The annual coaching carousel has begun.
Long Beach St.
Long Beach St fired Mary Hegarty on March 11, 2009. Hegarty started off well, mostly with former coach, Dallas Bolla's players, but recruiting fell off dramatically. Good choice by Long Beach St. to let Hegarty go.
If Mark Trakh is let go at USC, don't be surprised to see Trakh at Long Beach St. Others under consideration include, Meg Sanders, assistant coach at Arizona St., Chris Danker, former head coach at Santa Clara and Colorado St. and Jody Wynn, current USC assistant.
USC:
The word around USC is that Mark Trakh will not have his contract renewed. If Mike Garrett does not give Trakh a new contract, he is an idiot. AN IDIOT. Trakh has done a great job recruiting, his classes are in the among the best in the nation. What has hurt Trakh is the injuries suffered by those recruits. If Trakh had those players and had this same record, he would be underachieving. But he has done a great job dealing with the injuries and still winning, 16-18 games.
Cal State Fullerton:
At Cal State Fullerton, Sr. Mary Alice Jeremiah announced that she would retire on October 28, 2009. Fullerton then announed that Marsha Foster signed a four year contract to replace Dr. Jeremiah.
I strongly feel that Fullerton made a big mistake by not opening up the job and seeing how good the pool of candidates maybe. Fullerton could still have included Foster in that pool. But just giving her the job is a big mistake.
This isn't a reflection of Coach Foster. But as assistant coach and the coach in charge of recruiting, she has to take some of the blame for the lack of success the past six years at CSF.
And if people don't think that Foster being black didn't have anything to do with it, go stick your head in the sand. There will be no protests by the Black Coach's Association, because Fullerton didn't do a search, because the job went to a black woman.
Cal Poly
Faith Mimnaugh, after 12 long, losing seasons, finally had a winning season at Cal Poly, going 21-11, 11-5 in the Big West. But a closer look at that record shows she padded her schedule with cupcakes.
Faith won 8 games in non conference.
New Mexico St.
USD
UM Kansas City
Idaho
USF
Illinois Chicago
Eastern Washington
Bake (a team she went 1-1, against)
Of those teams, only two teams had winning records, San Diego and Bake.
All the teams except Bake are in a conference. Bake beat a lot of other indys that padded their record.
None of those teams made the NCAA or NIT.
Overall record of those eight teams 103-135. Is that a tough schedule?
In the BW she finished 3rd in the conference. Did not beat the top two teams, UC Santa Barbara and UC Riverside, in the regular season. Beat #2 UCR in the BWT.
She lost to the #6 seed CSF.
Beat both #7 seed UCI and #9 seed LB, by a total of 15 points in the two games. And #8 seed CSN by 16 points in the two games. You're telling that the 3rd seed can only beat the bottom feeders of the BW by an average of only 7-9 points a games?
Just for comparison, #2 UCR beat UCI by 36 in their two games.
Remember all in a BW, that had four teams finish with 20 or more losses. Five, over half the conference, that has 18 or more losses. Only 3 teams finished with a wining record.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Kay Yow
Today, the game of basketball losts a true champion and legend. Kay Yow, head coach of North Carolina St. passed away after a very long battle with breast cancer. A list of Coach Yow's accomplishments would be so long. She touched the lives of so many people and is one of the true pioneers of the game.
She will be missed.
She will be missed.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Big West Conference- UC Riverside
On the on going look at Big West schools, www.lawomenshoops.com looks at UC Riverside (UCR).
UCR was a Division 2 program until they made the move to D-1 in the late 90's after students voted to raise their fees to fund the move. UCR became members of the Big West in 2001-02. Jennifer Young was the head coach for UCR when the Highlanders made the move up to D-1. Young was hired for the 1997-98 season.
1997-98 15-11
1998-99 8-19
99-00 11-16
00-01 9-18
01-02 16-13 First year in BW
02-03 8-20
03-04 7-21
Young took her team through the four year provisional years to D-1. In their first year in the Big West, UCR, went 16-13, finishing tied for second in the Big West, with Pacific. They would lose to Pacific in the BW Tournament semi finals. But that team was a senior laden team, lead by Amy Houchens and Julie Shaw. Houchen was 1st team All BW. After that season, Young faced a rebuilding year, with only Cassandra Reeves returning from the year before.
They team would struggle to an 8-20 record. The following season would also be a struggle, 7-21. Athletic Director Stan Morrison decide that Young wasn't the coach to lead UCR to greater heights and decided not to renew her contract.
In one of the best kept secrets ever, UCR did a search and found John Margaritis, an assistant at Northern Arizona, to take over the program. What I mean by best kept secrets is that, UCR never made public the people on the search committee, hell, if there was even a search committee, and any of the finalists.
Hiring a male head coach may upset the old girl network that ruins women's basketball. But unlike some other hirings, San Diego St. hiring Jim, who had never coach women's or girls basketball before, UCR hired a coach with plenty of experience coaching women's basketball. I never have an issue with a school hiring a male coach, who has coached women's basketball before. But it's not right for any school to hire a male coach, who has never coached women's basketball.
Also for the idiot, female fans who hate the hiring of any male coaches, just shut up. You are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Coach Margaritis was lucky, in that Coach Young signed Kemie Nkele. Nkele would become the cornerstone for the turnaround of UCR. So with Nkele and basically the entire team back, who won jsut 7 games the year before, Margaritis lead them to a winning season, going 16-13, for the 04-05 season. Nkele was Freshmen of the Year and 1st team all BW.
