University of Minnesota Athletics
Borton Honored With Ann Bancroft Award
4/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Head coach Pam Borton was honored with a prestigious Ann Bancroft Award during a ceremony held Thursday evening at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. The Ann Bancroft Awards recognized four recipients for their accomplishments and support of girls and women.
The 14th annual awards were hosted by the Ann Bancroft Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to support girls and women in realizing their highest dreams and potential. The Foundation endeavors to recognize individual achievement and promotes initiatives that inspire courage, risk-taking, integrity and individuality in girls and women.
The 2011 winners are: Pam Borton (see her story below), Shawnnise Watkins, Susan Hadley and Women's Advocates.
Proceeds from the event will further the efforts of the Ann Bancroft Foundation. Event sponsors included Best Buy Women's Leadership Forum, Imation, Women's Foundation of Minnesota, KARE 11 and Minnesota Women's Press. For more information, contact www.annbancroftfoundation.org.
The Ann Bancroft Foundation (ABF)
The Ann Bancroft Foundation (www.annbancroftfoundation.org) exemplifies the spirit of explorer and educator, Ann Bancroft, whose leadership and personal and historic achievements have inspired all people to take on new challenges. Bancroft organized and led the first all-woman expedition to Antarctica, becoming the first woman to reach both Poles across the ice. In 2001 Bancroft and Norwegian Liv Arnesen became the first women in history to cross Antarctica's landmass.
In addition to the Ann Bancroft Awards, the ABF's generous donors and mentors help underserved girls take the first steps toward fresh possibilities. ABF Micro Grants - of up to $500 -- fund meaningful experiences for girls, many of whom are disenfranchised and close to falling through the cracks. Mentors encourage the girls to use an ABF Micro Grant as a springboard to the next exploration and to gain a new perspective on their own abilities and goals. Girls discover new self-confidence and self-knowledge as they open their eyes to a broader world -- and to new possibilities within themselves.
Category: "Individual - Support for Girls and Women"
Many studies have shown that participation in sports by girls and women has a profound effect on their development. Sports help young women develop life skills, form friendships and expand social networks. Sports also promote freedom of expression and movement, build leadership skills and present new citizenship opportunities. Affiliation with a team or group provides girls with a sense of belonging, which can offer a new sense of identity beyond the domestic realm. And participation in sports programs also helps draw girls into a network of institutions, programs and mentors to which they would otherwise not have access.
Like students that need good teachers to help them prepare for their futures, student-athletes need good coaches to help them succeed on and off the court. Pam Borton, head coach of the University of Minnesota women's basketball team, understands this all too well. Throughout her coaching career, she has gone beyond the fundamentals of basketball to teach her players life skills that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
In the world of sports, a coach's success is measured by wins and losses...and Borton has a strong scorecard. Under Borton, Minnesota has enjoyed three seasons with 25 or more wins, six NCAA Tournament appearances, three trips to the Sweet Sixteen and a magical ride to the Final Four in 2004. She is a three-time finalist for the Naismith Award, recognizing the nation's top collegiate coach. And she has coached two players to the WNBA (Lindsay Whalen in 2004, Janel McCarville in 2005).
But Borton's true success is measured long after her players collegiate careers are over.
Borton instills in her players the ethics of hard work on the court and in the classroom. During her tenure at the U of M, Borton's program has graduated 22 of 23 students who have exhausted their eligibility. Her players have also collected the most Academic All-Big 10 honorees (59) in the conference and have posted a GPA above 3.0 in every semester she has coached.
Borton's mentoring of her players goes beyond the university. Knowing how important it is to regularly involve her student-athletes in civic service and giving back to the community that supports them, she influences her players through volunteerism, by visiting families at Fairview Children's Hospital; assisting the Prevent Child Abuse Annual Walk; participating in the Pancreatic Cancer Bike Ride, Rondo Days celebrations and Urban Ventures Basketball Clinic for inner city girls; working for Feed My Starving Children; sponsoring blood drives and working at Hope Day Festival, which provides support for children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
"As a young girl growing up in Hutchinson, Minn., playing basketball at the college and professional level was always a dream of mine," said former Golden Gopher standout and current Minnesota Lynx guard, Lindsay Whalen. "Coach Borton was instrumental in helping me realize those dreams - she's a great leader on the sidelines and embodies the spirit of giving back to the community as well. She opened a lot of doors for me and still to this day we keep in touch, which I think says a lot about the kind of person that Coach Borton is. She's very deserving of this honor and I am really happy for her."
In addition to her student-athletes at the U of M, Borton's mentoring affects the lives of many young girls through her summer basketball camps and the Urban Ventures Basketball Clinics. She not only teaches them the fundamentals of basketball, but lessons that will stay with these young players well into their future, even if sports are not a part of their lives when they get older.
Coach Borton is also accessible to her fans, eager to meet and talk, taking a sincere interest in their lives. Leading by example, her engagement with people teaches her players the importance of being personable, friendly and gracious.
"Pam Borton is the personification of leadership," says Dr. Mary Jo Kane, professor and director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the U of M. "Her impact on the lives of the numerous young women she has coached over the years, not mention their families and communities, is the stuff of legends."
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