April 19, 2006

Columbia, S.C. – The South Carolina women’s basketball team is set to visit Meadowfield Elementary School in Columbia on April 21 at noon. Meadowfield won the “Lets Read With the Gamecocks” reading program this past winter, as the school’s 294 participants ranging from kindergarten through fifth grade read more than 129,000 pages.

“I am so excited for the students of Meadowfield,” Head Coach Susan Walvius said. “My mother was a teacher and a reading specialist so I believe very strongly in the long-term benefits of reading. Reading is the key to knowledge. Our players are wonderful role models and very good students. They have learned to balance the rigors of an athletic schedule with an academic schedule and have excelled in both. Our team is always excited about an opportunity to mentor young people in our community.”

As winners of the reading program, the students of Meadowfield get to scrimmage with the Gamecocks and get an up close and personal look into the value that Carolina women’s basketball players place on education. The Gamecocks, who combined to produce a team-record grade-point average of 3.34 during the spring, 2005 semester and placed a league-high eight players on the 2006 Southeastern Conference Winter Sports Academic Honor Roll, will talk about the importance of reading and will conduct a question and answer session with the Meadowfield students.

“This is going to be a great event and we are looking forward to getting to Meadowfield and visiting with a group of students who are so dedicated to reading.” Junior Shannel Harris said. “They did a great job with the reading program and we are excited that we get to hang out with them because they are going to be very successful people.”