Then Margaritis and his coaching staff signed a group of freshmen who would become great players for the program, Amber Cox and Seyram Gbewonyo. They would go:
05-06 16-15 Won BWT. Lost to #1 seed North Carolina in the NCAA tourney.
The Highlanders ended Cal State Santa Barbara's streak of 11 straight BWT championships.
They would repeat as BWT Champions for the
06-07
07-08
UCR was a Division 2 program until they made the move to D-1 in the late 90's after students voted to raise their fees to fund the move. UCR became members of the Big West in 2001-02. Jennifer Young was the head coach for UCR when the Highlanders made the move up to D-1. Young was hired for the 1997-98 season.
1997-98 15-11
1998-99 8-19
99-00 11-16
00-01 9-18
01-02 16-13 First year in BW
02-03 8-20
03-04 7-21
Young took her team through the four year provisional years to D-1. In their first year in the Big West, UCR, went 16-13, finishing tied for second in the Big West, with Pacific. They would lose to Pacific in the BW Tournament semi finals. But that team was a senior laden team, lead by Amy Houchens and Julie Shaw. Houchen was 1st team All BW. After that season, Young faced a rebuilding year, with only Cassandra Reeves returning from the year before.
They team would struggle to an 8-20 record. The following season would also be a struggle, 7-21. Athletic Director Stan Morrison decide that Young wasn't the coach to lead UCR to greater heights and decided not to renew her contract.
In one of the best kept secrets ever, UCR did a search and found John Margaritis, an assistant at Northern Arizona, to take over the program. What I mean by best kept secrets is that, UCR never made public the people on the search committee, hell, if there was even a search committee, and any of the finalists.
Hiring a male head coach may upset the old girl network that ruins women's basketball. But unlike some other hirings, San Diego St. hiring Jim, who had never coach women's or girls basketball before, UCR hired a coach with plenty of experience coaching women's basketball. I never have an issue with a school hiring a male coach, who has coached women's basketball before. But it's not right for any school to hire a male coach, who has never coached women's basketball.
Also for the idiot, female fans who hate the hiring of any male coaches, just shut up. You are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Coach Margaritis was lucky, in that Coach Young signed Kemie Nkele. Nkele would become the cornerstone for the turnaround of UCR. So with Nkele and basically the entire team back, who won jsut 7 games the year before, Margaritis lead them to a winning season, going 16-13, for the 04-05 season. Nkele was Freshmen of the Year and 1st team all BW.
Then Margaritis and his coaching staff signed a group of freshmen who would become great players for the program, Amber Cox and Seyram Gbewonyo. They would go:
05-06 16-15 Won BWT. Lost to #1 seed North Carolina in the NCAA tourney.
The Highlanders ended Cal State Santa Barbara's streak of 11 straight BWT championships.
They would repeat as BWT Champions for the
06-07
07-08
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The Big West Conference-UC Irvine
On the on going look at Big West schools, www.lawomenshoops.com looks at UC Irvine (UCI).
First some background. Collen Matsuhara took over as head coach for the 1991-92 season. She replaced Dean Andrea who was the head coach for thirteen seasons. The first three seasons were tough:
1991-92 5-22
1992-93 2-24
1993-94 5-22
But things turned around during the 94-95 season, UCI went 19-11, won the Big West Tournament, and went to the NCAA Tournament, losing to Stanford.
During the 1995-96 season, UCI struggled, going 12-16 but quickly rebounded and went16-13 during the 1996-97 season. Then to the surprise of many Dan Guerrero, did not renew Colleen's contract. Yes, that Dan Guerrero, the current athletic director at UCLA. The AD who hired Tricky Ricky to lead their football program into NCAA probation. There were many theories as to why Dan didn't resign Colleen; he wanted a male coach, he didn't think Colleen could lead UCI to a higher level. Either way he did hire Mark Adams, Colleen's top assistant.
Adams would stay at UCI for seven full seasons and was basically forced to resign seven games into his eighth season.
Adams would continue some of the success of Colleen, early on but then basically went feast or famine, having one winning season, then having a bad season.
1997-98 16-11
1998-99 11-16
99-00 12-15
00-01 16-14
01-02 8-20
02-03 17-12
03-04 6-20
Some of Coach Adams' problems had to do with injuries to players. Many highly touted recruits never played or rarely played due to injuries.
Then after a 0-7 start to the 04-05 season, UCI forced Coach Adams to resign. By this time Bob Chichester was the UCI AD. Molly Tuter was named interim head coach by Chichester. Molly would go 8-14, for the rest of the 04-05 season.
Chichester, again making the mistake that many BW schools have done, didn't do a real search and just gave Molly a four year contract. Tuter had a lot of good ideas of improving UCI. The biggest and most radical difference was recruiting players from overseas. Tuter's first real recruiting class, players who entered UCI for the 06-07 season, included players from the Netherlands and Latvia. But of those four players she signed, only one player remains on the team this season, Rebecca Maessen. The following season, 07-08, she signed a player from New Zealand. But again that player, Kim Barnes left UCI.
Then in a surprise move Molly Tuter resigned in late May of 2008. There were some rumors as to why Tuter resigned, but I have too much respect for Coach Tuter and will no spread those rumors.
