YWCA Greensboro Third Annual Girls and Women In Sports Awards Dinner

YWCA Greensboro Third Annual Girls and Women In Sports Awards Dinner

Olympic Gold Medalist Caroline Lind(daughter of former Duke basketball star Fred Lind) will be the guest speaker at the awards dinner. Caroline Lind is also herself a Page Pirate grad and a former member of the girl’s basketball team at Page.

YWCA Greensboro will honor girls and women in sports on Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at the NC A&T Alumni Foundation Event Center on Benbow Road. Olympic Gold Medalist and Greensboro native Caroline Lind will be the guest speaker. Individual tickets are $40; table sponsorship is $750. Tickets can be purchased at the YWCA located just behind the downtown public library. See Mildred Powell when you stop in to purchase your tickets.

The Kay Yow Outstanding Female in Sports Award will be presented to a Guilford County female who has made significant contributions in the area of women and girls in sports in the tradition of Coach Kay Yow.
There will be five additional awards presented: three athletic awards for girls K-8th grade, girls 9th-12th grade and college students and above; Community leader in sports and Coach/Teacher in sports.

Kay Yow, one of the most admired and respected coaches on the national and international scenes was a native of Gibsonville, North Carolina.

Yow’s accomplishments have never gone unnoticed. She was named national Coach of the Year eight times by various organizations, including the John and Nellie Wooden Association, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and the Women’s Basketball Coach Association. NC State’s 31-year head coach was a member of seven halls of fame, including the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame, Elon College Hall of Fame, Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, Fellowship of Christian Athletes Hall of Fame, Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

In her more than 35 years as a head coach at the college-level, Yow guided her squads to 19 of the 25 NCAA Tournaments, including 10 trips to the Sweet 16, and a trip to the Elite Eight and Final Four in 1998. During her career she also collected five ACC Championships and four ACC Tournament Championships, and amassed 20, 20-win seasons. Her career record of 693-320 is fifth among active coaches in the NCAA. NC State head coach Kay Yow was part of an elite group of coaches in the United States. She had the distinction of being the only coach to win gold twice since the first women’s basketball Olympic year in 1976.

Women’s Basketball and all of humanity has lost a great coach, leader and friend. Kay Yow epitomized what a coach and role model should be. She will be greatly missed.

Olympic Gold medalist and Greensboro native Caroline Lind will be the featured speaker at the awards dinner. Lind and her teammates on the U.S. Rowing team claimed a first-place victory at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It was the first time since 1984 and just the second time in Olympic rowing history, that the United States won the gold medal in the women’s eight. Becoming an Olympic Gold Medalist was not a far-fetched dream for this Greensboro native.

As a child, Lind remembers swimming with her sister in the pool and pretending they were competing in the Olympics. “I’ve always wanted to be at the highest level I could be,” said Lind, who has always played on athletic teams. At the Phillips Academy in Andover, MA., Lind played water polo and basketball.

Lind remembers reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about rowing and how tall athletes were said to be good rowers. At 6 feet tall, she decided to give rowing a shot as a sophomore in 2000. That summer, Lind made the junior national team. Soon, she was invited to train with the national team each summer in Princeton, NJ. Lind had been training with the national team under Coach Tom Terhaar for four years before her debut in last summer’s Olympics.

Lind graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Cultural Anthropology in 2006. Lind, who hopes to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London, plans to finish her MBA from Rider University in New Jersey. After the 2012 Olympics, she plans to go to law school and pursue a career in discrimination law.

This event will also recognize the 37th anniversary of Title IX of the 1972 Educational Assistance Act. The Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in the provision of educational programs and activities in all secondary and postsecondary educational institutions that receive federal funds. With regard to athletics programs, Title IX addresses three basic equal opportunity program requirements: 1) participation opportunities, 2) scholarship dollars and 3) other athletic program benefits.

About YWCA Greensboro:
YWCA is a women’s movement organization that has served the Greensboro community since 1903. More than 3,000 persons were served last year. YWCA Greensboro programs provide support for persons with mental and physical challenges, women who have had breast cancer, teens that have become pregnant or are parenting, grandparents raising grandchildren, parents seeking quality and affordable childcare, and men and women striving to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

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