It is the year 2008, a tumultuous time in politics when we could see Hillary Clinton become the first woman president of the United States of America. Now more than ever, it is important for us to realize how much of an impact women have on our society.

It was only 36 years ago when Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments Act, changing the world of sports for years to come. This act opened up more athletic opportunities for women.

In an ode to Women’s History Month, we decided to spotlight three extraordinary women in basketball, whose positions are occasionally overshadowed in the very male-dominated sport.

Dawn Staley, Pat Summitt and Vivian Stringer are not only coaches – they are teachers.

In just seven seasons as coach, former WNBA star Dawn Staley has constructed the Temple Owl’s women's basketball team into a major powerhouse. The 2004 and 2005 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year and 2005 Regional Coach of the Year, Staley is the fastest coach in Temple women's basketball history to reach 100 wins.

For the first time in Temple History, Staley helped to produce their first-ever WNBA First Round Draft Picks, when Candice Dupree and Kamesha Hairston were drafted by the Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun.

Amazingly, Staley received these high honors while she still maintained her position as an All-Star player for the WNBA's Charlotte Sting and Houston Comets. In 2006, she retired from the WNBA, but not before leaving a remarkable legacy in her 10 years in the league. Staley is just one of two players in NCAA Tournament history to be voted the NCAA Final Four Outstanding Player, and to coach a team in the NCAA Tournament.

Coach Dawn Staley was honored as a member of the WNBA's All-Decade team. In 2007, the WNBA presented the first ever “Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award.” This award is presented to the player who best exemplifies the characteristics of a leader in the community in which she works or lives. Staley, although still rather new to coaching, is already showing the sports world that she is a force to be reckoned with.

With seven NCCA Championships, more than 30 seasons of coaching and over 950 career wins, Pat Summitt is tenacious. As the head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteer basketball team, she is the all-time winningest coach in both men and women NCAA basketball history.

She has coached the Ladies of Tennessee to an unparalleled 26 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Sweet 16, and produced 12 Olympians, 19 Kodak All-Americans named to 32 teams and 69 All-SEC performers.

In the summer of 2002, coach Summitt became a consultant to the WNBA. She aided the Washington Mystics with player personnel and the draft, and for the next two years (‘03/04) the Mystics earned their first-ever shot at a WNBA playoff. Coach Summitt has garnered numerous awards, including two years as the WBCA/Converse Coach of the Year, and seven times as the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Coach of the Year.

Summitt was a member of the inaugural class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999, and was inducted in to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000. She is also nominated this year for the Naismith College Coach of the Year, which if won, will give her a total of six. In her many years of coaching, Pat Summit has never had a losing season.

The impeccable C. Vivian Stringer coaches the Rutgers University team. She is the first coach in men’s or women’s basketball to take three different schools to the Final Four. The schools include Cheyney University in 1982, The University of Iowa in 1993, and most recently Rutgers University in 2000 and again in 2007.

During Coach Stringer’s 35 plus years, she was named one of the “101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports” by Sports Illustrated in 2003, and was a recipient of the Black Coaches Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

As an assistant coach for the 2004 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team, she helped guide Team USA to a gold medal in Athens, Greece. Coach Stringer was finally acknowledged for her many accomplishments when she was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on June 9, 2001. 

Along with three other coaches, Stringer has been named a finalist for the 2008 Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year honor. Last month, Stringer added another star to her list of accolades by becoming the third coach in women's college basketball history and the first Black coach ever to win 800 games.

In and outside the game of basketball, C. Vivian Stringer is highly respected. Even through the controversy that the entire Rutgers women’s basketball team endured in 2007, she kept her composer and continued to shine.

Coaches Stringer, Staley and Summitt all exude the qualities of what it take be a winner. They have not only brought championships to their teams, but joy to the communities that they represent. These women have triumphed, and in the prime of there lives they are defying all odds.