To my shock, UCI did do a search, even hiring a search firm, ChampsSearch to help in finding a head coach. Billie Moore, Hall of Fame coach for UCLA and Cal State Fullerton, was in charge of this search. But UCI wasted an entire month looking for a coach between the time of Tuter's official resignation and the annoucement of the hiring of the ChampsSearch.
On August 4, 2008 UCI announced the hiring of former Stanford star, Molly Goodenbour. Goodenbour was an All American at Stanford, won two national championships, being named the Most Outstanding Player for the 1992 Final Four played at the LA Sports Arena. Goodenbour would play overseas, then in the ABL and WNBA.
Goodenbour started her coaching career as an assistant at University of San Francisco, USF for the 1994-95 season. She would then continue her playing career. After retiring as a player, she was an assistant coach for one season at Santa Rosa JC, then became head coach for three seasons,
2002-03 20-10
03-04 24-6
04-05 25-5
Goodenbour would then return to USF as an assistant for the 2005-06 season. After that season she was named head coach at D-2 Chico St.
06-07 24-5
07-08 28-6
While Goodenbour was successful on the court, her tenture at Chico St, was marred by many players leaving the program, including the star player and hometown favorite, the dismissal of other players, and reports of verbal abuse and intimidation of players. You can read all the details here.
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=305946
There are always two sides to each story and who knows whether or not the former head coach at Chico St, Lynne Roberts didn't have anything to do with it. One of the players who quit and complained the most, Amber Simmons, transfered to BW rival Pacific. Surprise!!! Pacific just happens to be where Lynne Roberts became head coach.
Now I'll be honest, I've followed Goodenbour's career since she was at Stanford. So while I try to be unbiased, I am on Goodenbour's side in this situation. I would be even if I wasn't a fan of Molly before hand. When playing sports, it's accepted that coaches will just profanity at times. It's accepted that coaches will yell at players. Of course there are limits but I don't think Goodenbour came close to crossing any lines, if in fact those allegations, mentioned in the story, are true.
Kids these days need to grow up and stop being coddled and just take the yelling and stop crying. I think many kids think being mistreated means, they didn't get their way. And they also need to learn that when things go wrong, they can't go crying to mommy and daddy and expect them to make things better. If they have an issue with a coach, go talk to that coach. You're an adult now, mommy and daddy shouldn't be a crutch anymore.
UCI is currently 3-13. Goodenbour of course deserves a chance to be successful.
So why can't UCI be successful? They have good academics, a wonderful, if boring as hell, location, and of course great weather. But some issues I've heard is the lack of commitment to athletics at UCI. This is shown by UCI having funding issues for athletics. Yes, they did add baseball but only because students voted to raise their fees to pay for it.
Facilities: While the Bren Center is a very nice arena, the other support facilities are lacking. They team doesn't have a lockerroom or a team room. Crawford Hall which houses the athletic department offices, is outdated and UCI athletics has outgrown those facilites. Now they did build some portable offices for some sports, baseball for instance to relieve overcrowding in Crawford Hall. But what about improving support facilities for the women's basketball program? Coach's Offices actually inside the Bren Center? A team room inside the Bren Center?
Salary. Molly Tuter didn't make $100,000 as a first year head coach. I do not know Molly Goodenbour's salary but I bet it's not much higher than $110,000. With that kind of salary, how does UCI expect to attract and keep good quality coaches? Factor in the high cost of housing, especially in OC, and that $100,000 doesn't go very far. Assistant coaches don't make much either. One coach actually took a pay cut from his job as a teacher, to become coach at UCI. UCI has to increase salaries for the entire coaching staff.
But dispite all this, I think UCI has made some strides. The fact that the new AD, Mike Izzi, actually did a search was shocking, since the last two coaches, Adams and Tuter, were promoted to head coach. Then Izzi figured out they don't have a clue about how to conduct a search and/or weren't getting enough good candidates, they hired a search firm. Whether that search firm found the best candidate, remains to be seen.
But I think UCI did the right thing hiring a search firm. But now they need to hold Goodenbour to a high standard. If things aren't turning around by the third year, they need to put her on notice and tell her she needs to win or she will not be getting a new contract.
With the sorry state of women's basketball in the BW, there is no reason why a team can't turn things around within three years.
First some background. Collen Matsuhara took over as head coach for the 1991-92 season. She replaced Dean Andrea who was the head coach for thirteen seasons. The first three seasons were tough:
1991-92 5-22
1992-93 2-24
1993-94 5-22
But things turned around during the 94-95 season, UCI went 19-11, won the Big West Tournament, and went to the NCAA Tournament, losing to Stanford.
During the 1995-96 season, UCI struggled, going 12-16 but quickly rebounded and went16-13 during the 1996-97 season. Then to the surprise of many Dan Guerrero, did not renew Colleen's contract. Yes, that Dan Guerrero, the current athletic director at UCLA. The AD who hired Tricky Ricky to lead their football program into NCAA probation. There were many theories as to why Dan didn't resign Colleen; he wanted a male coach, he didn't think Colleen could lead UCI to a higher level. Either way he did hire Mark Adams, Colleen's top assistant.
Adams would stay at UCI for seven full seasons and was basically forced to resign seven games into his eighth season.
