Perazic-Gipe, 41, with her best friend, Sharon Nagia, runs an after-school program called Montgomery Sports Association for students up to the age of 16. Perazic-Gipe teaches and trains students in soccer and, of course, basketball.

"All I want to be is a positive influence on people, and especially on children," she says.

"If I won the lottery, I would do it for free."

Working with kids is "rewarding, wonderful and fun," she says.

The Yugoslavian-born Perazic-Gipe grew up playing soccer. "It was my first love," she says. But when she realized there was a shortage of women on the basketball courts, she switched fields.

While studying and playing basketball at a German high school, various universities tried to recruit her. But she decided to come to the University of Maryland "because I got a [basketball] scholarship, and because I wanted to see D.C.," she says.

She fell in love with the area and now lives in Bethesda, Md., with her husband, Robert, and 12-year-old daughter, Deanna Gipe, who also plays basketball.

Perazic-Gipe played for the University of Maryland from 1980 to 1983. In 1983, she was named an All-American and co-ACC tournament MVP.

After leaving the university, she became a Washington-based sports agent and a founder of a dot-com. She also played pro basketball in Europe.

The 1984 Olympian still looks back nostalgically on her days in Cole Field House. Although she played in the WNBA with the Liberty Stars for a year, she says that the spirit and camaraderie she experienced at Maryland are incomparable.

"The first time I walked into [Cole Field House], it was like the movies," she says. "It's one of the best places to play." She attributes it to the spirited fans and the warm court -- "warm red with great baskets and floors."

Nonetheless, the 6-foot-1-inch former guard-forward says she is "proud and happy" to have been a part of the WNBA for a year before she was released in 1997.