Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
#TitleIX50: Lady Raider Basketball’s Janet Ross
1/22/2023 12:30:00 PM | General, Women's Basketball, BRAA
When I think back on my time as a Lady Raider, both as a player and a coach, there are two stories that stand out in my mind that sum up how thankful I am that Title IX came to be 50 years ago. Luckily, I can give them to you both from the eyes of a coach and a player, since one of them happened while I was an assistant coach and the other happened while I was a player.
Having that unique perspective seeing things as both a player and coach growing up in the game of basketball has given me a unique perspective on life. I know that without basketball, I wouldn't be the same woman that I am today.
The first story that I'd like to share was from when I was an assistant coach. This story brings back a lot of fond memories of my time spent with the other coaches on staff and being able to have an impact on a lot of other young ladies. Without Title IX, there's no way on God's green earth that something like this could've ever happened to a young girl from Adamsville, Tennessee like me.
Early on in my first few years, we had a player that we were looking at from west Tennessee, sort of near where I grew up. I'd been on her for several years throughout her high school career, and, at the time, recruiting in women's NCAA Division I basketball was largely regionalized. Sure, we had a few players from out of state, but being the hotbed for girls' basketball that Tennessee was, we got a large bulk of our talent from right here in the state.
When this young lady was a senior (she asked that I not share her name), we as coaches had a pretty good feeling it was going to come down to us at Middle Tennessee and Pat Summitt and the Tennessee Lady Vols. I caught wind that Coach Summitt was going to have one of the big orange private jets flown out to pick this young lady up and bring her back to Knoxville to spend the weekend for her official visit. Of course, we didn't exactly have a big blue private jet to pick recruits up in those days, so we had to get creative, to say the least.
I had a good friend of mine who was part of the Aerospace program here at MTSU and became a pilot. We got her a Lady Raider flight suit, and my fellow assistant coach Diane Turnham came with us, and we rented a small Cesna-like aircraft painted blue and white to fly out to west Tennessee to pick this girl up and bring her back to Murfreesboro.
I will never forget this. The weather that day was horrendous! It was by far the bumpiest, scariest plane ride I've ever taken in my life! By the time we landed in west Tennessee, I'll never forget looking at Diane and seeing that her face was every bit as green as mine was as we were trying to climb out of this little plane and could barely even stand up when we finally got on the tarmac.
As funny as all that may sound, we ended up getting her back to Murfreesboro, she had an awesome visit, and we actually signed her!
Stories like that are exactly why I wanted to get into coaching after my playing days. Those are memories that will last a lifetime, and without Title IX affording me the opportunity to become a coach, I never would've had that experience!
As a player, aside from just time shared with my teammates, the thing that I loved most about playing Division I college basketball at MTSU was just how good we were as a group. I'm blessed to say that aside from going on to become the first Graduate Assistant and eventually an assistant coach, the thing I cherish most from the basketball side of things in my time at Middle was the fact that we were Ohio Valley Conference regular season champions all four years I played, and we won three OVC Tournaments, and I got to experience playing in the NCAA Tournament three times!
My sophomore year, we went to South Carolina and actually beat them and advanced to the second round of the tournament. As great a game as that was, I think that was one of the moments that I truly was able to realize just how important we as a women's basketball team were to MTSU as a whole. Growing up, I played in barns and shot baskets in my backyard under a spotlight until past midnight during the summer. Until the end of my eighth grade year, I had to play half court three on three! That's just how the game was until I got to high school, which was the very first year that the (Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association) had full court five-on-five basketball for girls.
Fast forward six years later and I'm a sophomore starting in an NCAA Tournament first round game against a powerful SEC team with some of the best players in the entire country. Luckily, I had some of the best players in the country alongside me that night, and we went out and took care of business. But, just to think, I was able to go from shooting in my backyard to getting an assist on a basket by Kim Webb, who I still consider to be the best basketball player I've ever seen, showed me that through basketball I was able to accomplish anything in life.
I went on to accomplish some pretty amazing things in my playing days. There was a game against Tennessee Tech my senior year where I hit eight three pointers, and I led the team in assists both my junior and senior seasons. I say that to show that I had teammates like Kim Webb, Kay Wilbanks and Jennifer McFall that numbers-wise blew what I did out of the water!
Title IX gave me the opportunity to be a part of history! Our win against South Carolina was arguably the biggest single-game win in any sport on our campus dating all the way back to when MTSU opened in 1911. I got to play with some of the true pioneers of Lady Raider Basketball that I can without a doubt say laid the foundation for what it means to be a Lady Raider today. I had an unbelievable opportunity to spend nine years in Murfreesboro and earn two degrees and continue to help building a program that is a respected one nationwide as we sit here today.
After those nine years at MTSU, I went on to teach and was the head coach for the girls' basketball team at Milan High School from 1992-98 and then moved into a career in sales, which is where I still am today as a Regional Sales Manager for a company called Boston Scientific. The mentality of being able to accomplish anything that I got from basketball has led to many successes in my current career, and I've built a team of five former college athletes that I've hired to the company that are now managers in their own respective markets.
Being an athlete, and especially a college athlete, has really made me into the person that I am today. I have so many other stories that I could tell from my time at MTSU, but as it relates to Title IX, I decided on these two in particular because they show a common theme: you can do anything you set your mind to if you're willing to go the extra mile and put in the hard work. Title IX has given the opportunity for lots of young women to have experiences like these over the past 50 years.
My time at MTSU was such a pivotal point in my life. I'll always be so thankful for that. I've always been super competitive, which carried into my career today. Being a Lady Raider for nine years fueled that competitive spirit.