Adams would continue some of the success of Colleen, early on but then basically went feast or famine, having one winning season, then having a bad season.
1997-98 16-11
1998-99 11-16
99-00 12-15
00-01 16-14
01-02 8-20
02-03 17-12
03-04 6-20
Some of Coach Adams' problems had to do with injuries to players. Many highly touted recruits never played or rarely played due to injuries.
Then after a 0-7 start to the 04-05 season, UCI forced Coach Adams to resign. By this time Bob Chichester was the UCI AD. Molly Tuter was named interim head coach by Chichester. Molly would go 8-14, for the rest of the 04-05 season.
Chichester, again making the mistake that many BW schools have done, didn't do a real search and just gave Molly a four year contract. Tuter had a lot of good ideas of improving UCI. The biggest and most radical difference was recruiting players from overseas. Tuter's first real recruiting class, players who entered UCI for the 06-07 season, included players from the Netherlands and Latvia. But of those four players she signed, only one player remains on the team this season, Rebecca Maessen. The following season, 07-08, she signed a player from New Zealand. But again that player, Kim Barnes left UCI.
Then in a surprise move Molly Tuter resigned in late May of 2008. There were some rumors as to why Tuter resigned, but I have too much respect for Coach Tuter and will no spread those rumors.
To my shock, UCI did do a search, even hiring a search firm, ChampsSearch to help in finding a head coach. Billie Moore, Hall of Fame coach for UCLA and Cal State Fullerton, was in charge of this search. But UCI wasted an entire month looking for a coach between the time of Tuter's official resignation and the annoucement of the hiring of the ChampsSearch.
On August 4, 2008 UCI announced the hiring of former Stanford star, Molly Goodenbour. Goodenbour was an All American at Stanford, won two national championships, being named the Most Outstanding Player for the 1992 Final Four played at the LA Sports Arena. Goodenbour would play overseas, then in the ABL and WNBA.
Goodenbour started her coaching career as an assistant at University of San Francisco, USF for the 1994-95 season. She would then continue her playing career. After retiring as a player, she was an assistant coach for one season at Santa Rosa JC, then became head coach for three seasons,
2002-03 20-10
03-04 24-6
04-05 25-5
Goodenbour would then return to USF as an assistant for the 2005-06 season. After that season she was named head coach at D-2 Chico St.
06-07 24-5
07-08 28-6
While Goodenbour was successful on the court, her tenture at Chico St, was marred by many players leaving the program, including the star player and hometown favorite, the dismissal of other players, and reports of verbal abuse and intimidation of players. You can read all the details here.
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=305946
There are always two sides to each story and who knows whether or not the former head coach at Chico St, Lynne Roberts didn't have anything to do with it. One of the players who quit and complained the most, Amber Simmons, transfered to BW rival Pacific. Surprise!!! Pacific just happens to be where Lynne Roberts became head coach.
Now I'll be honest, I've followed Goodenbour's career since she was at Stanford. So while I try to be unbiased, I am on Goodenbour's side in this situation. I would be even if I wasn't a fan of Molly before hand. When playing sports, it's accepted that coaches will just profanity at times. It's accepted that coaches will yell at players. Of course there are limits but I don't think Goodenbour came close to crossing any lines, if in fact those allegations, mentioned in the story, are true.
Kids these days need to grow up and stop being coddled and just take the yelling and stop crying. I think many kids think being mistreated means, they didn't get their way. And they also need to learn that when things go wrong, they can't go crying to mommy and daddy and expect them to make things better. If they have an issue with a coach, go talk to that coach. You're an adult now, mommy and daddy shouldn't be a crutch anymore.
UCI is currently 3-13. Goodenbour of course deserves a chance to be successful.
So why can't UCI be successful? They have good academics, a wonderful, if boring as hell, location, and of course great weather. But some issues I've heard is the lack of commitment to athletics at UCI. This is shown by UCI having funding issues for athletics. Yes, they did add baseball but only because students voted to raise their fees to pay for it.
Facilities: While the Bren Center is a very nice arena, the other support facilities are lacking. They team doesn't have a lockerroom or a team room. Crawford Hall which houses the athletic department offices, is outdated and UCI athletics has outgrown those facilites. Now they did build some portable offices for some sports, baseball for instance to relieve overcrowding in Crawford Hall. But what about improving support facilities for the women's basketball program? Coach's Offices actually inside the Bren Center? A team room inside the Bren Center?
Salary. Molly Tuter didn't make $100,000 as a first year head coach. I do not know Molly Goodenbour's salary but I bet it's not much higher than $110,000. With that kind of salary, how does UCI expect to attract and keep good quality coaches? Factor in the high cost of housing, especially in OC, and that $100,000 doesn't go very far. Assistant coaches don't make much either. One coach actually took a pay cut from his job as a teacher, to become coach at UCI. UCI has to increase salaries for the entire coaching staff.
But dispite all this, I think UCI has made some strides. The fact that the new AD, Mike Izzi, actually did a search was shocking, since the last two coaches, Adams and Tuter, were promoted to head coach. Then Izzi figured out they don't have a clue about how to conduct a search and/or weren't getting enough good candidates, they hired a search firm. Whether that search firm found the best candidate, remains to be seen.
But I think UCI did the right thing hiring a search firm. But now they need to hold Goodenbour to a high standard. If things aren't turning around by the third year, they need to put her on notice and tell her she needs to win or she will not be getting a new contract.
