To the editor:
Not so fast, Mr. Powell.
On Jan. 21 Mr.Powell advised Athletics Director Al Bohl "to seriously look at asking Coach Washington to move on." The members of the KU Courtsiders and alumni of the KU women's basketball program are writing to express their strong support for Coach Washington and the equally strong desire to have her continue her work at KU. Mr. Powell called her an icon, and right he is.
Coach Washington has built the KU women's basketball and track programs and, at one time, administered all women's teams as former athletics director. She then established KU as a nationally recognized basketball program. During the past 15 years, she had 13 seasons with 20-plus wins, took her teams to the NCAA playoffs 11 times, and during the last six years twice to the Sweet 16. She coached three Kodak All-Americans (Woodard, Aycock, Dixon), six played in the WNBA, and numerous play now overseas. Her players study hard (3.0 and 2.88 GPAs; last two semesters) and they graduate (Raymant, Fletcher, Pruitt, Jackson, Johnson, Reves, White; last two years). She was an assistant coach for the gold medal-winning 1996 Olympics Team and led the 3,000-plus strong Black Coaches Assn. as president for two years. All of this was achieved in an environment that, most of the time, was hostile to women's sports. What do you have to show for your career, Mr. Powell?
KSU, Mr. Powell's model, had a 2-14 Big 12 season last year and a 71-76 record over the past 5 years. This compares to 5-11 and 103-42 for KU. KU won 8 of 11 games against KSU during this time. Now, after one down year, a difficult current season with young talent, and a top Big 12 recruiting class for 2002, Mr. Powell advises the athletics director to let Coach Washington "move on?" All we can say is: "You must be kidding." We are sure that Al Bohl has more respect for proven excellence than Mr. Powell gives him credit for.
We are behind Coach Washington, her staff, and her players.
Renate R. Mai-Dalton,
executive director,
KU Courtsiders
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