Before she was a WNBA champion, Olympic gold medalist, and head coach of the Duke University women’s basketball team, Kara Lawson was a star in NoVA. Lawson, now 44, led the West Springfield High School Spartans to state championships in 1997 and 1999. She was recently tapped to coach the USA Basketball Women’s National Team at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and we asked her how her NoVA roots have helped shape her impressive career.

What do you like to do when you visit NoVA?

I’m from Alexandria. And my mom still lives in Alexandria. I come home a lot … more during the off-season. Mostly, I like to just spend time with my family and my friends.

What do you love about the area? 

Northern Virginia is great because you have everything. You have sports, you have theater, you have culture, you have sightseeing, you have outdoors. You basically have everything that you need.
The NoVA youth sports culture can be hyper-competitive. What’s your advice for young athletes with dreams of going pro?

Going to school in the area really prepares you for success, because you play a lot of good competition. You have a lot of good coaching in the area, a lot of good players. While college was certainly a step up, I felt very prepared when I got there. So, in our area, if you can rise to be one of the best, then that usually means you’re pretty good. It’s a good barometer for the rest of the country.

What did you learn from your coaches at West Springfield? 

I learned about teamwork. I knew about teamwork from when I was young, but we had very good team chemistry at West Springfield, and everyone had a great understanding of their roles and what they needed to do for the team to be successful. We only lost two games in three years, and we have a close group — six of my high school teammates came to the press conference [announcing my Olympic coaching appointment]. I’m still good friends with a lot of my teammates from high school.

Was coaching something you’ve always wanted to do?

Yeah, I have wanted to be a coach since I was 7 years old. 

What did being selected as the Olympic team’s head coach mean to you?

It represents the journey that it takes to do that. It makes me smile, because I think it symbolizes that I dedicated myself from when I was young to a goal. And I stayed with it over 10 years, 20 years, and was able to reach it. So it was very fulfilling. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Feature image of Kara Lawson courtesy USA Basketball

This story originally ran in our December issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.

A beloved youth sports referee who worked games across Central Indiana for more than three decades has died after collapsing on the court during a girls’ high school basketball game.

Jeff Tamarri, who was known among families as “Jeff the Ref,” was 63 years old.

Tamarri collapsed during a game at Monrovia High School on Friday, Dec. 12, according to NBC affiliate WTHR and the IndyStar.

WTHR reported that Tamarri’s collapse prompted fans to clear the gym so bystanders with medical backgrounds could work on saving him until first responders arrived. 

“I have no doubt in my mind that they did all they could,” fellow youth sports referee Kevin Brown told WTHR. “Unfortunately, I just don’t think there was much to be done.”

Brown mourned Tamarri as a sports referee who enjoyed his job and “was always out there for the right reasons.”

“He truly died doing what I know he loved,” Brown said.

“He had a calming presence, and I always said officials need to lower the temperature in the room,” Brown told WTHR. “Some people are really gifted at it. He was really gifted at it.”

Tamarri’s fellow referee told the outlet that his late colleague appeared to have “some sort of cardiac event” before collapsing on the court. “It was a simple offensive rebound right in the middle of the second quarter, and he turned around to get position on it” before collapsing, Brown told WTHR.

The outlet estimated that Tamarri officiated thousands of youth sports games across his 30-plus year career.

Fellow referee Derek Whitfield announced Tamarri’s death in a post on a local youth umpiring social media page, saying although it “leaves an immense void in our hearts, there is a quiet comfort in knowing he left us pursuing his passion, surrounded by sports that defined so much of his life.”

“Jeff was more than an outstanding official who graced countless games across many sports; he was a mentor, a friend, and a guiding light to young athletes, coaches, and fellow umpires alike,” Whitfield wrote, adding, “Those who knew Jeff will forever remember his warm, infectious smile and the deep, authentic love he showed to players, coaches, colleagues, friends, and his family.”

Referee Terry Taylor, who Whitfield described as Tamarri’s best friend and longtime roommate, told WTHR that Tamarri “was such a great guy.”

“We’d see a lot of faces, the same faces in different sports,” Taylor said. “So from Grand Park to Zionsville to Danville, where we worked a lot in the last few years, there were a lot of upset kids Saturday when they found out.”

ONE OF ANALYSS BENALLY’S most memorable basketball moments didn’t happen during a game. In fact, the Shiprock native didn’t even have a ball in her hands. 

Benally, who plays professionally in Europe, was hosting a camp last year on the Havasupai reservation, in Arizona. The 20 or so campers had gathered to watch Rez Ball, the Netflix film about a Navajo basketball team attempting to win a New Mexico state championship after the death of its star player, in which Benally had a small role. As the (spoiler alert) game-winning shot dropped through the net, a young camper sitting next to Benally tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Look, just imagine that could be me.” 

“It did something to my heart,” Benally says, her voice warm with emotion. “I never had a moment like that in my life. I really got to witness that moment of a kid being inspired, seeing himself being represented, where he’s from, the people he’s from.” 

Benally understands this better than most. She grew up on the Navajo Nation before moving to Wichita, Kansas, with her family at the age of 12 to support her older sister’s basketball dreams at Kansas Wesleyan University. A star in high school who scored more than 1,000 points in her career, Benally played at San Jose State before turning pro. Her career has taken her to leagues in Albania, Kosovo, Romania, and Croatia. “It’s been my goal since I was five,” says the 5-foot-7-inch guard. “It honestly feels like it’s what I am meant to do.”

