'Standing Tall'
Rutgers women's basketball head coach C. Vivian Stringer talks about life.
April 2, 2008— -- Rutgers University women's head basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer has experienced enough tragedies during her life to pack into five lifetimes. Her coal-miner father lost both of his legs when Stringer was a child, her husband died suddenly of a heart attack in 1991, her daughter, Nina, was misdiagnosed with a case of spinal meningitis that left her unable to walk and talk, and coach Stringer had her own battle with breast cancer. During numerous stays in the hospital, Stringer began to do some soul-searching.
"I spoke to so many preachers and ministers and rabbis to understand why things happen as they did. And I was told often that we are all put on this earth to help one another, and that my experience would help others. And I didn't understand that at the time."
Instead of feeling sorry for herself, Stringer has stood tall and faced these challenges head-on. She realized that she could not abandon her love for the game of basketball and her responsibility of coaching and mentoring young women on and off the basketball court.
"We can all be knocked down," Stringer told ABC News, "but we've got to get up. It's not that we can handle so many of the things that come to us, but we respond to that."
Last year, Coach Stringer and her team had to face a painful challenge together when syndicated radio host Don Imus made his inflammatory comments about certain members of the Rutgers women's basketball team.
"It wasn't like it was something that was new to me," Stringer says, "You know, how do I stand up? And I taught these young ladies as I had taught them throughout life and as I had learned throughout life, you stand up."
After the controversy had died down, Imus told Stringer and the rest of the team that he would stay in touch with them. So far, Stringer says, he has not done so.
"I'm disappointed because I would think that he was a man of his word or I would hope he was a man of his word, but it didn't happen."
Stringer knows that she cannot force Imus to reach out to her and her players, but she understands that she and her team can control how they respond to adversity.
Popular Reads
ABC News Live