Jen Pariseau '97, point-guard for the women's basketball team, will be interviewed on the ABC television show Good Morning America next week.
Pariseau will appear with Madeleine Blais, whose book, "In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle," was released Monday. The book, which tells the story of Pariseau's high school basketball team in Amherst, Mass., relates, "what is in a basketball team, what it takes for women to come together and be athletes," Pariseau said.
Pariseau said of her appearance, "I'm nervous but I'm also excited ... I said 'its never going to happen.' Of course, I also said that about the book."
Women's basketball Coach Chris Wielgus said, "I'm thrilled ... it is good for her, good for Dartmouth, and good for women's basketball."
The live television interview was initially scheduled for today, but was tentatively rescheduled for next week because of increased attention to the O.J. Simpson hearings.
Blais's association with the Amherst High School women's basketball team, of which Pariseau was the captain, began when an article she was writing for the New York Times, about Zoe Baird's nomination for Attorney General, fell through.
"She proposed a story about our team because ... she knew teenagers well and she wanted to do a story about young women," Pariseau said.
The original article, which was the cover story of The New York Times Magazine, called Pariseau, "the best thing that ever happened to Pelham, which is that little twinge on the highway on Route 9."
Blais's article went on to describe Amherst's rout of Haverhill High School in the Mass. State Finals.
But "if anyone thought it was about basketball, they really missed the main point of it," Pariseau said.
"Its about being an adolescent and growing up ... and the importance of taking advantage of opportunities," she said.
Pariseau said she and her Amherst co-captain Jamila Wideman, who attends Stanford University, "don't necessarily want to be role models. But I wouldn't mind that either."
"The young kids gravitate toward her," Wielgus said. "She has an enormous personality. They can't get enough of her."
The New York Times Magazine article said that Pariseau's team was "just one team in one season ... it alone cannot change the discrimination against girls and their bodies throughout history."
Wielgus said that basketball has become the most popular sport in the country for women. And in the years she has coached women have grown more self-confident, and on the court "they are getting better and better."
Women's basketball is different from the men's game because "more of the shots are created by the team," Wielgus said.
"Girls basketball is not boys' basketball being played by girls. It's a whole new game. There's no dunking. They can't jump as high. They can't play above the rim. But they can play with every bit as much style. And there's the added purity, the sense of excellence for its own sake," Blais wrote.
Pariseau has been unable to play recently due to a broken finger. She remains optimistic, however, and said, "our goal is to make the NCAA tournament."
Dartmouth is currently tied with Harvard for first place in the Ivy League.
Blais's book will be available at the Dartmouth Bookstore late next week for $21.
