Open practice on Saturday

The doors in the NW corner (by the ticket window) of Maples will be open this Saturday, Oct 17, while the Cardinal practice from 11:00 - 12:30. Tara will introduce the team at the end of practice and rosters will be available.

These are the team members you probably haven't met yet:

#2 Shannon Coffee, 6'5" forward/center from Centerville High School in Dayton, Ohio. Shannan earned many state and district awards, including 2015 Ms. OHSBCA - the best player in the state as selected by Ohio high school coaches. She owns the Centerville record for most points scored in a season (533). In addition to being a standout basketball player, Shannon also played two years of varsity volleyball and three years of varsity track (she was a discus champion) at Centerville.

#22 Alexa Romano, 5'10" guard from La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Alexa was the 2015 New Mexico 6A Player of the Year. She owns the La Cueva record for both points (1,813) and 3-pointers made (193). She was also a state champion high-jumper and long-jumper and a member of La Cueva's champion 4x200 relay team.

#11 Alanna Smith, 6'3" forward from Wesley College in Melbourne Australia. Alanna represented Australia in three international competitions — the 2015 FIBA U19 Women’s World Championship, the 2014 FIBA Oceania U18 Championship for Women and the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women. Alanna is Stanford's first-ever international player.

#13 Marta Sniezek, 5'8" guard from National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Marta was the 2015 Washington D.C. Gatorade Soccer Player of the Year and a two-time Washington D.C. Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year (2014 and 2015). She owns the National Cathedral scoring record (2,346 points).

Tara is very enthusiastic about the freshmen. Following the first practice of the season, she said

They’re playing just like they’ve been here forever.

We’re real excited about Marta at the point.

We’re really excited about Alexa’s speed.

Alanna gives us a whole different dimension with her size and her three-point shooting ability.

Shannon, a great body inside, is doing a great job for us.

Although not yet listed in the roster, there is a fifth new player who you may recognize. Rumor has it, and the Week One Practice Video confirms, that she's:

#31 Kiran Lakhian, 5'10" guard from Plano, Texas, who played with the Cardinal on a one-year scholarship in her freshman year (2012-13).

Report from Pac-12 Media Day

Pac-12 Media Day was hosted by Ashley Adamson, who was joined by Mary Murphy, Ros Gold-Onwude and Chiney Ogwumike.

They all enjoyed the event very much, especially Chiney, who was the Director of Fun:

The major news of the day was the Coaches' Poll: Oregon State picked by coaches to win Pac-12 in 2015-16

The televised show consisted mainly of interviews of each team's coach and representative player. If you missed the show, you can watch or record a re-run at 3:00 am this morning.

There was also a non-televised round table press conference. Click here to listen to Tara's and Bird's interesting answers to unintelligible questions.

Bay Area sports journalists were at the press conference:

• Stanford women not in their customary position to start basketball by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)
• Stanford women look to pick up the pace by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)

Pac-12 Media Day tomorrow

It's just four weeks and change until the Cardinal's first [exhibition] game of the season.

Tomorrow Tara and Erica will be in San Francisco with the other Pac-12 coaches and team representatives for Pac-12 Media Day.

There'll be predictions, previews and photographs all day on pac-12.com and a live broadcast from noon to 2:00. Click here for the full schedule.

Tara's coaching tree

The topic of yesterday's Forum on KQED was "Challenges Persist for Women in Coaching" (Click here for the podcast).

The percentage of women coaching women's collegiate teams is at an all time low, down from more than 90% in the early 1970s to about 40%; the number of women assistant coaches is now less than 50%.

The panel explored the reasons women are leaving the coaching profession and what can be done to keep them in the game.

Tara was one of the guests on the panel. She thinks that a lot of women believe they need men on their staff. She’s not one of them. In her 31 years of coaching at Stanford, all of her assistant coaches have been women. She said, “I’ve hired women to mentor them and a lot of them have gone on [in the profession].”

Tara’s coaching tree is flourishing. These are her former assistant coaches and students who are currently women's/girls' basketball coaches or professional basketball executives.

