Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Year: 2018

Thomas Dooley

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Trinidad and Tobago

Considered one of the key players for the USMNT in the 1990’s, Thomas Dooley brought the professionalism he earned through years in the German professional leagues. The son of a US serviceman, Dooley was eligible to represent the United States and he took that option in 1992. Appearing in the 1994 and ’98 World Cups, Dooley captained the USMNT in France. After 14 years in the German leagues, including a German Cup win with Kaiserslautern in 1990 and a UEFA Cup win with Schalke in ’97, Dooley signed with Major League Soccer and joined Columbus in the summer of ’97. He retired in 2000 and was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2010.

Katharine DeLorenzo

Field Hockey

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  India
  • 2019  –  India
  • 2023  –  India

DeLorenzo enters her 19th season in 2019-20 as the head coach of the Panther field hockey program. She came to Middlebury after serving as the head field hockey and lacrosse coach at Skidmore for the previous six seasons.

DeLorenzo has led the Panthers to tremendous successes during her 18 years, including an impressive 287-61 record. In that time, the Panthers advanced to the NCAA Championship game on seven occasions with 16-straight trips to the NCAA Tournament (2003-18). During the 2015 season, she guided the Panthers to the program’s second NCAA Championship (1998) with a 1-0 victory over Bowdoin in Lexington, Virginia. In 2017, DeLorenzo and the Panthers claimed the program’s third overall NCAA Championship with a 4-0 win against Messiah in Louisville, Kentucky. Last fall, Middlebury earned its third NCAA title in the last four seasons with a 2-0 victory against Tufts in Manheim, Pennsylvania.

She earned New England Coach of the Year honors in 2003 and 2004, while being deemed the NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year in both 2003 and 2015. DeLorenzo and her coaching staff were named both the 2017 and 2018 NFHCA Coaching Staffs of the Year. The team also captured the 2003, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018 NESCAC titles, with DeLorenzo earning NESCAC Coach of the Year honors three times.

DeLorenzo graduated from Goucher College in 1990, where she was an All-American field hockey and lacrosse player as well as a swimmer. She was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in the spring of 2013.

Following graduation, she attended Indiana State University where she earned her master’s degree in athletic administration in 1992. While at Indiana State, she began her coaching career with a two-year stint as an assistant field hockey coach for DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. In 1991, the Tigers advanced to the NCAA Tournament. After receiving her master’s degree, DeLorenzo took a position at Oberlin College in Ohio as the head field hockey and lacrosse coach in the fall of 1992, becoming an assistant athletic director during her third and final year.

DeLorenzo began working at Skidmore College in the fall of 1995 as the head field hockey and lacrosse coach. She led the field hockey team to NCAA Tournament appearances in 1998 and 1999 and was named the UCAA (Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association) Coach of the Year in both of those seasons. She earned a six-year record of 69-37 at Skidmore, including a school-record 18 wins in 1999 when she was named the NFCAA Regional Coach of the Year. That season, her team also captured the UCAA Championship.

She is an active member of several field hockey national committees, including stints with several rules committees, such as currently serving on the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) National Rules Committee. DeLorenzo directs clinics on Middlebury’s campus throughout the year. She is also the director of two Nike field hockey camps as well as being involved with the United States Field Hockey Association (USFHA) Futures Program.

Johnny Collins

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Philippines
  • 2018  –  Vietnam
  • 2019  –  Burma
  • 2019  –  Ethiopia
  • 2019  –  Kuwait
  • 2022  –  Kyrgyzstan

Johnny Collins is an “A” licensed soccer coach who has been coaching all over the world for the past 25 years. He has coached at all levels but prefers working in youth development. An orphan himself, he loves working with underprivileged kids and he has an 18 year old daughter so empowering young women is also a passion of his.

Corey “Thunder” Law

Harlem Globetrotters Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Belgium
  • 2018  –  Germany

Thunder has been a record-breaking machine in his early career with the Globetrotters, currently owning four Guinness World Records titles. His most recent record was made in celebration of Guinness World Records Day on Nov. 9, 2017. On this day, Thunder earned the Guinness World Record title for the highest basketball shot made upwards at 50 feet 1 inch. Since becoming a Globetrotters’ star, he also set records for the farthest basketball shot made while sitting on the court at 58 feet 9.1 inches, the farthest basketball shot under-one-leg at 52 feet 5.1 inches and made the farthest basketball shot backward ever recorded by Guinness World Records at 82 feet 2 inches.