With the sorry state of women's basketball in the BW, there is no reason why a team can't turn things around within three years.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The Big West Conference- Cal State Northridge
In an ongoing look at schools in the Big West Conference, www.lawomenshoops.com looks at Cal State Northridge(CSN).
First some background Cal State Northridge moved up to Division 1 for the 1990-91 season. They struggled to find, funding for all programs, including 1-AA football, and a conference to call home. In the 94-95 season the were members of a four team conference called th America West Conference. Cal Poly, Sac St, Southern Utah were the other four teams. The NCAA requires six teams for a conference to have an automatic bid to the NCAA basketball tournament. The America West Conference only lasted two seasons, 94-95 and 95-96. Starting with the 96-97 season: Cal Poly went to the Big West. CSN and Sac. St accepted invitations to the Big Sky Conference. Southern Utah would later accept an invitation to the Mid Con Conference, now call the Summitt League. After the 2000-01 season CSN became members of the Big West Conference because CSN couldn't improve their football facilities to satisfy the Big Sky Conference.
Kim Chandler was CSN's head coach from 1992-93 to 1994-95. Well, she was named interim head coach, nine games into the 1991-92 season and then got job full time after the season.
There is no doubt Chandler had a lot of things to deal with during her time as head coach. Money being a big factor, working with only about eight scholarships, which is half of what the NCAA allows for women's basketball. A limited recruiting budget. No conference and even in the American West, didn't have an automatic bid to the NCAA. Of course, the lack of facilities. Then in 1994, the Northridge earthquake. Things got so bad at CSN that the WBB program was going to be cut, if a student fee referendum in 1995 didn't pass. The referendum was passed thus saving women's basketball.
But the biggest question hanging over Chandler was, whether or not she was qualified too be a D-1 head coach. Chandler was hired as head coach when she was 26 years old. She didn't have much experience prior to be hired. She was an assistant coach at Bowling Green for a season and Florida Souther for one season, before being an assistant at CSN for a year and a half, before being named interim coach. So at best a 26 year old coach with about three years experience as an D1 assistant coach. Sixteen players and six assistant coaches left the CSN program during Chandler's tenture, many because they were unhappy with Chandler. Chandler resigned in March of 1995.
Chandler was replaced by Oregon St assistant coach Micheal Abraham. Abraham was the long time assistant coach at Long Beach St, when LB was a top 5 women's basketball program. Abraham came with some NCAA baggage. The NCAA would place Oregon St on probation for violations that occurred during the time Abraham was on staff at OSU.
Abraham was brash and confident, some would say cocky. He recruited from all over the world!! CSN had players from France, Serbia, and Sweden on the roster during Abraham's tenture. By the third season, Abraham was starting to see the rewards of his recruiting efforts, winning 14 games.
95-96 5-22
96-97 4-23 First year in the Big Sky
97-98 14-14
But in the fall of 1998, things came crashing down on Micheal Abraham. He was arrested for helping broker a drug deal. He would eventually serve time in federal prison. Of course he resigned as head coach at CSN. After his arrest, there were newspaper reports that players suspected drug use by Coach Abraham but the athletic director at the time, Paul Bubb, did nothing about their concerns. This would lead the resignation of Bubb and Judith Brame, Sr. Associate Athletic Director.
Frozena Jerro replaced Abraham as interim coach for the 98-99 season. The 98-99 season would turn out to be the pinnacle for CSN. They went 21-8, winning the Big Sky regular season and post season championships. They lost to Colorado St in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
At the Big Sky Championship game vs Portland St., it was announced that Frozena Jerro was given a contract to be the head coach at CSN. Classic case of both politics and thrill of the moment, getting the better of the athletic director, Sam Jankovich, who was hired to straighten the mess that was CSN's athletic department. Jankovich was the AD at Miami during the rise of the Hurricane football program.
But Jerro had very little experience as a college assistant coach. She was an assistant at Houston for two seasons, 93-94 and 94-95, and one season at King Junior High School in Berkeley. Then one season, 97-98 at CSN. That is not enough experience to hire somebody as a head coach.
But when a coach leads a team to their first NCAA tourney and happens to be black, there is no way you can't hire that coach without some serious badlash. But the next three years Jerro proved she couldn't handle being a head coach at the D1 level. Going from 21 wins, in her first year, to 9 wins in her last full season.
The program was a place where players recruited by Abraham, transfered and/or players not getting along with the head coach and the players recruited by Jerro were not as talented as the players they replaced. Jerro would resign five games into the 01-02 season.
1998-99 21-8
1999-2000 18-10
00-01 9-18
01-02 0-5 First year in the Big West.
Then CSN promoted Ken Turner and Paula Nirschl as interim co coaches for 01-02 season. They would finish the year with a 2-19 record.
But CSN to their credit did a full search. In a surprising move, athletic director Dick Dull, hired Tammy Holder. But unlike Jerro and Chandler, Holder had lots of experience, she was head coach at Richmond and the Seattle Reign of the ABL and was an assistant for eight years. The surprising part was that Holder told me didn't even know where Northridge was, when she saw the head coaching position opening in the NCAA news. As a side note, John Margaritis, the current UCR coach was among the finalists for the job that was given to Holder.
But after two tough seasons, she got things turned around in her third year.
