If Maggie Zerbe gets to lift a Centennial Conference championship trophy in a couple of months, it still might not measure up to the last piece of hardware she held in her hands. And if the freshman on the Muhlenberg women’s basketball team ever feels those pregame jitters, she’ll have advice taken firsthand from a legend to guide her.

A few weeks ago, Zerbe had the chance to meet Teresa Edwards, a Hall of Famer and four-time gold medalist with the United States national team. Edwards was in town to speak at a banquet in advance of an annual Lehigh Valley high school tournament – one that Zerbe, a Bethlehem native, attended several times – and when Mules head coach Ron Rohn texted the team to see if anyone was interested in having lunch with her, Zerbe jumped at the chance. Though Zerbe wasn’t fully aware of Edwards’ resume, the freshman came away fully impressed.

“I didn’t know anything about her,” Zerbe said. “Coach told me she was a five-time Olympian, though. She was pretty cool.”

Accompanied by Rohn and Muhlenberg professor Jack McCallum, who chronicled professional basketball for three decades at Sports Illustrated and arranged the meeting, Zerbe listened intently at a restaurant in Bethlehem as Edwards regaled her, as well as players from Moravian and DeSales, with stories of her playing and coaching career.

“It was definitely interesting meeting her,” Zerbe said. “She talked a lot about playing overseas and in the Olympics. She played in five Olympics, so it was cool hearing about all the coaches she had – [Legendary Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, [Stanford’s] Tara VanDerveer. It was amazing hearing about her experiences.”

In addition to winning gold with the American national team in 1984 (Los Angeles), 1988 (Seoul), 1996 (Barcelona) and 2000 (Sydney), Edwards is one of just three basketball players to have played in five Olympics. She also holds the unique distinction of being the youngest women’s gold medalist (age 20 in 1984) and the oldest gold medalist (36 in 2000).

“Players now probably think women’s basketball only goes back to UConn and Rebecca Lobo,” Rohn said. “They don’t necessarily have an appreciation of the history of the game. For Maggie to have a chance to meet Teresa and hear about her experiences was a great thing.”

Zerbe, who has played in seven games for the Mules this season, says she often feels nervous before games. As a freshman, she’s still adjusting to the college game and her new surroundings. So hearing Edwards, who played in her first Olympic Games as a collegian at Georgia, describe going through the same experiences was certainly reassuring.

“She said to just remember you belong there,” Zerbe said. “Have confidence in yourself, because that’s the one thing no one can take away from you. She said she had to pay her dues, going into a program in college and then at the Olympics.

“It definitely helps. Feeling that other people have gone through the things you have to, it’s something you can use. To know that she had experienced the same things I’ve been experiencing was nice to hear.”

Edwards, who played overseas for nine years after graduating from the University of Georgia and was named the 1996 Sportswoman of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation, predictably had no shortage of fascinating anecdotes.

There was the one about Summitt – “Pat would give her ‘the look’ if she made a mistake,” Zerbe said. There were many about the Games themselves, and what it felt like to win a gold medal – or four. The ones that piqued Zerbe’s interest, however, were the ones about her years in Spain, France, Italy and Venezuela, and the international celebrity she gained from her accomplishments.

“The stories that stuck out for me were about when she played overseas,” Zerbe recalled. “You were a celebrity over there. Even earlier on when she first started playing, she would walk outside and people would come up to her and ask for her autograph. It was so interesting to hear how different it was than here in America.”

At the end of the meal and an hour and a half of stories, Zerbe got to try on Edwards’ last gold medal, the one she earned at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

“It was really cool,” Zerbe said. “It was pretty heavy, even more than I thought it would be. It was definitely a very cool experience that I’ll remember for a long time.”

Now, Zerbe and the Mules would love some hardware of their own.