Nationally-renowned coach to present on “Women in Sports”
Women’s National Basketball Association WNBA Minnesota Lynx basketball coach Cheryl Reeve will be on campus Dec. 10 to give a presentation called “Women in Sports.”
The event will be held in Viking Theater at 7 p.m., and is hosted by the Leraas Fund, the women’s studies and exercise science departments and the social sciences faculty.
Religion professor Edmund Santurri, who currently co-teaches “Sports Ethics in Society,” arranged Reeve’s visit. Santurri said that it is important for the St. Olaf community to have a discussion about women in sports because “it’s a matter of gender equity and social justice.” He and his wife are Lynx season ticket holders and have attended two post-game press conferences.
Reeve is in her fourth season as the head coach of the Lynx. The team is coming off of a good season in which it lost in the WNBA title game to the Indiana Fever. In 2011, Reeve guided the team to a 27-7 record and the WNBA title. She also won WNBA titles as a member of the Detroit Shock coaching staff in 2006 and 2008.
Before coming to the WNBA, Reeve spent 12 years coaching collegiate women’s basketball, of which five years were spent at Indiana State. She helped the team reach its first post-season berth in 20 years in 1999. As a collegiate player herself at La Salle University, Reeve was an All-Metro Atlantic conference and All-Big Five selection as a senior in 1988. Her 110 starts rank first in school history.
Reeve graduated from La Salle with a degree in computer science/management information systems and went on to get her master’s degree in business administration. She was also a Rhodes Scholar nominee.
Santurri said he hopes Reeve’s presentation will address some of the current ethical issues surrounding women’s sports, such as whether the selection process of the next U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team coach should be gender-blind, given the enormous successes of female coaches in recent years.
“[Reeve] is dynamic, charismatic, forceful and has the respect of her players and assistant coaches,” Santurri said. “We have been impressed by her commanding presence, her knowledge of the game and her leadership capacities.”
Overall, Santurri described Reeve as “a model for women aspiring to success in any profession.” Meanwhile, he encourages males, as well as females, to attend the presentation.
ripperge@stolaf.edu
