President Obama Welcomes the Texas A&M University Women’s Basketball Team

President Barack Obama welcomes the Texas A&M University women’s basketball team to the White House to celebrate their 2011 NCAA championship, in the Rose Garden, Oct. 6, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

Today, President Obama was joined by the Texas A&M University Women’s Basketball Team at the White House to celebrate their 2011 NCAA championship. The President recognized the team for the tremendous accomplishment of winning their first national championship and the work they do giving back to their community, including a basketball clinic for local students:

Fifty years ago, Texas A&M didn’t have any women -- much less a women’s basketball team. When they did finally put a team together, the story goes that players had to share uniforms. At one point, they had to use the men’s locker room, which probably wasn’t perfectly designed for your needs. Coach Blair here would be going door to door just to ask people to watch the games.

This is a team that used to be known as a bunch of “lovable losers.” But Coach Blair wasn’t going to settle for that. As he said, he came to College Station “to build champions.”

And that’s exactly what he’s done. Today, this team has thousands of fans cheering them in every game -- including some very proud members of Congress who are here today. They’ve defied expectations, they’ve won close games, and played with a whole lot of heart. And now the Aggies are the best team in women’s basketball.

Watch the video of the President's remarks: