The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Women's Basketball Q&A with Kamie Ethridge
08.05.2016 | Women's Basketball
Kamie Ethridge (UT, 1982-86) played for Team USA in the 1988 Olympic Games.
The 1986 National Player of the Year and a Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, Kamie Ethridge played for the University of Texas women's basketball team from 1982-86, and was the starting point guard for the Longhorns' 1986 NCAA Championship Team.
Ethridge, currently the head coach at the University of Northern Colorado, was one of Texas' first women's basketball Olympians, playing for Team USA's gold-medal winning squad at the 1988 Olympic Games.
With the 2016 Olympic Games beginning this weekend, Ethridge – a 2000 inductee in the UT Women's Hall of Honor - sat down with TexasSports.com to reflect back on her Olympic experience.
TexasSports.com: In 1988, you and Andrea Lloyd were the first Olympic women's basketball players from the University of Texas. What was it like to be the first from UT?
Kamie Ethridge: "I think you don't necessarily think of it in those terms when you're a player. For my career at Texas and Andrea's, as well, we were a part of history. We came into a very successful program that Coach [Jody] Conradt had built. We had a chance to compete for national championships in all four years, winning one in 1986. For us, it was a natural progression. When you play for one of the best teams in the country, it puts you in a position to be one of the best players in the country and represent your country. Every summer, I had the opportunity to do that in some form or fashion. The Olympics were the culmination of a four-year career of being part of USA Basketball. Because of Texas, many of us had the opportunity to further our careers with USA Basketball. We had one of the best programs in the country and Texas was the building block that gave us a chance to represent our country."
TexasSports.com: As you mentioned, you had the opportunity to represent Team USA in a variety of international competitions. How did that experience help you in your playing career?
Kamie Ethridge: "I think for anyone the background of how you learn the game and play the game is the building block of what you do for the rest of your career. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to play for Coach Conradt and the University of Texas. Her style of play was the only kind I could play successfully. I needed to do what her system did best and that was full-court press and run. Being small as a guard, I needed to play 94 feet and we were the best at doing that. I brought that to US A Basketball. I don't know that that was necessarily what USA Basketball had been known for. I was doing some things and playing the game in a way that no one else at the point guard position did. It led me to have a chance to play USA Basketball because of how we played a Texas. That's how, as a coach, I'd like my teams to play forever. I haven't always had the talent to play that way, but it is the most fun way to play. My roots are based on how we played at Texas with that pressing, full-court attack."
TexasSports.com: What was the 1988 Olympic experience like for you, winning the gold medal?
Kamie Ethridge: "It was bittersweet for me because I hurt my knee the year before on the Pan Am team. After the 1984 Pan Am Games, I was the starting point guard on Team USA for the World Championships in 1986 and the Pan Am Games in 1987. In the first game of the Pan Ams, I blew out my knee. I was lucky to even get on that 1988 Olympic Team. I think [1988 Olympic Team Head] Coach [Kay] Yow was loyal to me as someone who had played for her in the World Championships. It was an unbelievably thrilling experience to be representing your country, but I was also not the same player that I had been. I was not 100 percent. I got, for me now as a coach, a great opportunity to experience a different role on the team. I wasn't the best player anymore or the starting point guard. It has made me a better coach because of that. The ultimate experience, and I tell people this all the time, was winning the national championship at Texas. It was my biggest thrill because of my teammates and the relationships I had for four years at Texas. The Olympics was the biggest individual experience I ever had, culminating on the stand when I got the gold medal hung around my neck and they played the national anthem. Every time now when the Olympics come on, it just makes me smile. It gave me such fulfillment in my basketball career and I am part of an exclusive gold-medal winning club. You get that feeling every four years when you watch the Olympics."
TexasSports.com: As a former Olympic gold-medal winner, what will it be like for you to watch the Olympics this year?
Kamie Ethridge: "It gives you a different perspective than other people. Everybody can enjoy and live life through the people they are watching on TV. Now, it's neat to appreciate it more. Everything is on TV – you can see all of the events and storylines in full. It's a bigger event now than even in 1988. As an athlete, to look back on your career knowing that you were part of the opening ceremonies and all the pageantry of that. You walked in those athletes' shoes when they come through the opening ceremonies and you have the flag bearers before you. You were a part of that whole experience and had a gold medal placed around your neck. It is the most unique experience and greatest individual accomplishment an athlete can have in having represented your country and winning a gold medal."
TexasSports.com: You came of age at a time when women's basketball in the Olympics was just coming of age. Did you think about that at the time?
Kamie Ethridge: "I don't think we knew the history completely. We had the knowledge that in the World Championships when we beat the Soviet Union in the Soviet Union in 1986, we hadn't beaten them in 30 years of international basketball. We had won the gold medal in 1984, but the Soviet Union didn't participate in those Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Knowing that we hadn't beaten them in 30 years, it was one of the best experiences that we had in 1986 beating the Soviet Union in Moscow in the World Championships. That was really the only realization that we had. It was the first time we all kind of realized that the U.S. hadn't always dominated women's basketball. Obviously in 88, we won and then there was that slipup in 92, but since then, the U.S. has dominated the world. We definitely played for a lot of pride wanting to beat the Soviet team in 1986 and 1988."
TexasSports.com: Last month, you were an assistant coach for Team USA's U-18 Team that won the gold medal. What was that experience like?
Kamie Ethridge: "It was a unique experience and I have loved every minute of being part of USA Basketball. A summer ago, I was a floor coach at a trial and I loved being part of that. Clearly, every experience I have had with USA Basketball has been a positive one. In any way I can, I want to be able to give back to USA Basketball. It's part of me and I feel so proud to be part of USA Basketball. Working with younger teams brought some challenges. The neat thing about working with seniors in high school and rising college players is that the process is new to them. They don't know what we've done in the past and about all the traditions, and the process is not very real to them. That was the attempt of USA Basketball to get me, Suzie McConnell-Serio and Charlotte Smith – three coaches that had experienced USA Basketball – to try to instill some of the traditions from three players who have done it. We shared the traditions and helped them to appreciate the process of being involved with USA Basketball and advancing through to maybe someday be an Olympian. I hope to be able to continue with USA Basketball in any form or fashion."
