Happy Birthday to our favorite Shakin’ Jamaican, Simone Edwards, who is 35 years young today. (Hat tip: Storm Fans.) That’s a good excuse to bring everyone up to date on the latest on Simone.

After spending last season as an assistant coach at Radford University, Edwards has moved on to George Mason University this year, joining former Radford Head Coach Jeri Porter. The new staff is hoping to build a program to match the success the George Mason men have enjoyed in recent years, including the surprising run to the Final Four in 2006.

It sounds like Simone is already winning over another community. A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Lucy in Virginia, who plays for a 65+ basketball team and met Edwards at a local community center.

“We are proud to have her as an assistant coach for George Mason University,” she wrote. “We hope to work with her to help her sent shoes, clothing, etc. to support the Jamaican children. She does have a beautiful smile and personality.”

In other news …
- Voting continues in WNBA.com’s “Snap Judgment” photo competition, and a couple of Storm players are featured in the miscellaneous photos.

- With the college season tipping off, Patrick Sheehy at the Chasing the Title blog is taking a look at the top prospects for the 2009 WNBA Draft by the numbers.

- While you’re thinking offseason, we’re now less than a month away from teams and players being able to negotiate with each other on Dec. 15 (contracts can’t be signed until Jan. 5, 2009). WNBA.com has a list of the available free agents, and this year that list is a little more complete since many teams (including the Storm) have already used their core designations.

Thanks to the Women’s Hoops Blog for digging up an update on one of my all-time favorite Storm players, guard Michelle Greco. Greco’s lone WNBA season saw her come off the bench for the championship 2004 team. While Greco’s time in the WNBA was brief, she has enjoyed a lengthy and successful career playing in Italy and recently signed a new two-year deal with her Levoni Taranto squad, the local Glendale News Press reported.

Greco was motivated by an upset postseason loss to a Phard Napoli squad featuring former Storm teammate Adia Barnes.

“It left a bitter taste in my mouth,” Greco said. “The Italians are great fans, but they love you when you win and they hate you when you lose. We were booed right out of that gym when we lost at home [in front of] a sold-out crowd.”

Greco, who has annually hosted a camp for kids in her hometown of La Crescenta, just north of L.A., hopes to eventually get into coaching and apparently is looking into opening a women’s sports-themed restaurant near her alma mater, UCLA.

Wow, what a win by the Storm last night. Down 17 on the road with an offense limited by the absence of Lauren Jackson, the odds were certainly against a comeback. However, the Storm persevered and came up with a seventh straight win. Resiliency is quickly becoming the team’s trademark, though fortunately not to the extent it looked like very early in the season when the team was getting off to slow starts every night.

I wanted to quickly bring your attention to a couple of things about tomorrow’s 1 p.m. tip-off in Washington. First, the game will be televised on NBA TV, pulling from the Comcast SportsNet Mystics feed. Plan accordingly. Second, having been on the wrong end of consecutive blowouts the last two nights, Washington made a coaching change this morning. Former Storm assistant Jessie Kenlaw will replace Tree Rollins on an interim basis.

Kenlaw spent four seasons on the Storm’s coaching staff under Anne Donovan and was a part of the Storm’s 2004 championship run. For more on her background, here’s a 2004 feature I did that focuses on Kenlaw’s playing career in the fledgling Women’s Professional Basketball League and touches on her path into coaching. Best of luck to Jessie – after tomorrow, that is.

I hope you listened to last night’s Storm broadcast on 1150 AM KKNW or via the online webcast right here at storm.wnba.com for many reasons, most notably to hear the Storm’s comeback. Beyond that, if you missed the broadcast, you missed a halftime interview with Alicia “Chelle” Thompson, who played a key role off the bench for the Storm’s 2004 championship team and is now living in Phoenix.

Here’s the interview.

Thompson told Dick Fain and former teammate Adia Barnes that she’s now playing football for the Phoenix Prowlers of the National Women’s Football Association. Thompson said she played defensive end and is also listed on the Prowlers’ roster as a tight end.

That got me thinking about where Storm players might play were they to cross over. Naturally, Sue Bird has to be the quarterback, right? Swin Cash’s partner, former Penn State star and NFL player Chafie Fields, could probably give her a few pointers about being a fleet-footed wideout. Sheryl Swoopes would have to be a shutdown corner who specialized in interceptions, given she’s the WNBA’s all-time leading stealer.

Something tells me Tanisha Wright has the mentality of a power running back who runs between the tackles with no fear. And you could put Yolanda Griffith on either line – she’s no stranger to physical play.

I struggle a little bit with Lauren Jackson. Maybe tight end? Given her size and ability to catch lobbed entry passes, Jackson could cross over like Antonio Gates.

What do you think?

Big news from the Storm Coaching Network today, as Semeka Randall has been named the head coach at Ohio University.

Randall, who hails from Cleveland, had been an assistant at Cleveland State during her playing career and later moved on to Michigan State and most recently one season at West Virginia. This is her first head-coaching position and she becomes the first member of the Storm Coaching Network to be a DI head coach.

Randall spent a season and a half with the Storm and for some time held the franchise’s all-time scoring record with her 28 points on June 12, 2001 at Orlando.

She replaces former WNBA player Sylvia Crawley at Ohio after Crawley took the head job at Boston College.