Torchbearer: Summer 1997

Catchin' Up With the Lady Vols

By Yvonne Loveday

While the Lady Vols won't be back on the home court until fall, summer isn't slack time for the five-time NCAA women's basketball champions.

Some players are working hard in summer semester classes. Others are negotiating future contracts or chasing the ball in other parts of the world.

All America Chamique Holdsclaw, voted the Final Four most outstanding player and called "the most gifted collegian in the country" by the New York Times, in June returned from a month of international games in Canada and Europe, said Debby Jennings, UT assistant athletic director for media relations.

Holdsclaw, along with former Lady Vols Michelle Marciniak ('96) and Tonya Edwards ('90), are members of the USA National Team. Next on the schedule is the Americas World Championship Qualifying Tournament, which will take place later this summer in Puerto Rico or Brazil.

Veteran players Abby Conklin ('97) and Pashen Thompson, who graduates in August, have both been drafted by the American Basketball League. As of June, Conklin was in negotiations with the Atlanta Glory ball team and Thompson with the Seattle Reign.

Even the Lady Vols 1997-98 signees, considered the best recruiting class in the country, aren't wasting any time. Tamika Catchings of Duncanville, Texas, Kristen "Ace" Clement of Philadelphia, Teresa Jeter of Columbia, S.C., and Semeka Randall of Cleveland, Ohio, began the summer at tryouts for the Women's Junior National Basketball Team (ages 19 and under) in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Rising sophomore Tyra Elzy was there as well.

No moss is growing under Coach Pat Head Summitt either. She is running three basketball camps this summer, one weekend camp for high school position players and two week-long commuter and overnight camps for girls ages 10-18.

The camps have attracted 700 to 800 girls each.

The Lady Vols celebrate after their victory over Old Dominion in the national championship game.