Jones Venick’s team inducted into Richmond Hall of Fame
Former Laurel Highlands and Richmond basketball standout Julie Jones Venick was honored on Nov. 2 when she and her teammates from the 1989-90 Spiders women’s basketball team were selected as a Team of Distinction and inducted into the University of Richmond Sports Hall of Fame.
“I found out in September,” Jones Venick said. “I was thrilled, I actually had heard it from my former coach Stephanie Gaitley. They probably had mentioned it to her first. I guess we were on the ballot and then it wasn’t probably two weeks later that I got official notification that we were chosen as the Team of Distinction. We are I think the 10th team to receive this honor.”
The honor brought back a flood of memories for Jones Venick.
“Absolutely, it was the first NCAA (tournament) team at Richmond for women’s basketball,” Jones Venick recalled. “We were fortunate enough the go to the NCAA tournament the next year as well, but that first year going to the tournament is a little more special because you don’t know what it’s like and that’s what your ultimate goal is, to make the NCAA tournament, and we had come so close the year before, so it definitely was our goal for that year.”
The 1989-90 Richmond women’s basketball team has some impressive credentials.
A year removed from the program’s first-ever postseason appearance in the WNIT, the 1990 women’s basketball team gave an encore postseason performance, but this time on the sport’s biggest stage — the NCAA Tournament.
Coach Gaitley’s team won a school record 25 games that included a program-best, 15-game winning streak that was stopped on the road by perennial top 25 women’s national power Old Dominion.
On the road to the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance, the Spiders did take care of conference power James Madison — twice. Richmond handed JMU its first home Colonial Athletic Association loss in five years during the regular season, then edged the four-time defending conference champs in the tournament title game, 47-46. Richmond (25-5, 11-1 CAA) won its first regular season and postseason conference crowns.
Senior guard Pam Bryant was named CAA Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, and went on to be named CAA Tournament Most Valuable Player. She finished second in the league in scoring (17 ppg) and steals (2.5 spg). Bryant concluded her Richmond Hall-of-Fame career second all-time in scoring (1766 points).
In her fifth year at the helm, Gaitley was named CAA Coach of the Year. The Spiders led the CAA and were ranked nationally in scoring defense (53 ppg), free throw percentage (77%), three-point shooting (43%) scoring margin (14.5) and winning percentage (.852). Sophomore forward Amy Mallon earned Second-Team All CAA honors, freshman center Kristy Sipple was named to the CAA All-Rookie Team and Bryant to the CAA All-Defensive Team.
Sophomore Jones Venick was the second-leading scorer on the team behind Bryant, notching 354 points for an average of 11,8 ppg. Jones Venick had some big moments during the 1989-90 season:
n She was named to the All-Tournament Team at the Santa Clara Invitational as she scored 11 and 19 points, respectively, in wins over UC Santa Barbara and host Santa Clara.
n In game 15 of winning streak, with Richmond down 52-51, she hit a 3-pointer with eight seconds left for a 54-52 victory over George Mason.
n She scored 15 straight points in a win over the University of Pennsylvania. She had 10 straight points, including a half-court shot at the end of the first half, and added five more in a row to open the second half as part of a 23-0 run to go from down 25-16 to up 39-25.
n She was the CAA Player of the Week for Feb. 19, 1990, after scoring 27 points against ODU, including seven 3-pointers, and 23 against UNC-Wilmington, both victories.
Jones Venick was profiled in a Memory Lane column in 2011. Here are a few excerpts from that column.
Jones Venick starred at Laurel Highlands under then coach Bob Hogan. She also had the influence of a Uniontown coaching legend early in her career.
“I actually did have the pleasure of having Abe Everhart coach me between my eighth grade and ninth grade years during summer league and undergraduate play that year,” Jones Venick said. “It had a big impact on me even though it was a very short amount of time to be under him. I remember he gave me this handout of do’s and don’t’s and it was posted in my room through my whole high school career.”
Laurel Highlands fielded some competitive teams during her four years under coach Hogan.
“We made the playoffs my freshman year,” she recalled. “That’s when we had Alana Jackson and she was the big gun because she was a senior and I was just sort of this unknown freshman. They were keying mainly on Jackson and I was able to have a pretty successful freshman campaign. I know we made the playoffs again my senior year.”
Jones Venick posted some great numbers for the Fillies. She was a 1,000-point scorer and actually surpassed that mark during her junior season. She was All County and All Section for three straight seasons. She led the WPIAL in scoring as a senior at 27.6 ppg and was named to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Fabulous Five. She also lettered for four years in softball at LH.
“I had the scoring record for awhile until Candace John passed me,” Jones Venick said. “I was a pretty good 3-point shooter and we only had the 3-point shot my senior year and I had 99 3-pointers, which still might be a record.”
She graduated in 1988 and feels playing AAU basketball got her noticed by college coaches.
“I’m sure I was noticed because of AAU ball,” she explained. “AAU was around and I had to go to Pittsburgh and I played on a team coached by Paul Seneca and I’m sure that got me the initial exposure.”
Georgia, Richmond and Penn State came calling along with Ivy League schools.
“Richmond didn’t really recruit me heavily,” she remembers. “My cousin had applied there and my aunt was harping in my parents’ ear about how beautiful the campus was and the academics were outstanding. I sent out some letters to other schools that I thought I might be interested in and, of course, my cousin Barry Taylor went to school at Richmond and Greg Beckwith, who graduated with my brother played there.
“We knew a little bit about Richmond and I decided to go there. Once I went for my visit I knew that was the place and it worked out great.”
Jones Venick started every game during her career at Richmond and had a very solid career. A co- captain as a senior, she tallied 1,521 points in her career for an average of 12.4 ppg. She reached double figures 87 times.
For her career she was 309 of 712 on 3-pointers for a sparkling 43.4 percent. The Spiders were 94-29 during her four seasons.
The 1989-90 Women’s Basketball Spiders Team of Distinction was enshrined in the Richmond Sports Hall of Fame during homecoming weekend Nov. 1-2. They were honored with the other Richmond Hall of Fame inductees: Jill Murphy Myers, 2003, field hockey; Matt McCracken, 2010, football; Russell Smelley, 1978, track; Jennifer McKay Williams, 1997, swimming & diving; and Tom “Red” Booker, 1961, basketball and baseball.
The 2019 UR Athletics Hall of Fame Class was introduced at halftime of the football game against Stony Brook.
“Unfortunately, Pam Bryant couldn’t make it back for the weekend,” Jones Venick said. “That was probably my biggest disappointment of the weekend. We all wanted to see the star of our team. Some of my teammates, I hadn’t seen since we graduated 29 years ago. It was a wonderful weekend.”
Jones Venick has been named as an Atlantic 10 Legend and was inducted into the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame in 2011. This latest honor holds a special place for her.
“It’s humbling to know that there is a plaque that’s going to be in the Robbins Center on campus,” Jones Venick said. “That plaque will be there forever and it has our names on it and our pictures, so yeah it’s a big deal.”
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Monday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.