Page 14 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 2021 Undermanned Sachems fall to Vikings H By Greg Phipps aving to compete with just half its roster, the Saugus High School football team was faced with a nearly impossible, shorthanded situation and lost its second game of the season at Winthrop last Friday evening. The Sachems dressed just 17 players against the Vikings, and that proved to be too much to overcome. More than half the Saugus team was forced to quarantine due to the pandemic, and the effects of the depleted manpower showed. The Sachems were blanked 28-0 by the hosts. “We came here with 17 guys and we knew it was going to be a tall task against a strong team, but our guys wanted to play,” head coach Steve Cummings told the press after the contest. “We had to avoid all mistakes if we wanted to keep this one close, and we weren’t able to do that.” Coming off a season-opening loss at Gloucester in which they committed five costly turnovers, the Sachems were beset by mistakes once again. In particular, a fumble deep in Saugus territory in the third quarter led to a third Winthrop touchdown and what turned out to be an insurmountable 21-0 deficit for the visitors. The Sachems did have some bright moments. The offense, led by backup quarterback Donovan Clark, produced an impressive 13-play, nine-minute drive that unfortunately didn’t produce any points. Running back Sal Franco also had another strong game, rushing for 66 yards. He ran for over 60 in the loss at Gloucester. Cummings praised his team for its willingness to play despite being so undermanned. “I couldn’t be prouder of my guys for the effort they [gave] out there,” he said. “They could have said [earlier in the week] that they didn’t want to play shorthanded, but they stepped up and worked hard until the final whistle.” In a contest that was originally scheduled as a home game, the Sachems, now 0-2, will have to take to the road for a third consecutive week this Saturday afternoon when they travel to face an always-formidable Marblehead team (scheduled 2 p.m. kickoff). But with their full roster back intact this week, Cummings is optimistic looking ahead. “We were having trouble even practicing [last week] because of our numbers,” he observed. “So we’re going to get back at it, move forward and prepare for what’s going to be another tough game.” Two Old Dominion Women Basketballers By The Old Sachem, Bill Stewart Y ou probably never heard of the Olympians in this week’s column. The first is Anne Donovan, born on November 1, 1961, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and died in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 13, 2018. Donovan was 6 foot 8 inches tall and a dominating force in basketball. She attended Paramus Catholic High School in Paramus, New Jersey, and, at 6 foot 6 inches in high school, led Paramus Catholic to consecutive undefeated seasons, with two state championships. As a senior she averaged 25 points and 17 rebounds per game. Donovan was the most recruited female player in the United States by colleges – she had offers from 250 colleges – and even Penn State sent Joe Paterno, the men’s basketball coach, to try to bring her to Pennsylvania; she chose Old Dominion University (ODU) to follow Nancy Lieberman at ODU. More on her later. In 1980 Donovan led the Lady Monarchs, as a freshman, to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women basketball championship. Donovan was the first female Naismith College Player of the Year in 1983. She won the 1983 Honda Sports Award and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Player of the Year in 1983. Donovan set the ODU career marks for points scored (2,719), rebounds (1,976) and blocked shots (801). She holds seasonal records for ODU of most games played (38), most minutes played (1,159), most field goals (377) and field goal percentage of .640. She averaged a double-double for her entire college career with 20 points and 14.5 rebounds per game. Her career blocked shot numbers, 801, is still the best in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) history. The Lady Monarchs won the 1980 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national title with a record of 37-1; Donovan completed 10 blocks and 17 rebounds in their victory over Tennessee. In the 1981 tourney, ODU finished third; they had a 28-7 record for the year. In 1982 the NCAA started the Women’s Tournament and Old Dominion lost to Kansas State in the East Regional Semifinals. Her senior year, 1983, ODU advanced to the Final Four, but lost to rival Louisiana Tech in the National Semifinals. With few professional opportunities for women basketball players in the United States, Donovan went overseas to play in Japan for the Chanson V-Magic in Shizuoka, Japan, and then Modena, Italy, from 1984 to 1989. She was selected to the U.S. team for the inaugural William Jones