Former Terps Showcase Talents on Courts and in Camps
6/21/1999 8:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
July 27, 1998
Maryland women's basketball coach Chris Weller has guided her teams to 15 national tournaments in the last 21 seasons, and watched three of her teams compete in the Final Four. She has guided the Terps women's basketball program for 23 seasons. Her name is synonomous with Maryland women's basketball.
And now, her efforts and the growing national prominence of women's basketball have resulted in a half-dozen former Terp stars representing various teams in the WNBA and ABL, respectively.
Two of those current pros, Deanna Tate and Jesse Hicks, have returned to College Park, this week and next, to assist their former coach at the Chris Weller Basketball Camps.
Tate, the only Terp to play in the ABL, finds herself in the midst of her off-season between playing stints with the ABL's New England Blizzard and Long Beach Stingrays. After playing 44 games with the Blizzard last season, she was traded during an off-season move which helped the Blizzard obtain the No. 3 pick in the 1998 draft.
Joining Tate at Weller's camps is Hicks who is listed this season on the injured list for the WNBA's Utah Starzz, after the recent birth of her son. She averaged 10 minutes while playing in 26 of 28 games last season.
Headlining the cast of Terps in the Pros is the former Olympian, Vicky Bullett, who is Maryland's most decorated women's basketball player of all-time. A four-year letterwinner and Tate's backcourt mate on the Terrapins' 1989 Final Four squad that finished 29-3, Bullett continues to dominate the floor even in the WNBA.
Representing the WNBA East Division-leading Charlotte Sting, Bullett is currently fifth in the league with 2.3 steals per game, and trails teammates Tracey Reid and Andrea Stinson with 12.7 points per game. She scored a career high 22 points against the Los Angeles Sparks earlier this season - one of four games in which she has led all Charlotte scorers. She buzzed past the Washington Mystics in a local appearance at MCI Arena in July, leading the Sting with 19 points and seven rebounds.
Joining Bullett on the Sting is a 1998 rookie, Sonia Chase, who lettered the past four seasons at Maryland. Chase joins Reid as Sting rookies from ACC schools, and is one of eight, including Bullett who played collegiately in the ACC. Chase has played sparingly in her rookie campaign, averaging just 1.2 points and playing a high of 21 minutes against the Phoenix Mercury.
The fifth former Terp among active WNBA rosters is L.A. Sparks guard Katrina Colleton who has started six games this season. She is one of just six Sparks players to play in all 18 games, averaging 17 minutes, 1.6 points and 1.5 points. Colleton played alongside Hicks on Weller's 1990-93 Maryland teams which played in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, and earned a brief spot atop the national rankings in 1992.
A sixth former Terp has played in either the WNBA or ABL, but after four professional seasons internationally, Jasmina Perazic ended her pro career last season while playing nine games with the WNBA runner-up New York Liberty.
Meanwhile, back on campus for the next two weeks, pro stars Hicks and Tate workout daily at Cole Field House while guiding youngsters at the Chris Weller Basketball Camp. Weller, preparing for her 24th season as her alma mater's head coach, looks across the gym at the old and the young, and wonders who will next represent her program on the floors of America's women's pro basketball leagues.
