May 27, 2003
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Stanford University forward Nicole Powell (Phoenix, AZ/Mountain Pointe HS) was one of 12 players selected to the 2003 USA Basketball Women's Pan America Games Team, as selected by the USA Basketball Women's Collegiate Committee on Sunday following four days of trials featuring 58 of the nation's top athletes. The women's basketball portion of the 2003 Pan Am Games will be held Aug. 2-9 in the Dominican Republic city of Santo Domingo.
"It is such a great honor to even be invited to the USA Trials in the first place and there was such a great amount of talent here," Powell said. "Everyday was just so competitive and every day you had to be ready because as soon as you stepped on the court, you would face the best women's basketball athletes. That being said, I am just glad to be on the team."
The team is comprised of Powell, Jenni Benningfield (Vanderbilt), Rebekkah Brunson (Georgetown), Jamie Carey (Texas), Roneeka Hodges (LSU), Laurie Koehn (Kansas State), Janel McCarville (Minnesota), Loree Moore (Tennessee), Ann Strother (Connecticut), Lindsay Taylor (UC Santa Barbara), Iciss Tiliss (Duke) and Barbara Turner (Connecticut).
The six alternates are Amber Jacobs (Boston College), Temeka Johnson (LSU), Amber Obaze (Louisiana Tech), Heather Schreiber (Texas), Stacy Stephens (Texas) and Ruby Vaden (Arkansas).
The USA Pan American Games Team will be led by head coach Debbie Ryan (Virginia) and assistant coaches Kathi Bennett (Indiana) and Trina Patterson (Albany).
The 2003 Pan American Games will be Powell's third stint with USA Basketball.
In 2000, she was a starting forward for the gold medal winning U.S. squad at the World Championship Qualifying Tournament in Mexico. She averaged 8.2 points and a team-high 6.4 rebounds as the U.S. defeated its five opponents by an average of 50.6 points per game.
In 2001, she won a bronze medal at the FIBA Junior World Championships in the Czech Republic. Powell started at forward and averaged 7.0 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds as the U.S. won six of its seven games.
The U.S. Pan American squad will begin training in Boston, Mass., on July 17, where they will join the USA, Australia and Brazil young women national teams for a series of three friendly games. The U.S. Pan American Team will also play three exhibition games in Cuba from July 22-25. After the trip to Cuba, the U.S. squad will train at the University of South Florida from July 26-29 before beginning the Pan Games on Aug. 2.
"It's awesome and the greatest honor to be a part of the United States," Powell said. "This is not something you can take advantage of because it doesn't happen all the time. You are representing your country in an event that happens only every four years. What we do this summer goes in record books and I want to look back and see this 2003 Pan Am team won a gold meal for our country."