Things have changed so much for the better for not only for MTSU Women's Basketball, but for women's college sports as a whole. Title IX has been the main part of that, and I'm so grateful for the impact it had on me and for the chance to become who I am through the game I love.
Having that unique perspective seeing things as both a player and coach growing up in the game of basketball has given me a unique perspective on life. I know that without basketball, I wouldn't be the same woman that I am today.
The first story that I'd like to share was from when I was an assistant coach. This story brings back a lot of fond memories of my time spent with the other coaches on staff and being able to have an impact on a lot of other young ladies. Without Title IX, there's no way on God's green earth that something like this could've ever happened to a young girl from Adamsville, Tennessee like me.
Early on in my first few years, we had a player that we were looking at from west Tennessee, sort of near where I grew up. I'd been on her for several years throughout her high school career, and, at the time, recruiting in women's NCAA Division I basketball was largely regionalized. Sure, we had a few players from out of state, but being the hotbed for girls' basketball that Tennessee was, we got a large bulk of our talent from right here in the state.
When this young lady was a senior (she asked that I not share her name), we as coaches had a pretty good feeling it was going to come down to us at Middle Tennessee and Pat Summitt and the Tennessee Lady Vols. I caught wind that Coach Summitt was going to have one of the big orange private jets flown out to pick this young lady up and bring her back to Knoxville to spend the weekend for her official visit. Of course, we didn't exactly have a big blue private jet to pick recruits up in those days, so we had to get creative, to say the least.
I had a good friend of mine who was part of the Aerospace program here at MTSU and became a pilot. We got her a Lady Raider flight suit, and my fellow assistant coach Diane Turnham came with us, and we rented a small Cesna-like aircraft painted blue and white to fly out to west Tennessee to pick this girl up and bring her back to Murfreesboro.
I will never forget this. The weather that day was horrendous! It was by far the bumpiest, scariest plane ride I've ever taken in my life! By the time we landed in west Tennessee, I'll never forget looking at Diane and seeing that her face was every bit as green as mine was as we were trying to climb out of this little plane and could barely even stand up when we finally got on the tarmac.
As funny as all that may sound, we ended up getting her back to Murfreesboro, she had an awesome visit, and we actually signed her!
Stories like that are exactly why I wanted to get into coaching after my playing days. Those are memories that will last a lifetime, and without Title IX affording me the opportunity to become a coach, I never would've had that experience!
As a player, aside from just time shared with my teammates, the thing that I loved most about playing Division I college basketball at MTSU was just how good we were as a group. I'm blessed to say that aside from going on to become the first Graduate Assistant and eventually an assistant coach, the thing I cherish most from the basketball side of things in my time at Middle was the fact that we were Ohio Valley Conference regular season champions all four years I played, and we won three OVC Tournaments, and I got to experience playing in the NCAA Tournament three times!
My sophomore year, we went to South Carolina and actually beat them and advanced to the second round of the tournament. As great a game as that was, I think that was one of the moments that I truly was able to realize just how important we as a women's basketball team were to MTSU as a whole. Growing up, I played in barns and shot baskets in my backyard under a spotlight until past midnight during the summer. Until the end of my eighth grade year, I had to play half court three on three! That's just how the game was until I got to high school, which was the very first year that the (Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association) had full court five-on-five basketball for girls.
Fast forward six years later and I'm a sophomore starting in an NCAA Tournament first round game against a powerful SEC team with some of the best players in the entire country. Luckily, I had some of the best players in the country alongside me that night, and we went out and took care of business. But, just to think, I was able to go from shooting in my backyard to getting an assist on a basket by Kim Webb, who I still consider to be the best basketball player I've ever seen, showed me that through basketball I was able to accomplish anything in life.
I went on to accomplish some pretty amazing things in my playing days. There was a game against Tennessee Tech my senior year where I hit eight three pointers, and I led the team in assists both my junior and senior seasons. I say that to show that I had teammates like Kim Webb, Kay Wilbanks and Jennifer McFall that numbers-wise blew what I did out of the water!
Title IX gave me the opportunity to be a part of history! Our win against South Carolina was arguably the biggest single-game win in any sport on our campus dating all the way back to when MTSU opened in 1911. I got to play with some of the true pioneers of Lady Raider Basketball that I can without a doubt say laid the foundation for what it means to be a Lady Raider today. I had an unbelievable opportunity to spend nine years in Murfreesboro and earn two degrees and continue to help building a program that is a respected one nationwide as we sit here today.
After those nine years at MTSU, I went on to teach and was the head coach for the girls' basketball team at Milan High School from 1992-98 and then moved into a career in sales, which is where I still am today as a Regional Sales Manager for a company called Boston Scientific. The mentality of being able to accomplish anything that I got from basketball has led to many successes in my current career, and I've built a team of five former college athletes that I've hired to the company that are now managers in their own respective markets.
Being an athlete, and especially a college athlete, has really made me into the person that I am today. I have so many other stories that I could tell from my time at MTSU, but as it relates to Title IX, I decided on these two in particular because they show a common theme: you can do anything you set your mind to if you're willing to go the extra mile and put in the hard work. Title IX has given the opportunity for lots of young women to have experiences like these over the past 50 years.
My time at MTSU was such a pivotal point in my life. I'll always be so thankful for that. I've always been super competitive, which carried into my career today. Being a Lady Raider for nine years fueled that competitive spirit.
Things have changed so much for the better for not only for MTSU Women's Basketball, but for women's college sports as a whole. Title IX has been the main part of that, and I'm so grateful for the impact it had on me and for the chance to become who I am through the game I love.
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