The Eye on the Ball radio show tonight on KVOI (1030-AM) featured a Mother’s Day angle with Arizona women’s golf coach Laura Ianello, Phoenix Mercury assistant Julie Brase-Hairgrove (formerly of Catalina Foothills and Arizona and Lute Olson’s granddaughter) and Arizona coach Adia Barnes talking about their lives as moms.
Barnes added a much extra theme to the show by announcing she is expecting a daughter with her husband Salvo Coppa in September.
“I found out the day after the UCLA game (on Jan. 31) — that’s the day I found out I was pregnant,” said Barnes, who added she has tried to keep the news secret until breaking it to her team last week.
Barnes, whose son Matteo will be 5 on June 9, said with a laugh about her pregnancy: “One positive thing about COVID-19 is that I’ve been able to hide for two months.”
“I haven’t released it on social media or anything but I told my team a week ago,” said Barnes, who is 43.
“It’s funny, I was busting my butt, getting in shape and I lost like 25 pounds. I got rid of all my fat-girl clothes and then I didn’t know I was pregnant because it was such a low percentage (because of her age). I tested and I was pregnant.”
She said after the UCLA game she tried to sit more in games “because at that point, it’s a 30 percent chance that it will work because of my age and stuff so I had to take it easy and not stress, which is easier now because we’re out of the woodwork.”
Barnes said she is relieved that she is due to have the baby before the 2020-21 season starts.
“It would have been hard (in the season),” Barnes said. “I wouldn’t want to miss games. I would have delivered on a Friday and coached on Saturday.”
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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