Dena Head (born August 16, 1970) is a former
Women's National Basketball AssociationThe Women's National Basketball Association is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. It currently is composed of thirteen teams. The league was founded in 1996 as the women's counterpart to the NBA...
player. She is best remembered as the first player ever drafted in the WNBA.
In high school, Head was named Ms. Basketball in the state of
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. She won two National Championships and was an
All-AmericaAn All-American "team" is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific All-America and typically referred to as All-American athletes, or simply...
n.
Head attended the
University of TennesseeThe University of Tennessee , sometimes called the University of Tennessee, Knoxville is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville...
with a degree in sports management. She played four years of basketball, while winning
NCAAThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a voluntary association of about 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada...
women's college basketball championship in 1989 and 1991.
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Dena Head (born August 16, 1970) is a former
Women's National Basketball AssociationThe Women's National Basketball Association is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. It currently is composed of thirteen teams. The league was founded in 1996 as the women's counterpart to the NBA...
player. She is best remembered as the first player ever drafted in the WNBA.
High school years
In high school, Head was named Ms. Basketball in the state of
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. She won two National Championships and was an
All-AmericaAn All-American "team" is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific All-America and typically referred to as All-American athletes, or simply...
n.
College years
Head attended the
University of TennesseeThe University of Tennessee , sometimes called the University of Tennessee, Knoxville is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville...
with a degree in sports management. She played four years of basketball, while winning
NCAAThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a voluntary association of about 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada...
women's college basketball championship in 1989 and 1991. Head was named to the 1992 Kodak All-America Team. She was the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year as a senior, and was the 1989 SEC Freshman of the Year. As a senior, she was named to the Naismith All America Team, and in 1990 she was named to the NCAA All Regional Tournament Team East.
She later attended
Baker CollegeBaker College is a private not-for-profit American college in Michigan, founded in 1911. Its campuses are located throughout the Lower Peninsula of Michigan....
.
WNBA career
Head was the first player ever drafted in the WNBA. As part of the
WNBA Elite draftIn 1997, the Women's National Basketball Association was created. In order to give new teams reasonable talent, the league decided to have two drafts. There was the normal collegiate draft that most professional sports leagues hold. There was also the WNBA Elite Draft...
in 1997, she was selected 1st overall. She joined the WNBA for two seasons with the
Utah StarzzThe Utah Starzz were a Women's National Basketball Association team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. They began play in the 1997 WNBA season as one of the league's eight original teams. The Starzz relocated, in 2003, to San Antonio, Texas where the team became the San Antonio Silver Stars...
and one with the
Phoenix MercuryThe Phoenix Mercury is a Women's National Basketball Association team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Mercury began in 1997 as one of the league's original eight teams. The Mercury are so named because Mercury is the closest planet to the sun...
.
International career
Before the WNBA, Head played seven seasons of professional basketball in
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
and in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
for
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, and
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
.
Post WNBA career
Head currently serves as women's basketball team assistant coach for the
Central Connecticut State UniversityCentral Connecticut State University is a state university in New Britain, Connecticut. It is the oldest public university in Connecticut and ranks third oldest of all universities in Connecticut, having been founded in 1849.-History:...
.
External links