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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Courting success
Georgetown program links legal community with basketball student-athletes
Georgetown program links legal community with basketball student-athletes
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By Leilana McKindra
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
The Georgetown University women’s basketball team recently executed a give-and-go of a different kind that not only netted the Hoyas a new crop of fans, but also helped student-athletes catch a glimpse of their future.
The Hoyas scored big after hosting a fantasy camp/adult skills clinic in January for the Get in the Game Lady Lawyers Basketball League. The league began two years ago as a student club at Georgetown’s school of law and has since grown into a national nonprofit organization of women attorneys, law students and friends. The club offers weekly basketball leagues and tournaments to promote the benefits of physical activity, networking and camaraderie for women in the legal community. Currently, about 450 women of various experience and ability compete regularly in the organization’s two primary hubs of Washington, D.C., and California.
Lady Lawyers League founder and executive director Lindsay Amstutz proposed the fantasy camp/adult skills clinic as a way of introducing Washington, D.C., area women to Georgetown women’s basketball while sharpening their basketball skills. The Hoyas readily agreed.
The Georgetown squad was an obvious pick, Amstutz said. Not only had the league been initiated at the school, but the team and the organization had already established a relationship after several Georgetown players and former assistant coach Beth Dickinson guided league participants in a beginner’s clinic before the organization’s inaugural tournament last April.
In January, the entire women’s basketball squad and coaching staff, including Georgetown head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy, was on hand to lead the four dozen league members who jumped at the chance to brush up on old skills and maybe develop a few new ones. Players and participants quickly bonded while navigating through various skill stations before closing with a 3-on-3 tournament and a game of 5-on-5, both of which featured the Georgetown student-athletes as head coaches.
More than just a chance to share their skills, Dickinson said the experience was an excellent opportunity for players to meet other successful, professional women, network and to begin thinking about their own professional careers.
“Our players overachieved. From the shyest to the most talkative player on the team, everybody was talking to somebody,” she said. “I had to pull them away.”
League participants were equally pumped about the interaction, said Jennifer Schwab, director of the D.C. branch of the league. “Everyone left on a high,” she said. “One of the law students said, ‘These are our girls.’ She used that phrase and it really caught in my mind.”
It caught on with others as well. In addition to new skills and new friends, camp/clinic participants also earned an invitation to the Hoyas’ next home game. Thanks to a strong promotional push by league organizers, more than 80 participants attended the game and a reception that followed. League members continued to support the program for the remainder of the season.
“We always knew we’d have some of them in the stands,” Dickinson said of the team’s newest supporters. “This opened up their world. Our players are getting an opportunity to see a world outside of basketball. It’s bigger than just bouncing a ball for four years.”
The Hoyas showed their appreciation and thanks by naming the Lady Lawyers League as “fans of the year” at the team’s annual awards banquet.
Amstutz, who thinks the future is bright for events to be sponsored by both the women’s basketball team and the Lady Lawyers League, hopes the newly established tie to Georgetown basketball will lead league participants to regularly attend Hoya games or, even better, become season-ticket holders.
The league, which plans to expand across the country and encourage more women’s basketball teams to become involved, has taken the model established at Georgetown to the Women’s National Basketball Association and has enjoyed clinics with the Washington Mystics and Los Angeles Sparks.
“I hope it gets to the point — especially if we do this with lots of different teams — where it generates another fan base among professional, successful women who may not support women’s athletics now, but will with a bit of encouragement,” said Amstutz.
Ultimately, Dickinson said, the experience was much larger than the clinic and far exceeded her expectations. “It was about the friendships the league is going to have in our program for years because they feel a bond toward us just like we feel a bond toward them.”
Plans are already underway for next year’s camp/clinic.
The Hoyas scored big after hosting a fantasy camp/adult skills clinic in January for the Get in the Game Lady Lawyers Basketball League. The league began two years ago as a student club at Georgetown’s school of law and has since grown into a national nonprofit organization of women attorneys, law students and friends. The club offers weekly basketball leagues and tournaments to promote the benefits of physical activity, networking and camaraderie for women in the legal community. Currently, about 450 women of various experience and ability compete regularly in the organization’s two primary hubs of Washington, D.C., and California.
Lady Lawyers League founder and executive director Lindsay Amstutz proposed the fantasy camp/adult skills clinic as a way of introducing Washington, D.C., area women to Georgetown women’s basketball while sharpening their basketball skills. The Hoyas readily agreed.
The Georgetown squad was an obvious pick, Amstutz said. Not only had the league been initiated at the school, but the team and the organization had already established a relationship after several Georgetown players and former assistant coach Beth Dickinson guided league participants in a beginner’s clinic before the organization’s inaugural tournament last April.
In January, the entire women’s basketball squad and coaching staff, including Georgetown head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy, was on hand to lead the four dozen league members who jumped at the chance to brush up on old skills and maybe develop a few new ones. Players and participants quickly bonded while navigating through various skill stations before closing with a 3-on-3 tournament and a game of 5-on-5, both of which featured the Georgetown student-athletes as head coaches.
More than just a chance to share their skills, Dickinson said the experience was an excellent opportunity for players to meet other successful, professional women, network and to begin thinking about their own professional careers.
“Our players overachieved. From the shyest to the most talkative player on the team, everybody was talking to somebody,” she said. “I had to pull them away.”
League participants were equally pumped about the interaction, said Jennifer Schwab, director of the D.C. branch of the league. “Everyone left on a high,” she said. “One of the law students said, ‘These are our girls.’ She used that phrase and it really caught in my mind.”
It caught on with others as well. In addition to new skills and new friends, camp/clinic participants also earned an invitation to the Hoyas’ next home game. Thanks to a strong promotional push by league organizers, more than 80 participants attended the game and a reception that followed. League members continued to support the program for the remainder of the season.
“We always knew we’d have some of them in the stands,” Dickinson said of the team’s newest supporters. “This opened up their world. Our players are getting an opportunity to see a world outside of basketball. It’s bigger than just bouncing a ball for four years.”
The Hoyas showed their appreciation and thanks by naming the Lady Lawyers League as “fans of the year” at the team’s annual awards banquet.
Amstutz, who thinks the future is bright for events to be sponsored by both the women’s basketball team and the Lady Lawyers League, hopes the newly established tie to Georgetown basketball will lead league participants to regularly attend Hoya games or, even better, become season-ticket holders.
The league, which plans to expand across the country and encourage more women’s basketball teams to become involved, has taken the model established at Georgetown to the Women’s National Basketball Association and has enjoyed clinics with the Washington Mystics and Los Angeles Sparks.
“I hope it gets to the point — especially if we do this with lots of different teams — where it generates another fan base among professional, successful women who may not support women’s athletics now, but will with a bit of encouragement,” said Amstutz.
Ultimately, Dickinson said, the experience was much larger than the clinic and far exceeded her expectations. “It was about the friendships the league is going to have in our program for years because they feel a bond toward us just like we feel a bond toward them.”
Plans are already underway for next year’s camp/clinic.
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