January 2001

It was announced that the Birmingham Power will compete in the inaugural season of the newly formed National Women's Basketball League. Other cities in the league include Atlanta, Kansas City, Mobile and New York. The season will be twenty games over twelve weeks. Eight home games will be played at Hoover High School, UAB Arena and Fair Park's Bill Harris Arena. A championship game is scheduled to be played April 28th.

One of the principal owners of the Power is Wenonah High School girl's basketball head coach Emmanuel Bell. "We just feel we're going to be successful with it and my feelings ain't ever failed me yet. Girls basketball is up and coming and I feel Birmingham should have one because we get involved with our sports - the XFL, Steeldogs, hockey. Semipro girls basketball should be here. We're going to get our just due. We're looking at 500 to 700 people in the stands a night, paid people," said Bell. Gerard and Denise Johnson are the other principal owners of the Power. Top salary for players in the league will be $4,000 a season.

Former University of Alabama assistant women's basketball coach Pat Charity was named head coach. "This is a business. That's one of the reasons we chose coach Charity. This is not just some upscale recreational program," Denise Johnson said.

The NWBL was founded by Pat Alexander in 1997 to give women the chance to compete on a national level in semipro basketball. "We have well over 800 players in 25 cities that play in NWBL Division I, II and III. It provides everyone a change to play. In the past three years, many of our players have been drafted by the WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association). It was only a matter of time to take the next step to provide a professional division for the top echelon of players, not only in our league but across the country," Alexander said. 

The league requires each franchise to put up roughly $100,000 to cover player salaries and other expenses. Declining to name their investors, Denise Johnson said, "I'm about 60, 70 percent on verbal commitments. It's just a matter that I've got to close the deals out. It's definitely going to happen, definitely."

The NWBL completes its first player draft. The draft was later in the month than scheduled because more WNBA players had expressed a desire to play than was originally anticipated. However, there was confusion as to exactly which WNBA players wanted to play. The NWBL's goal is to now have three WNBA players on each team.

"We're still in the process of trying to put together a team. We don't have a complete team but we do have a team and we'll try to get a roster of twelve. At the moment, Birmingham Power has one WNBA player so we're still trying to draft two more. As they come in, I guess we'll have the opportunity. The other teams have three and I guess they're all set with their twelve man roster," Charity said.

February 2001

December 2001

February 2003

September 2003

Blankenship and his group paid the league $600,000 - $150,000 per year - for a four-year deal to own the Power. They have spent more than that establishing a front office, Blankenship said.

"I just happened to go out to a game one time and saw Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, Michelle Snow, all the top WNBA players right here in Birmingham and nobody knew about it. We thought that something that exciting in Birmingham and nobody knew about it was a travesty," Blankenship said.

The team's primary owner said he intends to make the Power a more visible part of the city with players, cheerleaders and a dance squad that makes frequent public appearances. "You don't wait on people to buy tickets. You create relationships and opportunities to make them want to be a part of what you're doing, and they'll buy tickets," Blankenship said.

Sports Strategies is negotiating with the city to possibly play home games at Boutwell Auditorium.

"We're going to make this team extremely fan friendly and recognizable to the community. We're going to make the team a resource to the city. We want Birmingham to feel the Power," Blankenship said.

December 2003

Stokes played at Wake Forest and North Carolina-Charlotte before becoming an assistant coach at UAB, Murray State, Texas A&M and Nebraska. She was also the head coach at East Carolina for three and a half seasons. While at ECU, Stokes' record was 50-52 before she left the school. "We weren't doing well. We weren't having a good year and I wasn't used to that," Stokes said. 

However, reports at the time indicated that Stokes was removed for "personal matters". During the 2001-02 season, Stokes locked the players out of the team's locker room. Stokes disputes the reports, saying, "At one point we weren't playing well and we did stop them from using their locker room. But we didn't lock them out. We dressed in another room, initially another locker room and then another room."

Stokes said the Power players shouldn't worry about her using that kind of tactic on them. "I think you motivate at the processional level a bit differently than you motivate at the collegiate level," Stokes said.

January 2004

January 2005

Epilogue