Thunder was a standout player at High Point University (N.C.), where he led the Panthers in field goal percentage as a senior and was third on the team in rebounding and blocks. Sporting a 44-inch vertical leap – he could already dunk when he was in the sixth grade – the muscular Law finished his career second on High Point’s all-time rebounding list.

He became a larger figure on the Globetrotters’ radar when he competed in the 2013 college slam dunk championship by beating out 15 other athletes to become the annual Dark Horse Dunker. He was selected by the Globetrotters in their seventh annual player draft in June 2013, beginning his journey to becoming a Globetrotter.

Bria “Swish” Young

Harlem Globetrotters Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Belgium
  • 2018  –  Germany

Bria grew up in Philadelphia and was inspired by a local icon and former NBA star Allen Iverson. The former 76er had a tremendous influence on Bria’s playing style. “I’ve always wanted to have a crossover just like him,” she said.

However, it was Bria’s dad and uncle who first introduced her to the game of basketball. When she was a child she watched them compete in three-on-three street basketball tournaments around the city. Bria played her first game of organized basketball at the age of 7.

As a teenager, Bria suffered a knee injury which nearly threw her off her path of playing professionally one day. Bria attended Philadelphia University where she had a stellar four-year career. With the Rams she totaled 1,067 career points, was named the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) player of the year in 2016 as well as Defensive Player of the Year. She helped lead her team to a CACC championship her senior year and was named a DII WBCA All American.

At Philadelphia University, she earned a degree in psychology – an interest which stems from her passion for helping others. She is thrilled that she’ll be able to touch the lives of other people on an even grander scale via her basketball foundation as well as playing professional basketball around the world.

After graduation, Bria became the 14th female to play for the world famous Harlem Globetrotters. Bria is An Official USA Basketball Youth Development Licensed Coach. In 2018, Bria began an assistant coach for Saint Francis University’s women’s basketball team. She helped coach the team to a conference championship game appearance. In 2019, Bria became the head girls varsity basketball coach at New Foundations Charter School in her hometown of Philadelphia. She won her first championship as a head coach during her first year at NFCS.

It has always been a lifelong goal for Bria to give back to the community in which she grew up in. In July 2017 she started Bria Young Basketball Inc.

Nzingha Prescod

Fencing

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Algeria

A two-time Olympian and Brooklyn native, Prescod became the first African-American woman to win an individual medal at the Senior World Championships when she took bronze in 2015.

Prescod hails from the well-regarded Peter Westbrook Foundation, an organization dedicated to bringing the art of fencing to the inner-city youth of New York, where she has been fencing since she was nine years old. Prescod displayed an extraordinary talent for the sport at a very young age, winning her first Youth 10 national competition in 2003. By the age of 15, Prescod was ranked in the top five of the Senior division, among the nation’s elite and Olympic women’s foilists. In the same year, 2008, Prescod won her first Cadet (under-17) World Championship and followed up the next year with her second World Championship title. In 2011, she continued her dominance on the world stage with another World Championship win in the Junior (under-20) category. That same year, Prescod was also featured in Essence magazine as part of the Work & Wealth Power List, with First Lady Michelle Obama gracing the cover. Prescod has since been featured in national and international media, most recently being included in the 2016 ESPN Body Issue.

Prescod qualified for the London Olympic Games at just 19 and returned to the pinnacle of fencing competition in Rio at 23 where she finished 11th.

Sheri Sam

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Armenia
  • 2018  –  Georgia

Sheri Sam (born May 05, 1974) is a guard for the Orlando Miracle. She played college basketball at Vanderbilt.

Ruthie Bolton

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2008  –  Saudi Arabia
  • 2013  –  Kazakhstan
  • 2014  –  Moldova
  • 2015  –  Bangladesh
  • 2018  –  Armenia
  • 2018  –  Georgia
  • 2019  –  Kosovo
  • 2019  –  Albania

Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and WNBA All-Star.

Scored over 2,000 career points, is fourth of the WNBA’s all-time 3-pointer list, and is the only player in the history of the Sacramento Monarchs to have her number retired.

First WNBA Player of the Week in July of 1997, a member of the 1999 First Team All WNBA, and a two-time WNBA All-Star in 1999 and 2001
The 1991 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year.

Played with the 1995-96 US Women’s National Team that compiled a perfect 60-0 record.

