Wildcats learn finer points about the finer things during 'fancy' etiquette class

Ask 15 Arizona Wildcats what they learned from etiquette class a few weeks ago, and you’ll get 15 different responses.

Ask Tee Tee Starks for one good story from the session, and she comes through. Starks explained the way instructor Cass Antle taught UA players — and coaches — about the finer points of decorum.

“There was one time she was saying where the placement of your name tag should always go, and (that) you should always have your first and last name on your name tag — and (coach) Adia (Barnes) was like ‘wait, let me grab a pen.’ And she hurried up and put her last name on it,” Starks said. “I was like ‘ooh.’ Even as adults you learn stuff. So I thought that was kind of cool.”

The class is a bit of a tradition at the UA. Barnes took the class when starring for Joan Bonvicini 20 years ago, and said it remains one of her most lasting college memories. Shortly after Barnes was drafted into the WNBA, she put the skills she learned to good use. The WNBA held a dinner for all draftees, and Barnes knew which spoon to use and how to eat properly.

As a coach, Barnes is passing the lessons on to her players.

“I’ve taken three etiquette classes, and that was by far the best,” Barnes said. “Cass was wonderful. … She is someone I would have teach my kid, when he gets older. And she taught us a lot of things. I was extremely impressed. Her presence was felt. She was very good. I mean, we learned stuff about thank-you cards — little tricks to remember. It was very helpful.

“And we needed it. They are young women and they need to know what it’s like, how to act and I think you get more confidence when you are prepared for situations.”

The three-hour etiquette class was the first of two off-the-court (and outside-the-box) experiences for Arizona players. They took part in The Program, a military-style training program, on Sunday and Monday.

“These two things have been the best decisions we’ve made all year,” Barnes said. “I’m sad I didn’t do it a couple of years ago. It was better timing to do it this year because we have seven new players. But it would have be beneficial to do The Program last year and etiquette. I should’ve been doing it. I think next year we might do it with the men’s team. What (Antle) taught was very important. Most well-rounded etiquette class I’ve been to.”

Some of the upperclassmen had taken the course before. They thought they knew what to expect.

We thought “it was going to be fancy, hoity-toity,” junior Sam Thomas said. “But we learned a lot. It was fun.”

Players dressed up, then discussed how to conduct themselves at business meetings, make small talk, which side of the chair to sit on, which fork and knife to use, when to put their napkins on their laps, and how to eat and drink properly. They discussed different handshakes — the soft one, the “dead fish,” the “bone-crusher” and a good, firm handshake.

“There were a lot of things I never thought about that apparently are really important when you go to dinners,” graduate transfer Amari Carter said. “The biggest takeaway was probably the handshake and to learn the differences in the handshake and what they mean to other people — if you take people’s hand a certain way.”

Bryce Nixon learned how to eat a crouton — a task that was more difficult than it sounds.

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“When you eat a crouton, you are supposed to put it with the fork facing down and you put crouton on top,” she said. “Well, first of all I shake, so I can’t do that. I was trying to eat my crouton and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t eat it.’”

The etiquette training and the military-style training couldn’t have been more different, players said. But both should pay off in the future.

“The first thing (for The Program) we were all sitting in the film room with our legs crossed, because that’s what we learned in etiquette class,” Thomas said. “The instructors walked in and yelled, ‘Everyone sit up straight.’ We just all uncrossed our legs and sat up real straight. ‘Oh gosh. It was a really different atmosphere.’ ”

Rim shots

Assistant coach

• Salvo Coppa

wasn’t with the team when classes began in August. He was in Italy observing

• Ettore Messina’s basketball practice. Messina, a former San Antonio Spurs assistant coach, is now head coach of Olimpia Milano of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A.

Messina is a member of the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame, and has won in both the Russian League and FIBA.

“When I see Messina I always learn life, basketball, everything, because he is such a smart person and such a great mentor,” Coppa said. “You just go there and you open your mind. You just learn everything. But, in terms of basketball it was a pleasure to see, because I have followed him for a long time — from before working for the Spurs and now all the new things he’s bringing to Italy.”

While there, Coppa picked up tips about spacing and defense, which he brought back to share with the other Arizona coaches. He called it a special experience.

“It was the most important moment, because he was just starting training camp. So you can see how he works with the new team as a new coach,” Coppa said. “It was a perfect timing to learn from a master of the game in how he prepares his team from Day 1.”

Sophomore forward

• Cate Reese

was inducted into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars on Tuesday night. The NSCS recognizes students who achieve in the classroom.