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DelleDonne Adds Texas

Elena DelleDonne

By Glenn Nelson
HoopGurlz Publisher
Apr 12, 2007

On the eve of her debut with a new club team, Elena DelleDonne's school interests follow Gail Goestenkors from Duke to Texas.

STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON

Although much recent speculation has surrounded Elena DelleDonne's recruitment, the No. 1 prospect in the 2008 class continues a studied, methodical march toward her highly anticipated college choice.

In fact, the biggest news regarding DelleDonne may be her new club team - the Comets from the Philadelphia area - with which she will debut at the Boo Williams Invitational this weekend. She reports that her new teammates have been very accepting and "just want to win." DelleDonne's longtime club team, Fencor, dissolved when coach Veronica Algeo took a new job that precluded her from coaching.

On the recruiting front, DelleDonne made a change to her list of six finalists, dropping Duke and adding Texas - essentially a nod to Gail Goestenkors, who recently accepted the head coaching job with the Longhorns. The 6-foot-4 sharpshooter also recently informed at least a couple of schools - Notre Dame and Stanford - that they no longer were under consideration.

"I definitely will take a trip to Texas because I respect Gail so much," DelleDonne said.

The change sidesteps a complicated situation with Duke, where DelleDonne's brother Gene originally attended on a football scholarship but subsequently transferred to Middle Tennessee, a school also among Elena DelleDonne's finalists.

DelleDonne's final six now includes Connecticut, Maryland, Tennessee and Villanova, in addition to Middle Tennessee and Texas. DelleDonne has been invited to the USA Basketball U19 tryouts, May 17-20, in Colorado Springs. She's planned to pare her list further after the tryouts, then perhaps make a decision in June.

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Glenn Nelson is the publisher of HoopGurlz.com and the editor-in-chief of Scout Media (www.Scout.com), an online sports network and magazine-publishing company and subsidiary of Fox Interactive Media. Glenn also founded and coached the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girl's basketball teams. He previously was a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle Times. His work also has appeared in several national magazines and books. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002). He can be reached at hoopgurlz@comcast.net.