02-03 3-24
03-04 6-20
04-05 18-11
But just when the future for WBB looked bright for CSN, in the summer of 05, Holder left to be an assistant at South Carolina.
Instead of doing a full search to find a replacement, CSN just promoted Staci Schulz to head coach. Schulz had only eight years of college coaching experience, never being a head coach. Her first year was a bit tough since she lost star player Ofa Tulihihifo to a leg injury. But Schulz's second season, 06-07, with Ofa and six other seniors, she again underacheived and won only 13 games. The 07-08 season saw a diaster for CSN, 1-26, sinking to depths they haven't seen since the Kim Chandler era.
05-06 10-20
06-07 13-16
07-08 1-26
So in the past 15 years, CSN has made the mistake of hiring an inexperience head coach, not once, not twice, but three times!!!! Yes, three different AD's did the hiring but they all made the same mistake.
One other thing that should be mentioned is the lack of experience of the assistant coaches at CSN. The third assistant coach is usually a former player who recently graduated, so it's expected that the coach will be inexperienced.
But the other two assistant coaches should not be inexperienced. During the 1998-99 season, Frozena Jerro, Karen Howell and Tara Harrington were the assistant coaches. The combined D-1 experience for the three? THREE years, all by Coach Jerro, who would be named interim head coach after Coach Abraham was arrested. Harrington was the third assistant, just finished her playing career at Stanford.
In the 2001-02 season, Ken Turner, Paula Nirschl, and Denise Woods had a combined, ZERO years of D-1 experience. Woods being the third assistant, after finishing her playing career at USC. Combine that with the inexperience of Coach Jero, six years in D-1, three as head coach, and you have a recipe for failure.
Even the coaching staff for the 08-09 season is inexperienced, Carla Houser has seven years experience as a D-1 assistant coach. All with CSN. Abby Vaughn has been at CSN for two years. Before that, Vaughn only one years worth of D-1 experience, at San Jose St. Cory O'Dell, was the former head coach at Chaminade and an assistant at Alaska-Anchorage, both D-2 schools, but has no D-1 experience before coming to CSN.
So increasing the salaries for both head and assistant coaches will greatly improve the ability to attract coaches with more experience. This is something the school needs to do.
As of today, CSN is 3-12. Will Staci be resigned to a new contract after this season? I believe she signed a four year contract when she was hired. Will the current CSN AD, Rick Mazzuto, make the same mistakes of three other AD's? What standards will Mazzuto use to judge her record? He certainly can't be happy with the direction the program is going. But then again he could be just like every other BW AD and maybe he could care less about the WBB program.
First some background Cal State Northridge moved up to Division 1 for the 1990-91 season. They struggled to find, funding for all programs, including 1-AA football, and a conference to call home. In the 94-95 season the were members of a four team conference called th America West Conference. Cal Poly, Sac St, Southern Utah were the other four teams. The NCAA requires six teams for a conference to have an automatic bid to the NCAA basketball tournament. The America West Conference only lasted two seasons, 94-95 and 95-96. Starting with the 96-97 season: Cal Poly went to the Big West. CSN and Sac. St accepted invitations to the Big Sky Conference. Southern Utah would later accept an invitation to the Mid Con Conference, now call the Summitt League. After the 2000-01 season CSN became members of the Big West Conference because CSN couldn't improve their football facilities to satisfy the Big Sky Conference.
Kim Chandler was CSN's head coach from 1992-93 to 1994-95. Well, she was named interim head coach, nine games into the 1991-92 season and then got job full time after the season.
There is no doubt Chandler had a lot of things to deal with during her time as head coach. Money being a big factor, working with only about eight scholarships, which is half of what the NCAA allows for women's basketball. A limited recruiting budget. No conference and even in the American West, didn't have an automatic bid to the NCAA. Of course, the lack of facilities. Then in 1994, the Northridge earthquake. Things got so bad at CSN that the WBB program was going to be cut, if a student fee referendum in 1995 didn't pass. The referendum was passed thus saving women's basketball.
But the biggest question hanging over Chandler was, whether or not she was qualified too be a D-1 head coach. Chandler was hired as head coach when she was 26 years old. She didn't have much experience prior to be hired. She was an assistant coach at Bowling Green for a season and Florida Souther for one season, before being an assistant at CSN for a year and a half, before being named interim coach. So at best a 26 year old coach with about three years experience as an D1 assistant coach. Sixteen players and six assistant coaches left the CSN program during Chandler's tenture, many because they were unhappy with Chandler. Chandler resigned in March of 1995.
Chandler was replaced by Oregon St assistant coach Micheal Abraham. Abraham was the long time assistant coach at Long Beach St, when LB was a top 5 women's basketball program. Abraham came with some NCAA baggage. The NCAA would place Oregon St on probation for violations that occurred during the time Abraham was on staff at OSU.
Abraham was brash and confident, some would say cocky. He recruited from all over the world!! CSN had players from France, Serbia, and Sweden on the roster during Abraham's tenture. By the third season, Abraham was starting to see the rewards of his recruiting efforts, winning 14 games.
95-96 5-22
96-97 4-23 First year in the Big Sky
97-98 14-14
But in the fall of 1998, things came crashing down on Micheal Abraham. He was arrested for helping broker a drug deal. He would eventually serve time in federal prison. Of course he resigned as head coach at CSN. After his arrest, there were newspaper reports that players suspected drug use by Coach Abraham but the athletic director at the time, Paul Bubb, did nothing about their concerns. This would lead the resignation of Bubb and Judith Brame, Sr. Associate Athletic Director.