In four seasons at Auburn, she led her team to a combined record of 199-13, which included three Southeastern Conference Championships (1987-1989), four NCAA Tournament appearances and two runner-up finishes in 1988 and 1989.

She was named to the 1988 NCAA Women’s Final Four All-Tournament Team.

A 1st Lieutenant in the United States Army.

2011 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee.

Erin Dickerson

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Benin

Erin Dickerson is in her third season at Georgetown after spending two years at Towson University, most recently as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator.

Last year, Georgetown boasted a mark of 19-16 overall going 9-9 in BIG EAST play and winning eight of its final 10 games. The team made history advancing to the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals for the second-consecutive year, and made it to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) quarterfinals for the first time since 2009. Individually, Dionna White and Dorothy Adomako earned All-BIG EAST honors marking the fourth for both in their Georgetown careers.

In two years back on the Hilltop, she has been a part of teams that have posted two WNIT appearances as GU advanced out of the first round in both marking the first time since 2009. The Blue & Gray has also made two-consecutive trips to the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals. Over the past two years, she has coached four All-BIG EAST honorees as well as boasting the 2018 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year in White and the 2018 BIG EAST Most Improved Player in Cynthia Petke.

Off of the court, she was selected to work with Sports Diplomacy taking a trip to Benin located in Africa for the Sports Envoy Program. There she hosted clinics for local youth, held leadership workshops, performed engagement, community outreach and taught female empowerment.

At Towson, Dickerson played a key role in the Tigers becoming the first Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) squad to sweep James Madison during the regular season since 2012. Under her watch, senior guard Raven Bankston earned a pair of All-CAA accolades after ranking second in the league in scoring. She was also named to the CAA All-Defensive Team. For her efforts, she was named to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Thirty Under 30 presented by Marriott Rewards® honorees for the 2016-17 season. The program was created to recognize 30 up-and-coming women’s basketball coaches age 30 and under at all levels of the game.
Prior to Towson, Dickerson spent two years as an assistant at Illinois State. There she worked with the guards and helped recruit a junior college All-American and the 36th ranked point guard prospect in the nation. Dickerson also spent three years at La Salle as an assistant coach and served as the recruiting coordinator there for two of those three seasons. She began her coaching career at Furman.

The 2009 Northwestern graduate lettered all four years as a shooting guard in the Wildcat basketball program, seeing action in 112 games. As a senior she led Northwestern in 3-point shooting, converting 35 of 96 (36.5%), finishing in the top 10 in the Big 10 Conference.

Debbie Black

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2013  –  Kazakhstan
  • 2018  –  Benin

Debbie Black begins her second season as the Mocs’ assistant coach. She came to UTC as Director of Operations for Jim Foster. With his departure, she was promoted to assistant in Katie Burrows’ first season.

UTC head coach Jim Foster and Black have an extensive association. She first played for the Hall of Fame coach at St. Joseph’s leading the Hawks to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances before graduating in 1984.

Her first assistant coaching position was for Foster at Vanderbilt during the 1999-2000 season. Following her retirement from the WNBA in 2005, she returned to assist Foster at Ohio State for eight seasons. The Buckeyes advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2009 and 2011.

She spent the last four seasons at Eastern Illinois in the Ohio Valley Conference. She led the Panthers to the OVC Tournament twice and finished tied for second in the West in the 2013-14 campaign.

She represented Team USA at the Williams Jones Cup competition in Taipei, Taiwan. The team had a 7-1 record and won the gold medal after defeating Japan 56-54 in the final. She played eight seasons with the Tasmanian Islanders of the WNBL in Australia and helped them to national titles in 1991 and 1995.

In the ABL she was an All-Star selection for the Colorado Xplosion and the 1997 Defensive Player of the Year. While playing for the Atlanta Glory in December 1996, she became one of just a handful of players to record a quadruple double (10p, 14r, 12a, 10s).

In 1999, Black was drafted by the Utah Starzz of the WNBA in the second round. She played for the Miami Sol from 2000-2002 and earned the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Award at the age of 35. In 2003 she was acquired by the Connecticut Sun in the dispersal draft and was there until her retirement in 2005.

Black was hired in May 2013, and served four years as the Panthers’ head coach, compiling a 34-80 record. Her best season was her first, leading Eastern Illinois to a 12-16 record. She replaced Lee Buchanan, who coached for one season before taking the head coaching job of the LaGrange Panthers.