Georgetown girls’s basketball mentor Tasha Butts died Monday later a two-year combat with breast most cancers, the varsity’s athletic director mentioned. She was once 41.
The mentor was diagnosed with advanced-stage breast most cancers in 2021. She stepped away from coaching Georgetown extreme age. Her analysis impressed the Tasha Difficult marketing campaign, which has introduced consciousness and raised cash in order attribute lend a hand to girls who can’t have enough money it throughout the Kay Yow Most cancers Charity.
She came to Georgetown from Georgia Tech this moment April later a protracted training {and professional} WNBA occupation. She joined the Georgia Tech girls’s basketball workforce as an colleague mentor in April 2019, and was once promoted to colleague head mentor two years upcoming.
“I am heartbroken for Tasha’s family, friends, players, teammates and colleagues,” Georgetown athletic director Lee Reed mentioned. “When I met Tasha, I knew she was a winner on the court, and an incredible person whose drive, passion and determination was second to none. She exhibited these qualities both as a leader and in her fight against breast cancer.
“This can be a tough pace for all the Georgetown public, and we will be able to come in combination to honor her reminiscence.”
Disheartened 💔
We can be sturdy and keep #TashaTough 💙 🤍 #HoyaSaxa pic.twitter.com/8PTvAyK0H8
— Georgetown WBB (@GeorgetownWBB) October 23, 2023
Butts replaced James Howard as Georgetown coach in April, saying she was “tremendous fascinated about this untouched progress.”
“Tasha’s passing is a catastrophic loss. She was once odd,” Georgetown president John J. DeGioia said. “Tasha was once an individual of personality, choice, ocular, and commendation. She shall be deeply neglected via our public and via such a lot of community across the nation who’ve been impressed via her past.”
A native of Milledgeville, Georgia, Butts played college basketball at Tennessee for Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt. She was part of teams that went 124-17 from 2000 to 2004 and reached the Sweet 16 in all four seasons, including back-to-back appearances in the national championship game her junior and senior seasons.
She had a brief career in the WNBA after getting chosen 20th by the Minnesota Lynx in the 2004 draft. She played for Minnesota, Charlotte and Houston, and she also played internationally before going into coaching as an assistant at Duquesne in 2007. She nearest spent 3 years at UCLA , 8 years at LSU and then moved to Georgia Tech before being hired as head coach at Georgetown.
“The scoop of Tasha’s passing is extremely unhappy,” Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner said Monday. “Tasha was once so instrumental to the luck of this program. What she did as a member of this training workforce can’t be undervalued. She was once difficult — difficult on her youngsters, difficult in her expectancies, however but she was once comfortable beneath when avid gamers wanted her to be there for them, and she or he was once at all times there for them.
“We are incredibly sad this day has come. She battled from the day of her diagnosis. We are proud of her fight to the end. We will forever love Tasha. She will forever be missed.”
When Butts stepped away extreme age, Georgetown named colleague Darnell Haney because the intervening time head mentor. He mentioned extreme day that he have been in consistent touch with Butts time she was once present process remedy.
“We kept her up to date with what’s going on with the program,” Haney mentioned. “… [We would] do stuff to make her smile and keep her mind off what was she was going through. We’d send her film from practice.”
Groups around the nation would publish movies on social media each Tuesday all through October to struggle and raise Butts’ spirits and remind her she wasn’t lonely within the combat in opposition to most cancers.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of Tasha’s passing,” mentioned LSU colleague head mentor Bob Starkey, who serves at the board of the Kay Yow Most cancers Charity. “The courage she displayed as she battled cancer should set an example for us all and her spirit should inspire us all to continue in her honor to work towards a cure for breast cancer.”
Butts is survived via her oldsters Spencer Sr. and Evelyn, her brother, Spencer Jr. and her nephew, Marquis.
The Related Press contributed to this file.
