By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)
BROCKTON, Mass. -- After graduating from Bridgewater State, Barbara Stevens of Bentley University put together a career that has earned her a spot in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame while Oliver Ames High’s Elaine Clement-Holbrook is the state’s all-time winningest coach.
They first met while playing on opposing teams during a summer league basketball game in 1972.
Barbara Stevens had recently graduated from Marian High School in Worcester and Elaine Clement-Holbrook had just finished her first year at what was known then as Bridgewater State College.
The friendship developed when Stevens joined Clement-Holbrook at Bridgewater State where they were roommates for two years and teammates, and they remain close now, nearly 50 years later.
So when the announcement was made last weekend that Stevens, who has been a highly successful college coach during a 43-year career, had been selected for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Clement-Holbrook turned her thoughts to that summer game.
“I went back in my mind to when I first met her,” said Clement-Holbrook. “We were playing in a summer league basketball game in Worcester at Great Brook Valley.
“I was thinking to myself, look where life has taken us. It’s extraordinary. I am so excited for her.”
Stevens is scheduled to go into the Hall of Fame in Springfield in late August after compiling a 1,058-291 record at Bentley University, Clark University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has won 901 games and a national Division 2 championship in 34 years at Bentley.
Clement-Holbrook, who has been at Oliver Ames High School for 44 years, is the all-time winningest girls basketball coach in Massachusetts with a 701-241 record.
The two college roommates are a combined 1,759-528 during a pair of amazing coaching careers since graduating from Bridgewater State, and they are still going strong
“The professors must have done something right,” said Clement-Holbrook.
Stevens, a 1976 graduate, and Clement-Holbrook, who graduated a year earlier, roomed together during Clement-Holbrook’s junior and senior years at Bridgewater State.
They were both physical education majors and multi-sport athletes with Clement-Holbrook playing basketball and softball while Stevens played three years of basketball, two years of softball and two years of tennis.
Stevens was inducted into the Bridgewater State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993 and Clement-Holbrook joined her eight years later.
“She could play every sport,” said Clement-Holbrook. “She played softball, then decided she didn’t want to play that and started playing tennis. She’s an amazing golfer.”
Back in their college days, Clement-Holbrook could see that Stevens had a special feel for the game of basketball.
“She came out of high school and was known as a scorer and she could shoot,” said Clement-Holbrook. “That was her strength.
“But the thing that most impressed me about her was she’s one of the most incredibly analytical basketball minds I have ever known. She could anticipate things and knew what was going to happen before it happened. It was amazing.
“She was like a coach on the floor and a coach on the bus. She had that passion. She was thinking ahead of a lot of people.”
When Stevens began running summer camps at Bentley, she invited Clement-Holbrook to work as one of the instructors, and the keen basketball mind was on display.
“You really saw what she was going to become,” said Clement-Holbrook. “Our morning meetings, the details in the meetings, the detail in what we needed to teach at camp, it was amazing.
“So many of us who worked at her basketball camps had great success as professionals because of what her goals were, what her focus was, what she felt was important to teach to the kids.
“I mean, it was an extraordinary experience for so many of us just to work this camp. Her leadership and her knowledge of the game and her ability were really just incredible.”
In addition to their Bridgewater State bond, Stevens and Clement-Holbrook have another connection that ties them together.
Clement-Holbrook guided her 2009-10 to the Massachusetts Division 2 championship, led by a senior forward named Lauren Battista, the state player of the year.
Four years later, Stevens won her NCAA Division 2 championship with a team that went 35-0 and was also led by Battista, the national player of the year.
“For me, one of the most extraordinary life experiences was to have Lauren Battista play for me, win a state championship and have her go to Bentley, play for Bardy and win a national championship,” said Clement-Holbrook. “That will connect us forever.
“I don’t have words for that. For us to be able to share that, it’s amazing.”