By Mel Greenberg
Having waited out for the nation to determine the new resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in the nation's capital, the WNBA's Washington Mystics will complete their revamped governing structure with the announcement of a head coach Thursday afternoon.
According to a WNBA source familiar with the hunt, that person is likely to be Julie Plank, a veteran assistant coach at the professional and collegiate levels currently on the staff of the Minnesota Lynx.
The move will bring a quick reunion between Plank and recently appointed Mystics general manager Angela Taylor, who had been in the front office of the Lynx and previously worked at WNBA headquaters in New York involving player personnel.
Taylor and Plank both also have Stanford roots with Plank having served as an assistant to Tara VanDerveer for 10 seasons from 1986-95 before moving on as an assistant for several seasons at Vanderbilt under former coach Jim Foster.
Plank is a native of Columbus, Ohio, having starred for the Buckeyes in the 1980s.
Detroit Shock assistant Cheryl Reeve, a former La Salle star, is believed to have been one of the finalists, while Rick Manhorn, another Shock assistant, who has Washington ties, was involved in the initial set of interviews prior to Taylor's appointment. The Washington Post reported that Olympic head coach Anne Donovan, who previously coached the Seattle Storm, was also interviewed.
Prior to this past season, Plank was an assistant with the Indiana Fever since their inception.
-- Mel
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