A Night of “Sisterly Love” Ahead with the Inaugural Philly Greatest Women’s Athletes and Coaches Ceremony

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Determining it’s time that the City of Brotherly Love offer up some special “Sisterly Love” to great locally bred athletes, the inaugural Philadelphia Women’s Sports Awards presentations will occur Saturday night at Temple’s Mitten Hall honoring some of the great on the field competitors and coaches.

Promulgating the event are Chester’s Fredia Gibbs, also nicknamed Cheetah who played some hoops for the Owls and later achieved all-American status at Cabrini but earned her real acclaim in kickboxing as “the most dangerous woman in the world,” Temple all-time women’s basketball great Marilyn Stephens, and her former Owls teammate Carolyn Bamberger.

Gibbs is the founder, while Stephens serves as director of basketball awards and Bamberger is awards project coordinator.

The evening is formerly billed as the Philadelphia Greatest Women’s Athletes and Coaches Awards (PWAC) Ceremony.

“The guys have obviously gotten their share and some women have received attention, but this is a chance to celebrate the female athletes and coaches who have achieved,” Stephens said.

“People need to learn history here and legacy and we need to do it while we’re still around because we’ve already seen losses like Linda Page and Rene Portland in recent years and also this summer, while not from here, still the sudden death of Anne Donovan at such a young age,” she continued.

“We’re starting with a bunch of us but Saturday night at the event everyone will get a chance to nominate anyone moving forward, and this isn’t just basketball, it’s all sports.”

The event will begin at 5 p.m. with a red carpet arrival at Mitten Hall off Broad Street up the steps into the great court with an opportunity for media interviews before festivities will continue downstairs with a dinner, the presentations and then an after-party.

While you’re Guru will have his media team of Harrah’s Racetrack photographer Melissa Willhouse, a recent summa cum laude Rider graduate, and graduate student Villanova women’s basketball star Adrianna Hahn, the three-point shooting ace out of Wilmington, to help cover the celebration, he was invited to make some guest remarks off his forthcoming November induction into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame at Sugarhouse Casino.

Tickets are still available for Saturday night at the last minute and details on the organizers and winners can be found at http://philadelphiawomenssports.com.

But this night is about the recipients, some of who are quite familiar and others who will earn the acclaim they deserve.

Two great Rutgers women’s basketball coach in the mix being cited are former Immaculata star Theresa Grentz, who is now retired, and current Scarlet Knights mentor, Hall of Famer C. Vivian Stringer, who also coached at Cheyney and Iowa.

Grentz had already scheduled a vacation but filmed a video acceptance.

From basketball, also obvious in the first group, South Carolina coach and Hall of Famer Dawn Staley, the Dobbins great who is the current USA Olympic coach and a year ago led the Gamecocks to their first NCAA women’s basketball championship.

The ongoing theme is Greatest Deserves to be Remembered.

Stephens at Temple earned all-American status with the Owls as did Cheyney’s Yolanda Laney, whose daughter Betnijah played for Stringer at Rutgers and is currently in the WNBA with the playoff-bound Connecticut Sun.

Page, the great scoring star who once collected 100 points, is also among the hoops honorees as is former Gratz and Maryland star Debbie Lyttle, Stephens, Dawn Hoover, Jaydean Daye, coach Kate Pearson out of Scranton, Valerie Phillips, and longtime University City coach Lurline Jones.

Other recipients and their sports are Cecelia Ricciotti of Aikido; longtime Temple lacrosse coach Tina Sloane Green, boxing’s Kali Reis, race car driver Mares Stellfox, and track and field’s Marilyn Lee, DeChanta Phillips, and coach Gina Procaccio.

Stephens is receiving the Philly Award, and Gibbs, who also competed in track, is getting the Crystal Award.

Actor-comedian Melvin Jones, with credits such as Everybody Hates Chris and The Wire, will emcee, and actor Chris Mann (The Wire, Michael Clayton), will be a presenter.