Over the past four years, Benally and her father, Brian Benally, a varsity assistant basketball coach at Bloomfield High School, have held around 25 ABFive camps in New Mexico and across the country. “We try to get to the smaller communities,” Brian says from their home in Farmington. “Growing up on the rez can be hard, but [achieving success] can be done.” 

More than 200 kids signed up for Benally’s ABFive camp in Shiprock over the summer. “They want to touch her, they want to talk to her, they want pictures,” Brian says. “She enjoys being around the kids.” 

While the camps teach fundamentals like stretching, footwork, agility, and shooting mechanics, there’s a broader message at work as well. “She goes overseas, she learns new cultures, a new way to do things, she comes home, and she doesn’t keep that stuff to herself,” Brian says. “She wants everyone to learn from her and achieve more than she has.” 

Inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame earlier this year, Benally serves as inspiration both on and off the court. “Basketball isn’t who I am,” she says. “It’s simply the thing that’s given me so much. If you were to take it from me, I know exactly who I am and what I need to continue to do.” That’s why the camps are so important each summer. “If I couldn’t do basketball at all, I would definitely be working with the youth.”

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill heard warnings Tuesday about the skyrocketing cost of youth sports pushing American families to the sidelines and raising economic and health concerns.

“$40 billion a year, according to our research, is flowing through youth sports,” Tom Farrey, the founder and executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program, told “Fox & Friends” Wednesday. “And that’s just the parents’ spend. That’s not the public spend, that’s not private equity.”

“That’s almost twice as much money as is flowing through the NFL.”

Farrey participated in Tuesday’s hearing with the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education titled “Benched: The Crisis in American Youth Sports and Its Cost to Our Future.”

BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS HELP WISCONSIN 11-YEAR-OLD ACHIEVE SPORTS BROADCASTING DREAM

70% of youth athletes quit organized sports by age 13, according to the Aspen Institute. (FatCamera/Getty Images)

The average cost for a child to play a sport is more than $1,000 per year, representing a 46% increase since 2019, according to the Aspen Institute. Today, 70% of kids quit organized sports by age 13, the group warned.

Farrey attributed the numbers to the shift away from local recreational leagues in favor of travel leagues that require more commitment. Travel leagues have expanded in recent years, from the high school level all the way down to early elementary school.

“And once we create these trial-based travel teams, which are often private, the cost goes from a couple hundred dollars a year to several thousand dollars a year. And it starts structurally pushing aside a lot of kids who can’t afford it,” he said.

Witnesses at a congressional subcommittee hearing on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education discussed the value of youth sports in developing critical life skills like perseverance, discipline and teamwork. (LuckyBusiness/Getty Images)

Just 24% of kids from low-income homes play recreational sports, compared to 40% of kids from high-income homes, according to a 2021 survey from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.

Time pressure is another factor.

“Our research shows that the average family spends three hours and 20 minutes a day on their kids’ youth sports,” Farrey said, noting the time requirement becomes more challenging for parents with multiple children in sports.

CHILDREN’S HEALTH DECLINES IN LAST 17 YEARS, STUDY FINDS

The subcommittee saw broad agreement about “the value of sports and building healthy kids in terms of military readiness, strong, cohesive communities [and] bringing down health care costs,” Farley said, adding participants agreed that “kids who play sports are more likely to do better in life.”

Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., pointed to the mental and physical health hazards associated with a decline in youth sports participation, claiming “inactive youth feel negatively about themselves at nearly double the rate of youth who are active.”

“Today, one in three youth ages 10 to 17 are overweight or obese. Medical expenses associated with obesity alone cost taxpayers $173 billion a year, with lifetime costs for today’s obese youth projected to exceed a trillion dollars,” Kiley said in his opening statement.

To make youth sports more accessible, Farrey suggested reviving the recreational leagues of his childhood.

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“Bring back recreational leagues, have park and recs say, ‘It is really important that we have low-cost sports up through at least six or seventh or maybe eighth grade, and prioritize the field space.’”

“We don’t need the federal government to come in and solve the problem here,” he added. “This can be done on a community-by-community basis.”

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Detectives with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department want to hear from any additional victims of a man who was just arrested for sex crimes involving children.

In a Tuesday news release, LVMPD officials identified the suspect as 44-year-old Sergio Reyes Rojas, who they say was arrested for a sexual assault that occurred in Las Vegas.

“Detectives believe there may be additional victims due to Rojas having ties to multiple youth sports programs,” police stated.

Rojas was booked into the Clark County Detention Center for multiple charges, including:

• three counts of sexual assault against a child less than 16 years old
• one count of child abuse or neglect
• one count of kidnapping of a minor

Police are asking anyone who may have been a victim of Rojas, or who has information about this crime, to contact LVMPD detectives or Crime Stoppers. The LVMPD Sexual Assault Detail can be reached by phone at 702-828-3421. Anonymous tips can be made through Crime Stoppers by calling 702-385-5555 or online at crimestoppersofnv.com.

LAKE CITY, Minn. (KTTC) – The victim in last week’s shooting in Lake City has now been identified.

According to a Facebook post by the Lake City Police Department, Daniel Jankowski, 60, of Lake City, has been hospitalized since the incident.

According to his family, he is slowly improving but is still in critical care.

The suspect, William Piar, 81, is behind bars in the Goodhue County Jail.

His bail is set at $4 million without conditions or $2 million with conditions.

The shooting occurred December 10 off North Lakeshore Drive.

Responding officers found Jankowski in an adjacent apartment within the same building that houses the Subway restaurant.

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