My earliest memories of Kristi Toliver, the fast-moving and highly skilled freshman on the 2006 champion University of Maryland women’s basketball team, winner of the women’s NCAA title, are of her as a toddler with a basketball in her hand. As Kristi’s first cousin, I have proudly watched her play exceptional basketball all season with a talent and agility well beyond what her age would dictate.
However, as I reflect on our family heritage, it’s not at all surprising. Her mother, Peggy Toliver, is very active in athletics. Her father, my uncle George Toliver, is a 16-year veteran referee in the NBA. Her father installed a hoop in the driveway of their house in Virginia and put a basketball in his daughter’s hands when she was barely a baby. How could Kristi go wrong? She couldn’t, and she hasn’t.
Kristi’s mom and dad aren’t the only ones who are sports-minded in our family. Long before the WNBA was formed, all of Kristi’s aunts – George’s sisters Agatha, Jacqueline and Ramona – played basketball in high school. There’s also her uncle by marriage, my father, coach Paul “Doc” Hines, who is the retired basketball and football coach featured in the Disney movie Remember the Titans. Sports run deep in this family.
My brother Michael and I grew up watching basketball games for as long as we can remember in the same way Kristi and her sister Carli did. However, Kristi, under the tutelage of her father, has learned to play the game of basketball with the greatest of finesse. The good coaching on and off the court has paid off.
But, once again, it runs in the family, for my father was George Toliver’s physical education teacher. George graciously wrote the forward for the book I wrote about my father titled, A Titan of a Man. In it, he says of his former physical education teacher, “He was someone I respected for the discipline he taught, for the leadership he displayed, for the firm, but fair persona, which helped mold my life skills.” Are these not the qualities we see in Kristi – good discipline and excellent leadership? I should say so.
When I watched Kristi play I kept thinking in my mind, “That girl, my cousin, has heart.” At 5’7″, she may not be as tall as some of the other women on the team, but, boy, can she hustle. Over the years, I have had a few opportunities to see Kristi play. I’ve kept abreast of her basketball exploits and successes as well as those of her sister Carli, who played basketball at Lehigh University. To watch Kristi play as a starter at Maryland over this past season has been a delight.
On the night of the final game against Duke, my grandparents and Aunt Agatha in Virginia, my brother and parents in Maryland, my uncle in Ohio, my Aunt Ramona and myself in California, our cousins and the rest of the family all over the country watched the game anxiously as we called each other on the phone during the commercial breaks. During the first half of the game, I yelled at the TV, “Wake up, girls,” and, “Kristi, come on, come on.” However, in the second half, Maryland woke up and came back with a vengeance. The final 3-point shot made by Kristi causing the game to go into overtime will go down in history.
It is with great happiness and pride I wish to congratulate Kristi, all the players on the University of Maryland team and their coach Brenda Frese. Finally, and most importantly, I thank Peggy and George Toliver for raising two lovely and talented young women, my cousins Kristi and Carli. As parents, they supported Kristi, honed in on her natural abilities and helped her develop into the talented basketball player she is today. She has made all of her family proud. She is a joy to watch and we look forward to three more titles for Maryland in the upcoming years. Go Terrapins!
Paula Hines Lonergan is a writer, motivational speaker and author of the inspirational biography, A Titan of a Man – A Coach of the Famous ’71 Titans Who Inspired Generations of Young People. For more information, visit www.PRLDesigns.com.
