ATLANTA (Feb. 21, 2024) — The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association announced today that effective immediately its lifetime achievement award will be named the Betty F. Jaynes Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of the WBCA’s first and longest-serving executive director. The award is presented each year to an individual who has maintained a professional lifelong commitment of service to the game of women’s basketball.
Background
The WBCA’s lifetime achievement award was first presented in 1984 as the WBCA Service Award. It was renamed the Berenson Service Award in 1997. The award became the Berenson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. The award was sponsored by Jostens from 1990 through 2023.
Senda Berenson Abbott introduced the game of basketball to women at Smith College in 1892 and is considered the “Mother of Women’s Basketball.” Berenson, who died in 1954, developed and wrote the rules of the women’s game that were used with little modification into the 1960s. The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame named the trophy it presents its inductees The Berenson in 2023.
Jaynes was named the WBCA’s first executive director in September 1981, just days after the association’s founding. Under her leadership, the WBCA established itself as the leading resource and advocate for and voice of coaches of women’s basketball, growing from 212 members in its initial year of existence to more than 3,000 at the time of her retirement in November 2001. Jaynes remained active with the WBCA as a consultant handling advisory assignments including finances, educational programming, advocacy, and special projects until her death in 2014.
Statement by current WBCA Executive Director Danielle Donehew
“Betty Jaynes gave more than half her life — 35 years — to leading the WBCA and in service to the sport of women’s basketball and those who coach it. Betty built this organization from the ground up. The WBCA is her lifetime achievement. Thus, it is fitting that this association’s lifetime achievement award be named in her honor.
“It is equally appropriate that Senda Berenson Abbott is now likewise honored as the namesake of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame’s The Berenson Award.”
Recipients
The WBCA will announce the recipient of the 2024 Betty F. Jaynes Lifetime Achievement Award on Feb. 27.
Visit www.WBCA.org for a list of past recipients.
About the WBCA
The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association is the professional association for coaches of women’s and girls’ basketball at all levels of competition. Founded in 1981, the WBCA offers educational resources that coaches need to help make themselves better leaders, teachers and mentors to their players; provides opportunities for coaches to connect with peers in the profession; serves as the unifying voice of coaches to those organizations that control the game; and celebrates those coaches, players and other individuals who excel each year and contribute to the advancement of the sport. Visit www.WBCA.org for more details about the Association.
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