Ginny Doyle Tribute IV: The Last Thank You(s) From a Coach Plying Her Trade

( Guru's Note: Before presenting today's ongoing coverage, since Ginny's brother Joe and myself know each other well, I've been helping them getting a handle of things in terms of getting information to the public beyond the reporting nature of things from this side.

And the big thing is to try to determine the potential size of the crowd for both the life celebration Tuesday night and the mass on Wednesday, the two days after Memorial Day here in Philadelphia (the Northeast portion of the city).

This will aide in determining hotels to recommend for out of towners, a place we could gather Tuesday, as well as accomodating media coverage from beyond yours truly, etc.

The Doyles think they have an idea of who is immediate in the count of the the individual family, and close friends.

But, of course, then it begins to blend with the larger basketball family, many who might be close with Ginny but they don't know. So, however anyone wants to be on hand to celebrate her life:

A request survey from me went out through selected conferences a little while ago (530 am which is now more than a little while ago but time has basically been frozen except for other real events) to get things started.

But your Guru doesn't want to leave anyone out of the mix so if you are a Division II or Division III coach or however you are connected and plan to be here or plan to also bring some assistants, or you are just a civilian who follows the blog, you get the idea, just email me at poll416@gmail.com with Ginny Funeral in the subject line and say whether you are coming Tuesday night or Wednesday morning or both with just a short note, unless you are communicating beyond with me for whatever you need or question answered.

No need to say you are not coming.

This will help identified the number. My email is poll416@gmail.com. Feel free to relay this precede to people you think want to know of the request. Thanks. )

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA -- Over the last several days Ginny's brother Joe has shared a lot of information with me and he told me one story that he felt you all should know.

A week ago Ginny attended the Step Up conclave for coaching staffs beyond the head coach positions in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

The event is run by Felicia Hall Allen (who played for C. Vivian Stringer at Iowa) and her husband Johnny.

Incidentally, several persons have mentioned that she might be a good candidate for the vacant CEO job at the Women's Basketball Coaches Association.

In fact, Mike Flynn of Blue Star, one of the speakers at the event, has told of sitting across from Ginny at a restaurant with a bunch of people afterwards and having an extensive conversation about the profession and openings.

The organization is described at their website as: Step Up (Athletic Symposium to Elevate Professionals & Uplift Performance) is a career building and professional development opportunity for men’s and women’s college basketball assistant coaches, developed by the husband and wife team of Felicia and Johnny Allen.

Its’ mission is to help assistant coaches gain knowledge, develop strategies and techniques, as well as network with some of the best coaches in the industry to help them reach their full potential. The inaugural symposium was held in Atlanta, Georgia in 2010.

To learn more about step up, the website url is http://feliciahallallen.com.

The Guru thinks he sees Ginny in one of the pictures in the slide show at the site of last week's event.

That said, to return to this discussion, after the hot air balloon accident, when Joe went to get Ginny's car, her backpack was on the rear seat.

And inside were a stack of evenlopes, some all sealed and ready to be mailed, and others all addressed but still to be stuffed with notes of thank yous that she had assembled together to finish the process to communicate with those she had met.

Richmond University officials mailed the ones set to go over the weekend (the Guru thought it was a good idea) but one of Joe's sources gave him a list of who was mailed and who was about to be mailed and we thought you all should know.

First, here's the list of thank you's that were mailed:

These were mailed as they were written, addressed, stamped and sealed.

1. Carol Owens, Associate Head Coach University of Notre Dame. (Guru's aside: Carol won the major award -- the first ever -- as the top assistant in the nation for the past year.)
2. Boo Williams, AAU Coach
3. Latisha Luckett, Assistant Coach Claflin University
4. Julie Kaufman, Assistant Coach Seton HillUniversity
5. Charlton “C.Y.” Young, Assistant MBB Coach Florida St.
6. Maren Walseth, Head Coach North Dakota State University, recently hired from assistant at Penn State.

Joe's words next. These are the folks she had envelopes writing out to... (and you were right they are already stamped!)….but no insert written yet. She was so efficient:

Kelly Bond-White, Texas A&M WBB;
Johnny Allen, Felicia Hall Allen & Associates;
Felicia Hall Allen (from the same firm);
Kelly Mehrtens, Deputy AD-Maryland;
Pete Garcia, Executive Director-Sports and Entertainment –Florida International;
Joe Tartamella, Head Coach-St. John’s;
Bob Starkey, assistant at Texas A&M WBB;
Sean O’Regan, Associate Head Coach-JMU;
Katie O’Connor, Asst Coach-Kansas;
Robert Mosley Asst Coach-Georgia;
Tasha McDowell, Asst Coach –Cincinnati;
George Washington (his real name), Asst Coach-Texas;
Travis May, Associate Head Coach-Texas;
Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, Head Coach-Albany;
LeAnn Freeland, Head Coach-Nova Southeastern University; Mike Flynn, Blue Star Office;
Al Brown, Asst Coach-Duke

That is all on this report. The Guru right now plans to be at opening WNBA action in Connecticut Friday and New York's home opener Saturday against Chicago after playing at Connecticut.

The Guru plans to have operatives at the Washington game hosting Minnesota Friday night.

-- Mel




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