Frozena Jerro replaced Abraham as interim coach for the 98-99 season. The 98-99 season would turn out to be the pinnacle for CSN. They went 21-8, winning the Big Sky regular season and post season championships. They lost to Colorado St in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
At the Big Sky Championship game vs Portland St., it was announced that Frozena Jerro was given a contract to be the head coach at CSN. Classic case of both politics and thrill of the moment, getting the better of the athletic director, Sam Jankovich, who was hired to straighten the mess that was CSN's athletic department. Jankovich was the AD at Miami during the rise of the Hurricane football program.
But Jerro had very little experience as a college assistant coach. She was an assistant at Houston for two seasons, 93-94 and 94-95, and one season at King Junior High School in Berkeley. Then one season, 97-98 at CSN. That is not enough experience to hire somebody as a head coach.
But when a coach leads a team to their first NCAA tourney and happens to be black, there is no way you can't hire that coach without some serious badlash. But the next three years Jerro proved she couldn't handle being a head coach at the D1 level. Going from 21 wins, in her first year, to 9 wins in her last full season.
The program was a place where players recruited by Abraham, transfered and/or players not getting along with the head coach and the players recruited by Jerro were not as talented as the players they replaced. Jerro would resign five games into the 01-02 season.
1998-99 21-8
1999-2000 18-10
00-01 9-18
01-02 0-5 First year in the Big West.
Then CSN promoted Ken Turner and Paula Nirschl as interim co coaches for 01-02 season. They would finish the year with a 2-19 record.
But CSN to their credit did a full search. In a surprising move, athletic director Dick Dull, hired Tammy Holder. But unlike Jerro and Chandler, Holder had lots of experience, she was head coach at Richmond and the Seattle Reign of the ABL and was an assistant for eight years. The surprising part was that Holder told me didn't even know where Northridge was, when she saw the head coaching position opening in the NCAA news. As a side note, John Margaritis, the current UCR coach was among the finalists for the job that was given to Holder.
But after two tough seasons, she got things turned around in her third year.
02-03 3-24
03-04 6-20
04-05 18-11
But just when the future for WBB looked bright for CSN, in the summer of 05, Holder left to be an assistant at South Carolina.
Instead of doing a full search to find a replacement, CSN just promoted Staci Schulz to head coach. Schulz had only eight years of college coaching experience, never being a head coach. Her first year was a bit tough since she lost star player Ofa Tulihihifo to a leg injury. But Schulz's second season, 06-07, with Ofa and six other seniors, she again underacheived and won only 13 games. The 07-08 season saw a diaster for CSN, 1-26, sinking to depths they haven't seen since the Kim Chandler era.
05-06 10-20
06-07 13-16
07-08 1-26
So in the past 15 years, CSN has made the mistake of hiring an inexperience head coach, not once, not twice, but three times!!!! Yes, three different AD's did the hiring but they all made the same mistake.
One other thing that should be mentioned is the lack of experience of the assistant coaches at CSN. The third assistant coach is usually a former player who recently graduated, so it's expected that the coach will be inexperienced.
But the other two assistant coaches should not be inexperienced. During the 1998-99 season, Frozena Jerro, Karen Howell and Tara Harrington were the assistant coaches. The combined D-1 experience for the three? THREE years, all by Coach Jerro, who would be named interim head coach after Coach Abraham was arrested. Harrington was the third assistant, just finished her playing career at Stanford.
In the 2001-02 season, Ken Turner, Paula Nirschl, and Denise Woods had a combined, ZERO years of D-1 experience. Woods being the third assistant, after finishing her playing career at USC. Combine that with the inexperience of Coach Jero, six years in D-1, three as head coach, and you have a recipe for failure.
Even the coaching staff for the 08-09 season is inexperienced, Carla Houser has seven years experience as a D-1 assistant coach. All with CSN. Abby Vaughn has been at CSN for two years. Before that, Vaughn only one years worth of D-1 experience, at San Jose St. Cory O'Dell, was the former head coach at Chaminade and an assistant at Alaska-Anchorage, both D-2 schools, but has no D-1 experience before coming to CSN.
So increasing the salaries for both head and assistant coaches will greatly improve the ability to attract coaches with more experience. This is something the school needs to do.
As of today, CSN is 3-12. Will Staci be resigned to a new contract after this season? I believe she signed a four year contract when she was hired. Will the current CSN AD, Rick Mazzuto, make the same mistakes of three other AD's? What standards will Mazzuto use to judge her record? He certainly can't be happy with the direction the program is going. But then again he could be just like every other BW AD and maybe he could care less about the WBB program.
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Big West Conference- Cal Poly
I prefer to call the Big West conference, the Big Worst conference, because in women's basketball it is a terrible conference. For SEVEN STRAIGHT, that's right, SEVEN STRAIGHT years there have been two or more BW teams that lost 20 or more games.
01-02 season: Fullerton, Northridge, and Irvine.
02-03 season: Fullerton, Northridge, and Riverside.
03-04 season: Fullerton, Northridge, Riverside, and Irvine.
04-05 season: Fullerton, Irvine, Pacific.
05-06 season: Northridge and Pacific.