	Charli Turner Thorne (1984-88), head coach at Arizona State, 19th season.
	June Daugherty (asst coach 1985-89), head coach at Washington State, ninth season.
	Jennifer Azzi (1986-90), head coach at the University of San Francisco, sixth season.
	Katy Steding (1986-90), head coach at Boston University, second season.
	Angela Taylor (1989-93, asst coach 1995-97), President and General Manager of the WNBA Atlantic Dream, tenth year with WNBA
	Renee Brown (asst coach 1989-90), WNBA Chief of Basketball Operations and Player Relations, 20th year with WNBA
	Molly Goodenbour (1989-93), head coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills, third season.
	Kate Paye (1991-95), assistant coach at Stanford, ninth season.
	Bobbie Kelsey (1991-96, asst coach 2007-11), head coach at the University of Wisconsin, fourth season.
	Amy Wustefeld Brooks (1992-96), WNBA Executive Vice President, Team Marketing & Business Operations, 11th year with WNBA
	Charmin Smith (1993-97, asst coach 2004-07), associate head coach at Cal, seventh season at Cal.
	Vanessa Nygaard (1993-98), Senior Associate Athletic Director and Girls' Basketball Program Lead at Windward School in Los Angeles, seventh season at Windward.
	Milena Flores (1996-2000), assistant coach at Princeton, ninth season.
	Karen Middleton (asst coach 1997-2007), associate head coach at Cal State Fullerton, first season
	Tia Jackson (asst coach 1999-2000), assistant coach at University of Miami, first season
	Jamie Carey (1999-2002), assistant coach at the University of Colorado, second season.
	Nicole Powell (2000-04), assistant coach at the University of Oregon, second season.
	Markisha Coleman (2003-07), head coach at Menlo-Atherton High School, second season.
	Melanie Murphy (2006-11), head coach at Sacred Heart Prep in Atherton, second season.
	Lindy La Rocque (2008-12), assistant coach at Belmont University in Nashville,TN, first season.
	Trina Patterson (asst coach 2011-13), assistant coach at Old Dominion, third season.

Alanna is standout Aussie freshman in U.S.

The Pick and Roll is a website about Aussies playing hoops the world over. Damian Arsensis, who writes about Aussies in U.S. college, has picked his top five NCAA freshmen women. His #1 pick is our own Alanna Smith:

Such is the talent of Alanna Smith, she arrives in Stanford as their first ever women’s international recruit, and she is unlikely to disappoint.

Smith boasts an impeccable pedigree with a father who played professionally in the Australian NBL and SEABL for well over a decade and an uncle who captained the senior national team. However Smith has been making a name for herself.

The dynamic forward excelled at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championships where she earned selection to the All-Star 5 after leading her country to a bronze medal. Her performances on the world stage in 2015 followed an outstanding 2014 FIBA Oceania U18 Championships where she was also the tournament standout.

Quite simply, Smith is the complete package. She can rebound, defend, block shots, run the floor and score efficiently; a future Australian Opal in the making.

Expect Smith be the standout Aussie freshman in NCAA Division I hoops this season.

Here is the whole article: NCAA Women: The top 5 freshmen Aussies

Football fun and first practice

Thanks to Stanford Women's Basketball Facebook for reporting these events:

Tara served as the honorary captain Saturday night as Stanford Football defeated Arizona 55-17. It did not count as her 954th career win.

Following the first quarter, the women's athletic program was honored for winning the 2014 Capital One Cup as the best in the country. Student-athletes from many sports gathered on the field to accept the award.

Capital One Cup

Tara wasn't the only one with a field pass tonight »

Posted by Stanford Women's Basketball on Saturday, October 3, 2015

Work began today with the first practice. Warriors warmed up the court for the Cardinal.

Then the Cardinal got down to business with a solid three hours of practice, as reported by Stanford Athletics: IT BEGINS Cardinal starts 2015-16 campaign with first official practice

Becoming the Stanford Tree

Sarah Young, this year's Tree, has created a weeping willow design for her mascot costume. Like Trees before her, she made the costume herself. Videographer Kurt Hickman chronicles the process of becoming the Tree: Stanford Band debuts new weeping willow Tree design

Cardinal has a new intern

Mary Merg has joined the Cardinal staff as an intern for the 2015-16 season.

Mary was a standout guard for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks from 2010-14.

She stepped onto the coaching ladder as an assistant coach at the Division III St. Mary's University in Minnesota. In April, she attended the 2015 Women's Basketball Coaches Association "So You Want To Be A Coach" workshop.

As an intern at Stanford, Mary expects to handle a lot of the "behind the scenes" work, including recruiting, video and other day-to-day operations.

For more information about Mary, see: Women’s Basketball Alums Continue Climb Up Coaching Ladder

Complete 2015-16 schedule announced

Stanford Women's Basketball announced its complete 2015-16 schedule today.

The Cardinal is scheduled for 30 regular-season games. 19 of them will be televised — 17 on the Pac-12 Networks, one on ESPN and one on ESPNU.

Game dates and times are a bit more consistent than last season. 25 of the Cardinal's 30 regular season games are on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

In conference play, Stanford plays Washington and Washington State only at home and USC and UCLA only away. It plays the other seven Pac-12 teams both at home and away. As was the case last season, Stanford and Cal play both of their games in the same week about midway through the season.

This is the schedule from the FBC. Game information includes links to each opponent's women's basketball website and maps of the venues. Links to other media coverage (live streams, radio, live stats) and FBC pre-game and post-game events will be added as soon as the information is available.

This is the announcement and the schedule from Stanford Athletics.

Cardinal has a new athletic trainer

After 13 years as Stanford Women's Basketball athletic trainer, Marcella Shorty has transferred to Dawn Staley's staff at the University of South Carolina.

Katelin Knox will take her place on the Cardinal bench. Here is Katelin's bio from the Stanford Sports Medicine Program.