Issue date: 8/7/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Photo courtesy of the Donovan family Left to right Merry Donovan, Sharon Donovan, Emily Donovan, Anne Donovan, Cliff Morris (brother in law). Back row: John Donovan, Kathy Donovan

John Donovan is no longer the jealous child who once sat on the bench while his sister dominated the basketball court. Now, the Templeton resident and brother of Anne Donovan - Team USA's women's basketball head coach - has a deeper understanding of what it means to have a champion in the family.

"It was hard at that point in my life because I didn't recognize or appreciate what she was going through," John says. "But as we got older, when she and I would go down to the playground, I learned a lot from her because she had the best coaching in the world."

John will witness Anne's coaching firsthand this week at the Olympics. Anne, a member of the Basketball of Hall Fame, is a three-time Olympian who earned gold medals in women's basketball during the 1980s.

John and his five other siblings leave today to join their sister in Beijing, where Team USA will open against the Czech Republic at 5 a.m. Pacific Standard Time Saturday.

"The priority is to see the USA women's team win a gold medal because it'll be the pinnacle of our sister's success that she's had on the basketball court," John says.

Team USA enters ranked No. 1 in the world by FIBA and boasts a 25-game winning streak in the Olympics.

"She doesn't want to be the coach of the first women's team to lose the Olympics," says Don Morris, John's father-in-law, a Cal Poly grad and a member of Cal Poly Athletics Hall of Fame. "I'm not sure that she'd be a first, but you don't want to lose - there's a lot of pressure."

Although Morris says the team has a good chance of winning, WNBA stars who present major concerns include Becky Hammon (who recently shunned the U.S. to represent Russia, where she plays professionally during the WNBA's offseason) and Lauren Jackson (Australia).

"I think any coach would be concerned, but I think she's very positive," Morris says. "From what she told me, they could win, but it'll be close. There are no run-aways."

Despite repercussions that would result from a loss, her brother says that's not important.

"One of the hard things about my sister being a coach - anyone being a coach, whether it's coach (Kevin) Bromley on the men's team (at Cal Poly) or coach (Rich) Ellerson for (Cal Poly) football - is that it's really hard for people to understand that they're valuable people when they're being defined by winning or losing," he says.

Continued...

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