UConn coach Geno Auriemma and former Husky Tina Charles were featured guests at the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce member breakfast meeting at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell on Friday as Charles was named the chamber's 2011 Role Model of the Year.

One of the most captivating moments of the morning was listen to Auriemma retell the story of a conversation he had with Charles, a talk that helped Charles raise her level to an entirely different level.

The groundwork for the discussion came at the Final Four during Charles' sophomore season. As teammates Renee Montgomery and Maya Moore were named first-team All-Americans, Auriemma couldn't resist the temptation to use the moment as a sense of motivation. Charles vowed that the following year she would be the one getting the All-American award.

The following season Auriemma summoned Charles to his office and pointed out that her statistics were eerily similar to those of her sophomore year. I'll let Auriemma's words take it from here.

"I said to Tina what makes you think they are going to name you an All-American this year when you are doing exactly the same thing you did last year. Why? Because they feel sorry for you because they think you are a nice kid. If they gave All-Americans to nice kids, everybody would be an All-American. I think from that day on, there was a completely different Tina Charles. She won a national championship, she was a first-team All-American. The following year we won again and she is national player of the year. It was just that time for her to realize that what I think I am doing and what I think is expected of me is two entirely different things.

"This is Tina Charles to a T: I want to be what people expect me to be. I want to be as good a student as my mom wants me to be. I want to be as good a person as my mom wants me to be, I want to be as good a teammate as my teammates want me to be. I want to be as good a player as everybody wants me to be. It wasn’t until that point in time that she said ‘I want to be what I expect myself to be.’ Her own expectations for herself, that year became greater than me mom’s expectations for her, mine or anybody elses. At that point, Tina really became a woman. She became an adult and decided I am going to do what I want to do because it is going to make me feel good.

"I think that is a great lesson. You do things for other people when you are young because you want to impress them, you want them to love you or like you but you get to a certain age when you have to do things where you have to make yourself feel like you have to accomplish things for you. Your parents will still be proud of you, (as will) your teachers, your coaches but Tina Charles became an adult sometime during her junior year."

With the Valley Regional and Portland teams, who won the Class S boys and girls state titles as well as other basketball teams including the Durham Destroyers in attendance, Auriemma turned the story of Charles transformation from standout to superstar as a teaching tool.

"If you are willing to endure failure, coaching, criticism or whatever it is that comes your way, if you are willing to endure all of that and you have this vision of who you want to be then you are going to do it but you are only going to do it if you do it for yourself and not for other people."