Cup competition in Taipei, Taiwan. She was picked for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, but the team did not play because of the American-led boycott of the Summer Olympics. Donovan was a three-time Olympian earning gold medals in 1984 and 1988. Donovan played for two USA Women’s Pan American Teams that won Gold Medals in 1983 and 1987. Donovan was named to the U.S. team to compete in Moscow in the 1986 Goodwill Games. The United States defeated teams from Yugoslavia, Brazil, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria and then faced the Soviet Union in the Championship. The Soviets behind Ivilana Semenova, a 7-foot, 2-inch center, had a record of 152-2 in major international competition. The United States won, 83-60, to claim the championship, earning another Gold Medal. On to the World Championships where the USA team again defeated the Soviets, 108-88, for another Gold Medal. Donovan was a double-digit scorer with 16 points. Donovan won a national championship with ODU, going to three Final Fours, and two Olympic Gold Medals and was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995. She was inducted into the first class of the Women’s Hall of Fame in 1999 and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Hall of Fame in 2015. Donovan decided on a college coaching career as an assistant at ODU from 1989 to 1995, then as the head coach at East Carolina University from 1995 to 1998. She joined the professional ranks as the coach of the American Basketball League’s Philadelphia Rage in 1997-1998. When that league folded, she moved to the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) as an assistant coach for the Indiana Fever in 1999 and became the interim head coach when coach Nell Fortner led the U.S. Olympic team in 2000. Her next assignment was the Charlotte Sting in 2001, then the Seattle Storm, who had two number one draft picks in 2001 and 2002, and the team selected the Australian, Lauren Jackson and then-University of Connecticut star, Sue Bird. She resigned from the Storm in 2007 and was appointed the assistant coach of the New York Liberty in 2009 and became the head coach when Pat Coyle resigned. She completed the season with Liberty, but was signed to coach Seton Hall University in March of 2010. Donovan ended as coach at Seton Hall in January 2013, and accepted a position with the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, spending three seasons. Nancy Lieberman was born July 1, 1958, in Brooklyn, New York, and as a professional basketball player was known as “Lady Magic.” She described herself as a red-headed Jewish girl from Queens, as the family moved from Brooklyn to Far Rockaway. Her great-grandparents were lost in the Holocaust, and her paternal grandparents had concentration numbers on their wrists. Lieberman attended Far Rockaway High School in Queens, New York, and during her high school years was selected for the USA National Team. In 1975 she earned a Gold Medal, playing in the Pan American Games, then the World Championships. During her school year she played for her high school team, and in the summer played for the Harlem Chuckles in the Amateur Athletic Union. Lieberman was three years younger than the youngest of her teammates in the 1975 USA Women’s Pan American Team. In Mexico City the team won the Gold Medal for the first time since 1963. Lieberman attended Old Dominion University 1976 to 1980. She was selected by the Phoenix Mercury in the 1997 draft 15th overall and played from 1980 to 1987. Lieberman played for the Dallas Diamonds in 1980, 1981 and 1984 and the Springfield Fame in 1986. In 1987 she was with the Long Island Knights, in 1997 with the Phoenix Mercury and in 2008 with the Detroit Shock. Lieberman continued with the Olympic team for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal in the first ever Women’s Olympic Basketball Team competition. She was barely 18 and the youngest basketball player to win an Olympic Medal, the Silver in 1976. She was also named to the 1980 Olympic team, but she withdrew from the squad when the Summer Olympics were boycotted by President Jimmy Carter. Lieberman went into coaching with the Detroit Shock from 1998 to 2000, the Texas Legends from 2009 to 2011 and the Sacramento Kings as an assistant from 2015 to 2018. Lieberman as a player won the Honda Sports Award for basketball in 1979 and 1980 and the Honda-Broderick Cup for all sports in 1979. She has a Silver Medal from the Olympics in 1976, a Gold Medal in the World Championship in 1979, and the Pan American Games in 1975. She received a Silver Medal for the Pan Am Games in 1979 and a Gold for the Jones Cup in 1979. Lieberman was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999. These two ladies will always be remembered as among the best to ever play the game of basketball.
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