Dialog reporter
NEWARK — Nine-year-old Josie Calder and her mother, Lynn, settled into their seats at the Bob Carpenter Center late on the afternoon of July 27. On the court below, the Olympic basketball teams from Australia and Canada battled in the opening game of a doubleheader, nine days before the summer games were to commence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
team beat France in a July 27 game at the University of Delaware. Delle Donne, who plays
in the WNBA, is a graduate for Ursuline Academy in Wilmington. (The Dialog/Mike Lang)
Josie, and most of the rest of the sellout crowd, watched the first game with mild interest, but the main attraction that night would not take the floor for another 90 minutes. Elena Delle Donne, the 2008 graduate of Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, had come home for a showcase game against France as she readied for her first Olympic experience.
Young fans
“She’s really inspiring. She’s such a good basketball player, and she’s a girl,” said Josie, who will be entering fourth grade this fall at St. Mary Magdalen School in Wilmington.
As soon as the final horn blew for the first contest, a buzz filled the Bob as thousands of Delle Donne fans awaited her arrival on the court. The applause was loud and sustained for her and her teammates. The noise continued through the introductions of both teams, reaching a crescendo when No. 11 in red was announced. It got even louder when Delle Donne swished a three-point shot midway through the first quarter. She finished with 10 points in limited action in an 84-62 win for the Americans.
That thrilled Josie, who is too young to have seen Delle Donne play at Ursuline Academy. This was the first time she had seen the reigning Women’s National Basketball Association most valuable player in person.
“I like her, and I’m a fan of hers,” Josie said. “I’m very excited.”
Delle Donne, 26, was happy to see young fans like Josie all over the Bob Carpenter Center.
“That’s what it’s all about for us,” she noted at a postgame press conference. “When we get to the professional level, it’s about inspiring the youth, whether it be young boys or young girls. That’s what’s going to grow our game, to get them excited about it. So to see all those young faces out there in the crowd, it’s very exciting to see them.”
Another fan, who has seen Delle Donne play many times, said her own basketball career has been positively affected by their relationship. Adrianna Hahn, who led Ursuline to two state championships before graduating in 2015, has known Delle Donne for years.
“There are so many younger girls that look at her as a role model, and she’s just awesome at that. I looked at her as a role model and a big sister. If it wasn’t for her, I would have never met John (Noonan, Ursuline’s coach), and I would never have been in the position that I am today. She’s still being a great person in that way,” said Hahn, who will be a sophomore at Villanova University this year. Last season, she was the Big East Conference’s sixth woman of the year.
Hahn credited Delle Donne and others who stormed upon the Delaware girls’ basketball high school landscape about a dozen years ago with raising the profile of the sport in the First State.
“I just love seeing how all these supporters in Delaware all come, and the community supports her, Hahn said. “She did a good job in getting everybody involved. I think that’s what she wants to do most. All her fans, and all her supporters, just keep them involved. I think it’s awesome.”
Julie McCarron, who will be a freshman at St. Elizabeth High School this year, played varsity basketball as an eighth-grader last season. She watched Delle Donne play at the University of Delaware from 2009-13.
“I know she’s a really good inspiration to kids. I’ve always watched her to get better, to make my game better,” McCarron said. The main message she gets from watching Delle Donne play is “that anyone can do what they believe in.”
Dream for everyone
Delle Donne has had many great performances at the Bob. As a high school sophomore in 2006, she scored 50 points against St. Elizabeth to lead Ursuline to a state championship. She regularly played before sellout crowds while with the Blue Hens and scored 33 points in each of her final three college games in 2013, the first two of which came at home in front of raucous sellout crowds.
But this most recent game, she said, was the most emotional she had played there. She looked around and saw familiar faces, people who have been with her since she was a precocious eighth-grader at Ursuline and now were sharing her lifelong dream of wearing the uniform of the United States on her way to Rio.
“It’s been like a dream come true for me, and I feel like a lot of Delaware fans as well, to see a Delawarean headed for the Olympics competing for a gold medal,” she said. “We’re representing everybody in trying to make this dream come true for everyone.”
