Sept. 21, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s basketball team will hold a special preseason practice session that will be open to the public from 6-8 p.m. (ET) on Wednesday, Oct. 13 at Washington High School in South Bend. As the cornerstone of this fall’s Fighting Irish women’s basketball “Spirit of Giving” outreach program, this is believed to be the first time Notre Dame has conducted an off-campus open practice in the Michiana community.
Doors will open for the event at 5:30 p.m. (ET), with the Fighting Irish practicing from 6-7:30 p.m. (ET). Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw and selected Fighting Irish players will address the crowd following practice, and the event will conclude with an autograph session from 7:30-8 p.m. (ET).
For admission to the open practice, fans are required to bring a children’s book (one per person). The collected books will be donated to four South Bend-area primary schools (Muessel, Coquillard, Marquette and Perley) that are benefiting from the Public Education Foundation’s fundraising efforts to implement the Wilson Reading System. For more information on the Public Education Foundation, fans are invited to visit its web site at www.edfo.org.
In addition, the Notre Dame women’s basketball program would like to extend a special thank you to Better World Books, which will be matching the total number of books collected on Oct. 13 (estimated at 3,000+ children’s books). Founded by three friends from Notre Dame and located in Mishawaka, Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. For more information on Better World Books, visit www.betterworldbooks.com.
“This is a very exciting opportunity for us to help local schools and also reach out to our incredible fans, who are the best in the nation,” McGraw said. “We hope everyone will circle Oct. 13 on their calendar and make plans to join us for what should be a great night of basketball and a wonderful show of `Irish Spirit’ in South Bend.”
Notre Dame returns eight monogram winners and two starters, including sophomore All-America guard Skylar Diggins (South Bend, Ind./Washington) and senior forward Becca Bruszewski (Valparaiso, Ind./Wheeler), from last year’s team that posted a 29-6 record and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the eighth time in the past 14 seasons. The Fighting Irish also welcome the nation’s ninth-ranked incoming freshman class, led by Canadian National Team forward Natalie Achonwa (Guelph, Ontario/St. Mary’s Catholic) and 2010 McDonald’s All-American/USA U-18 National Team gold medalist guard Kayla McBride (Erie, Pa./Villa Maria Academy).
For more information on the Notre Dame women’s basketball program, sign up to follow the Fighting Irish women’s basketball Twitter pages (www.twitter.com/ndwbbsid or www.twitter.com/notredamewbb) or register for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the sidebar on the women’s basketball page at UND.com.
— ND —