If Ceal Barry believed a leisurely summer awaited, that notion evaporated Tuesday.

The veteran University of Colorado women's basketball coach was chosen by USA Basketball to direct the 2004 USA Junior World Championship Qualifying team.

Barry, who has spent the past 21 years at CU, will be assisted by Lea Henry (Georgia State) and Carolyn Peck (Florida). Trials to select the 18-and-younger squad are scheduled for June 20-23 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, with the 12-member squad set to be selected after a July 22-28 training camp in Denver.

The team begins play Aug. 4 in Mayagquez, Puerto Rico, in the FIBA Americas Junior World Championship Qualifying Tournament. The top three finishers earn qualifying berths to the 2005 FIBA Junior World Championship in Tunisia in July 2005.

"I'm excited about this," said Barry, an assistant to Tara VanDerveer (Stanford) on the gold-medal-winning 1996 U.S. Olympic team. "I think that representing your country in any competition is quite an honor.

"It's been a while since I've had a USA Basketball shirt on and been overseas coaching a team. This particular junior team will be a challenge. I know this competition has been a challenge for us at this age level. I've got a great staff, and I know we have a tremendous pool of players to choose from. That will be the first step toward qualifying to play in the (FIBA Junior) World Championship."

Barry and her staff were selected by the USA Basketball Women's Collegiate Committee, which is chaired by Chris Plonsky, Texas' senior associate athletics director.

Plonsky called Barry "a vaunted and veteran coach in this profession and someone who has not only been long committed to her institution but someone who continues to be very involved in USA Basketball, and I think we're seeing that at every level . . .

"The fact that (Barry, Henry and Peck) committed part of their summer — they 're taking time out of their schedule and their recruiting commitments this summer to coach what will be our future talent in USA Basketball — speaks volumes about women's basketball, as well as the people in the leadership positions within the sport."

The USA Junior team is accustomed to success, having compiled a 19-2 record in this qualifying event and having won two gold and two silver medals. Competition has been every four years since 1988. In 2000, the USA Juniors, coached by Geno Auriemma (Connecticut), finished 5-0 and won the gold medal.

Barry called the squad she will coach "more of a developmental team and program (in) a major competition. Kids coming out of high school need quite a bit more teaching and a lot more mentoring, a little more supervision. The Olympians are professional players and they handle themselves in a professional manner, where high school players are still learning the whole procedure. It'll be shifting gears a little bit, but it will be very similar to the college level, where you take kids from the high school level into the college game."

Particularly challenging, she said, are the adjustments to travel and foreign language, food and referees.

"Those adjustments will be so different for this age group. Yet, the level of competition is much more serious than any tour that any of these kids may have taken overseas with a club team. One false move and you're out of the competition, you don't win the gold medal. We are going to have to impress upon them the level of intensity that it's going to take to compete for a gold medal. "

Barry's record at CU is 418-223, while her overall mark is 501-265 (25 years). Her 2003-04 Buffaloes finished 22-8 and reached the NCAA Tournament, marking her 13th 20-win season and 12th trip to NCAA postseason play.