My City December 2022

“We want Flint kids

to see that life can be better! That’s what we do at SBEV. If we plan for our dreams, we can be successful.”

After graduation, she attended Ferris State University where she made the basketball team, quickly becoming a standout. She then transferred and played with Saginaw Valley State before earning a full-ride scholarship to Ken tucky State University where she be came a two-time All-American. “I was the first woman from Flint to receive an athletic scholarship to play basketball,” she states proudly, “and in 1980, I made the United States Olympic Team but that year, the U.S. boycotted the sum mer games.” Next, she was the fourth overall selection for the U. S. Women’s Professional Basketball League, but that league quickly folded.Then came an incredible opportunity – one that Coach

motivational speaker and build a sports complex for Flint,” she says. She quickly got to work building those dreams. At Bryant Junior High School, Coach Linnell honed her skills on the basket ball court, playing on the boy’s team as no girls sports program was offered until Title 9 began in the late ‘70s. Off the court, her time was spent traveling to various schools and other functions with a few older kids to work with youth in basketball and to speak on the impor tance of following your dreams and planning for the future. Organized by Coach Linnell, the group was known as “The Traveling All-Stars” and it sparked her passion for working with youth that would continue through the present day.

even earlier age, however, when Coach Linnell found her ultimate purpose. “When I was six years old, I knew that my life could be something different,” she remembers. “I felt I had a calling from God to make this world a better place.” So, she started to dream big.

“I wanted to play professional basketball, travel the world, be a

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