for the next 10 days, Team USA women's basketball coach Anne Donovan can say three of her biggest fans live in Du Quoin and Pinckneyville.
Ron Mann of Du Quoin and Brenda Epplin of Pinckneyville are first cousins to Donovan, one of America's premier athletes and coaches.
Monday night, the USA Olympic women's basketball team jumped on host country China (1-1) early and rode a 23-0 first quarter run to an easy 108-63 win at Wukesong Arena in Beijing, China.
Brother and sister Ron and Brenda routinely attended Anne's games when her Seattle Storm WNBA team came to Indianapolis. A third sibling, Pat Padree of Oklahoma, tried to get Brenda to go to Beijing to watch Team USA play.
A short family history: Ron, Brenda and Pat's father--Clarence Mann--was the brother to Anne's mother, Anna Mae.
"She (Anne) came to our wedding in 1975," Mrs. Ron Mann remembers. "She is so down to earth," says Mrs. Epplin. "She is very friendly."
They all stay in touch every year or two and celebrate Anne's success.
Donovan, who graced the sport of women's basketball from 1979 to1983, helping the Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Va.) Lady Monarchs to a national championship in 1980 and two more "Final Four" appearances during her four years this year received an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award.
A native of Ridgewood, NJ, Anne was one of the most highly recruited high school players in the nation. A graduate of Paramus Catholic, the 6-8 center earned Parade Player-of-the-Year honors in 1979 before signing with ODU.
As the tallest player in the women's game, Anne quickly made her presence known both on and off the court. She was recognized by virtually every post season and All-American squad in the nation during her ODU career, earning Kodak All-American honors for three years and Academic All-American honors for two straight seasons. Her honors culminated in 1983 with her selection as the Naismith Trophy winner as the national Player-of-the-Year which was selected by coaches and awarded an NCAA post-graduate scholarship for her academic achievements. Anne became the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in ODU history with 2,719 points and 1,976. She is still the NCAA's all-time shot blocker with 801.
As an ambassador for her sport, Anne achieved international notoriety as a member of the gold medal United States basketball team in the 1984 Olympics and she continued to play with the national team through the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea.
Anne returned to her alma mater, Old Dominion, in 1987 as a part-time assistant basketball coach, following five years of competition in Japan. She was later elevated to full-time assistant and remained at ODU until 1997. Donovan also served as head coach at East Carolina University, the Philadelphia Rage of the short-lived ABL, interim head coach with the Indiana Fever (where Ron and Brenda say they were treated like Royalty when Anne served as head coach) of the WNBA and in 2001 became the head coach of the Charlotte Sting. In 2001, Donovan led the Sting to the WNBA finals and in 2002 won the WNBA Eastern Conference title. In 2003, Donovan moved west to Seattle as its head coach, leading the Storm to the WNBA title in 2004.
Brenda laughs and says her treatment at the Indiana games went south as Anne became Indiana's rival coach instead of Indiana head coach.
On Jan. 12, 2006 Donovan was named head coach of the USA Basketball Senior National team. The squad qualified for the Olympic games in Beijing, China with a 101-71 win over Cuba last month in Chile. Donovan has served as an assistant coach for USA Basketball during its gold medal wins in the FIBA World Championships in 1998 and 2002 as well as the Olympic games in 2004.