Coach Mom: Mother-daughter bonds extend to playing field

RICHMOND, Virginia (EXCERPT) --  Mother’s Day isn’t restricted to the second Sunday in May for women who coach their children in competitive athletics. It can occur just as easily on a frosty night in November. Or a muggy Saturday afternoon in August.

Virginia Union University Head Women's Basketball Coach
Barvenia Wooten-Cherry coached daughter, Vicki Collier in 2012
Credit: Times-Dispatch.

Virginia Union women’s basketball coach Barvenia Wooten-Cherry knows the feeling. Wooten-Cherry coached her daughter, Vicki Collier, during the Panthers’ 2012 season. Like her mother two decades earlier, Collier became an all-CIAA performer while wearing VUU’s maroon and steel.

“Was it a good experience? No, it was a great experience,” Wooten-Cherry said. “Something inside of me had always wanted the two of us to do great things together on a basketball court. So to actually have the opportunity to be there with her, not only as her mother but also as her coach and mentor, wow. What more could I possibly ask for?”

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