Donna Sullivan never misses a chance to coach if there is a group of basketball players listening.
At the camp Saturday morning during the Donna Sullivan Legacy Celebration at Seymour Middle School, Sullivan talked about a game in the Columbus Regional in 1985.
The Owls held a one-point lead with 12 seconds remaining when Teri Moren put up a shot from the corner, but the ball didn’t go in, and the other team rebounded and went down and scored and won the game by one point.
Sullivan asked the group of campers, when protecting a one-point lead, what should you be doing? One of the campers said “shooting,” but Sullivan said hold the ball.
“Nobody felt more devastated than coach Moren was about it,” Sullivan said. “She decided she would become the best girls basketball player that Seymour High School ever had. She never put down a basketball from that day on.”
Moren helped the Owls advance to the Final Four and became an Indiana All-Star in 1987, then played at Purdue University before becoming a college coach. She recently signed a contract extension to coach the Indiana University women through the 2028-29 season and is the second-highest paid women’s coach in the Big Ten.
Sullivan coached the Seymour girls from 1971 through the 2000-01 season and won 344 games, 10 sectionals and five regionals.
Seymour’s Kendall Sterling and Kenzie Gagner try to steal the ball from Trinity Lutheran’s Madison Keith during a scrimmage at the Donna Sullivan Legacy Celebration at Seymour Middle School
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Donna Sullivan (sitting) talks with Erika McCoy (left) and Libby McCarty (right) at Sullivan’s celebration on Saturday at Seymour Middle School.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Donna Sullivan speaks to the crowd during a tribute to her Saturday at Seymour Middle School.
Bill Foley Photography
Donna Sullivan, fourth from left, is joined by some of her former players during her celebration at Seymour Middle School on Saturday afternoon. From left are Sydney Jaynes, Erika McCoy, Teri Moren, Sullivan, Julie Shelton, Amber Williams, Jean Laupus and Karen Renner Jarsen.
Bill Foley Photography
Several members of the 1971 team were at the celebration and took part in a demonstration of how the game was played 52 years ago.
Before the players were introduced, Sullivan said, “They were all pretty good players. Our goal in Seymour was to start a girls sports program, and the first team we started was girls basketball.”
Sullivan said that team went 8-0, defeating Bedford, Bloomington, Columbus and Shelbyville each twice. She said the team practiced whenever it could get time in the gym, sometimes before school or in the evenings after the boys practiced.
She said the uniform top in those days was a T-shirt and printing “Seymour” on the front and a number on the back.
A clinic was held Saturday morning at which Butler University’s Sydney Jaynes and two IU players worked with elementary girls on their basic basketball skills.
Jaynes told the crowd about playing at St. John’s Sauers Lutheran School, where she helped her team win a Lutheran national tournament played at Valparaiso University.
Jaynes then went to Trinity Lutheran High School, where she became an Indiana All-Star before enrolling at Butler.
“I was so thankful that coach Sull took her time to be able to coach me while I was in high school,” Jaynes said.
Sullivan was an assistant coach at Trinity where Mike Lang has been the head coach, and Darrin Keith will be the head coach this winter.
During the afternoon, Seymour and Trinity Lutheran’s varsity teams played, and the Owls won 34-32.
A 3-point contest followed and Seymour’s Emmy Munson won that.
Later in the afternoon, a tribute to Sullivan was held in the middle school cafeteria, and Sullivan was introduced by Moren.