Writing HERstory: ’99 team relishing in historic run

If 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…