The historic Ansonia Armory Sunday hosted women’s basketball players who have made history of their own playing for the University of Connecticut Huskies and in the Olympics for Team USA.
Several former standout UConn players were interviewed in the gymnasium for a documentary for ESPN2, said Sheila O’Malley, Ansonia’s Director of Economic and Community Development.
Production staff said the three, half-hour shows will be shown on Nov. 16, Feb. 9, and April 10.
O’Malley said the documentary will focus on women who played under Coach Geno Auriemma.
The women are training for the 2016 Olympics.
Ansonia officials were happy to see life inside the city’s Armory.
O’Malley said Mark Dixon, who is in charge of location services for the Connecticut Office of Film, Television, and Digital Media knows her and Corporation Counsel John P. Marini and had contacted them about using the Armory as a backdrop for the documentary.
O’Malley said she was thrilled Dixon chose the Armory. O’Malley noted she has a personal connection to the Armory because her father, Joseph Ubaldi, played basketball there in the 1940s.
Mayor David S. Cassetti also said he played basketball in the Armory when he was a child. “
The Armory was a mecca for sports and dances,” he said. He remembers the gym floor being “warped and kids fell down” when they were playing.
The city has been fixing up the old building for years.
O’Malley said there will be a feasibility study done “to determine the highest and best use of the Armory.”
The brick building at 5 State St. was opened in 1921.
Other structures included in the $60,000 study O’Malley mentioned include the Farrel and ATP/Palmer buildings downtown. O’Malley said Cassetti will appoint a committee to determine how the Armory “will fit into a long-term, sustainable plan for the downtown.”
Michael Eheman, Jr., 11, of Ansonia was all smiles after getting a basketball autographed by former UCONN stars Tina Charles and Sue Bird. He said he plays basketball at the Armory on the Assumption School Cagers team.
