Terri Ward talks basketball

Team USA beat China, winning the 4th Straight FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Gold Medal this week. We caught up with former Niwot High girls basketball coach Terri Ward to chat about her experience at the Training Camps which were finishing up as players were heading to Australia for the FIBA World Cup. Ward had just returned from Las Vegas where she was working with the Women's National Basketball Team from Sept. 2 to Sept. 12.

She has a long history in the world of women's basketball. Ward, who is also a graduate of Niwot High, was the Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Colorado under Coach Ceal Barry for several years. Ward currently runs Colorado Coaches of Girls Sports and is vice-president of Sportswomen of Colorado.

Ward was disappointed to have missed celebrating with her fellow Niwot High classmates for the recent 50-year anniversary of the school on Sept. 9 (which she co-planned with fellow faculty and graduates), but she said it was a busy time in Las Vegas.

"We were busy getting prepped and getting the gyms ready for the training camp before the players arrived," she said. "It was a whirlwind schedule," due to the tight timeline between the end of the 2022 WNBA season and the tip-off for the games in Sydney, Australia. The WNBA season concluded Sunday Sept. 18 with the Las Vegas Aces winning the championship, defeating the Connecticut Suns. As the WNBA season concluded for teams, players from those teams joined the other team members already practicing in Australia. The Senior National team is a pool of 20-28 players competing for spots for national team events. Twelve players are chosen for the World Cup.

While in Las Vegas, Ward helped 2021-24 Women's National Team head coach Cheryl Reeve (Minnesota Lynx), 2022 World Cup assistant coaches Mike Thibault (Washington Mystics), Kara Lawson (Duke University) and Joni Taylor (Texas A&M University), and 2022 World Cup court coaches Katie Smith (Lynx) and Curt Miller (Connecticut Sun) with training camp. The training camp invitee list featured 12 athletes who have claimed a combined 22 Olympic (five-on-five, 3×3) and FIBA World Cup (five-on-five) gold medals.

"I've been volunteering with USA Basketball since Atlanta." Ward said. "I was on the bench for the '96 Atlanta Olympics. CU was hosting an Olympic Sports Festival in Denver the summer before the Olympics in Atlanta." Ward explained that while working at the Sports Festival, she was noticed because of her work ethic. The volunteer coordinator for the Atlanta Olympics said, "Why don't you put in an application to work for the 1996 Olympics?"

Ward followed her lead and was accepted to work for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. She worked with the players for all the practice scrimmages and for the Olympics games. "My experience with the Olympic games was the beginning of my relationship with Carol Callan (Women's National Team Director) and USA Basketball," Ward explained. "Carol would call and ask, 'Can you come help us out?' I spent time as a host for Australia before the Rio Games and again before the Tokyo Olympics and I was Japan's host before the 2018 World Cup."

Ward has spent the last 10-12 summers helping with the Junior National trials at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. "It's exciting to be in the cafeteria eating with and sometimes talking to Olympic boxers, velodrome cyclists, bobsledders, and Olympic standouts like Missy Franklin and Michael Phelps," she said. "I got to know them and their coaches. It's also fun getting to know the kids before they start with the Junior National program and before they go on to play at the college level. Through the years I really get to know them and then we get to have reunions when I see them at the camps and while they're on Junior teams." she said. Players like Player of the Year, Aliyah Boston, and Sabrina Ionescu. "I've known her and Sabrina since high school," Ward said. "They have both grown up in USA Basketball."