Hokie ClubIf you've been walking around the Hokies' headquarters in Dallas, otherwise known as the Hyatt Regency hotel, the past few days, you might have passed by a few former members of the Virginia Tech women's basketball 1998-99 team that made it to the Sweet 16.
You should see the smiles on their faces.
Even though this current 2022-23 team was all born after 1999, the group that went before has a love for them that is hard to describe.
In a sit-down interview earlier this morning with a few members of the '99 team – Julie Felix (athletic trainer), Sarah Hicks (guard/forward), Michelle Houseright (center) and Nicole Jones (forward/center) – you could feel the adoration they have for this team and how badly they want them to get it done in Dallas for Tech's first-ever team national championship.
"It's almost like your kids," Houseright said, "now that a lot of us are moms and stuff, watching this team is almost like you want it more for them than we did for ourselves."
As they were reflecting on their team a little over two decades ago, they couldn't help but see the same traits back then that this current team exemplifies – chemistry, selflessness, trust, toughness, just to name a few.
Those things have certainly helped in leading Tech to 31 wins this season and have been showcased through their play, especially since the turn of the calendar to March.
But before we get into March 2023, let's take a step back to March 1999.
During the week of hosting the NCAA Tournament at Cassell Coliseum for the first time in school history, the team was stretching and about to begin practice when then-head coach Bonnie Henrickson told the team that they're actually going to clean those seats on the highest row for the weekend. It marked the first time a women's basketball game at Cassell Coliseum had sold out.
Though it may seem like a trivial thing to say, it spoke to the momentum the Hokies had and how Hokie Nation rallied around them.
Now, 20-plus years later, history repeated itself.
Tech hosted the first and second round games as a No. 1 seed earlier this month in front of a sold-out crowd, and Jones got to take it in and also ran into some other teammates from teams that came after the iconic '99 team.
Driving to Blacksburg with Emily Lipton, Jones and Lipton got to see Megan Finnerty, Dawn Chriss and Erin Gibson on the concourse and caught up. Even though Finnerty, Chriss and Gibson weren't on the '99 team, the bond they have as Hokies is second to none.
The bond as a whole amongst former teammates grew stronger at the hotel last night, with Felix, Hicks, Houseright and Jones being huddled around a table that kept growing, as folks wanted to hear them swapping their legendary stories from '99. Jenny Root swung by, too, and joined in on the fun, as well as current guard Georgia Amoore's parents.
The group really enjoyed getting to know more about Georgia, as her mom, Kelly, shared about Georgia's childhood and how she has loved so much being a Hokie.
One of those legendary stories that was told was about Felix, who was a prankster. She went into Hicks' hotel room one time and took off the shower head and put some instant bouillon chicken-flavored cubes in it and put it back on. Hicks wasn't the happiest camper when it came to taking a shower, you might guess.
But Felix talked about how she got to be the trainer for many teams in the '90s and how they all really just meshed together, due to the fact that many players were still around and went to the games to stay involved with the program. That culture was contagious then and it is again now.
"I don't want to rush things along for them," Hicks said, "but I'm super excited for them to be able to sit around a table and tell stories that we were telling last night. It was special."
This moment of the Hokies making the Final Four has brought on great pride from previous teams and has allowed numerous folks to come to Dallas and reunite with one another in a special way.
Before the Final Four, though, there was the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight for the Hokies and they had to get by No. 4-seeded Tennessee and No. 3-seeded Ohio State.
A group chat on WhatsApp of the '99 team had already been established during this NCAA Tournament run, with the group texting each other throughout each game. But with the momentum coming off of opening weekend, the group wanted to add a little more to that and did a couple of Zoom calls last weekend during the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight.
The group is superstitious, too. So, yes, they're all wearing what they wore for those virtual sessions here in Dallas this weekend, to keep the good vibes going.
Houseright, who admittedly was not quite the organizer in college, has stepped up and really taken that role this year, getting the group together on WhatsApp and making sure they make time to see each other in Dallas. The group text was originally just the '99 teammates, but has now expanded to more teammates from different years now in the chat.
The new regime of head coach Kenny Brooks in Blacksburg is continuing to reach new heights that the program has never done so previously. The group shared today how appreciative they are of his work and how he is truly leading these young women.
He has the great ability to take someone who already has great skills and then do drill work with them, coach them up and love on them in the process – that culture-building aspect – and through that, it perfects their craft into something special.
Brooks opened his press conference Thursday by saying how his team is not just happy to be here. They're here to win. And they're about to do it in front of the team that set the foundation 20-plus years ago, and they simply can't wait.
Writing HERstory Campaign
Coinciding with Women's History Month in March and the 50th anniversary of Title IX, Virginia Tech Athletics launched a multi-platform brand campaign celebrating the incredible achievements of its female student-athletes, both past and present, while inspiring the next generation of women who aspire to achieve their dreams through athletics. In partnership with Truist, Tech will share stories of its past and current female student-athletes over the course of the calendar year. Ranging from podcast interviews to feature stories and more, the incredible moments and achievements by women over the years in Virginia Tech Athletics will be celebrated. To make a direct impact on the program or to sign up for the monthly Writing HERstory newsletter.