06-07 season: Long Beach, Irvine, and Pacific.
07-08 season: Northridge, Long Beach, and Irvine. Cal Poly and Fullerton both lost 19 games each.
For the 08-09 season, Long Beach, Irvine, and Northridge have 10,11, and 12 losses already. Anybody dare to say two of those teams WON'T lose 20 games?
So what are the problems? Why are BW schools losing? I will take a school by school look of Big West schools that are struggling. But first some general comments.
The first question should be, what are the expectations for BW Women's Basketball. I'm not expecting any BW school to become the next UConn or Tenn. But the BW can become a good conference with a RPI, as a conference between 12-15, a solid mid major. Not the 25 over below, meaning one of the worst conferences in the nation. So what's preventing the BW from getting to that level?
In my opinions scholarship money is not one of the reasons why BW schools are losing. Yes the BW doesn't have the money of the bigger schools in conferences where football brings in a ton of money. But all Big West schools must provide 80% of NCAA maximum for scholarships. So all BW schools have at least funding for 12 scholarships. The NCAA allows 15 schoalrships for women's basketball. Twelve scholarships are more than enough to win. Plus all BW schools spend about the same amount of money for WBB. It's not like one school spends, $250,000 with another school spends, $5 million. Most BW schools spend about $750,000 a year on women's basketball. So one school doesn't have such a big advantage over the other eight schools.
That's not to say BW schools should put more money into women's basketball. They should try to find more funding for programs.
I do think the relatively low salaries for BW head and assistant coaches, is a factor in the poor quality of play in the BW. It's hard to hire good experienced assistant coaches and if you find a good quality assistant coach, it's hard to keep that coach because other schools come in an offer larger salaries.
So what are the reasons for the sorry state of Big West Women's Basketball?
Apathy towards women's basketball:
I think almost all BW schools could care less about WBB. Their attitude is get good kids, who graduate and don't get into trouble. Also don't lose too much money.
No expectations or standards.
In any business there are certain expectations and standards. If you're in sales and you don't meet you sales quotas, you're not going to be working for that company much longer. If you're a teacher and if your students aren't passing the tests, you're not going to be teaching much longer.
But in the BW, why aren't there any standards for winning in women's basketball?
If a coach has been at the school for twelve years and has never had a winning record, how is that coach still at the school?
I wanted to comment on academics. Yes, it's important for kids to graduate. Yes it's important for kids to go to class. But if you have a 100% graduation rate, but can't finish 500 overall, you shouldn't keep your job as head coach.
So let's look at each school. First up Cal Poly and head coach Faith Mimnaugh:
How can a school like Cal Poly keep Faith Mimnaugh for 12 long, losing seasons? In eleven years she was 121-185, with ZERO winning overall records and only two winning records in the BW.
This is her record at Cal Poly:
Year: Overall BW
97-98 6-20 3-12
98-99 8-18 2-13
99-00 9-19 5-10
00-01 12-17 5-9
01-02 11-17 7-9
02-03 10-17 6-10
03-04 14-14 10-8
04-05 11-16 5-13
05-06 13-14 7-7
06-07 14-14 9-5
07-08 13-19 8-8
Cal Poly was a D2 school until the 93-94 season. Starting in 94-95 they moved up to D1. Cal Poly students passing a fee referendum to pay for the move to D1. During the 94-95 and 95-96 seasons, Cal Poly was in the four team American West Conference. Then starting with the 96-97 season they became members of the Big West Conference.
Back in 2006 Cal Poly gave Faith a one year contract extension but never bothered to announce it through the Cal Poly's SID office. WHY? What do they have to hide?
Interesting that all three of Faith's assistant coaches from the 04-05 season left the program. Amy Saneholtz going to Montana St, Kristi Baker to Utah St, and Odessa Jenkins going into private business. Anytime all three assistant coaches leave, that should raise red flags. I'm sure all three assistants thought about the possibility that they would have to move on after the 05-06 season, and decided to leave on their own terms.
In June of 2007 Cal Poly did release Faith got a two year contract extension.
http://www.calpolymustangs.com/index.php?p=sports&tab=news&id=29941&article_id=8121
So during the 06-07 season, what great things did Faith do to get that two year extension? 14-14 overall, 9-5 in the BW, mind you, a BW with three teams that lost 20 or more games.
Currently Cal Poly is 8-5 overall and 1-1 in the BW. But her 7 non BW wins, have come to teams with a 31-42 record. Her 4, no BW losses have come to schools with 30-12 record. Meaning she hasn't beaten a team worth a damn. Her best wins are against San Diego and Illinois-Chicago. Not exactly powerhouses.
Faith's contract is up at the end of the year. The real question is by what standards will Cal Poly use to decide whether Faith gets a new contract? If she has a 16-14 overall record will Faith get a new contract? Shouldn't the decision be over her entire career and not just ONE season or even one week's (during the Big West Tournament) of good play?
At the very least Cal Poly should see that Faith has reach her "ceiling" at Cal Poly. You know what you're going to get. Why not try to find somebody else who maybe able to acheive more?
One other thing. Faith is white. The AD at Cal Poly is white. San Luis Obispo is mostly white. The coach, who Cal Poly fired and Faith replaced after two years was black. Karen Booker had a two year record of 9-44. No doubt she should have been fired. But if Cal Poly was so quick to pull the trigger on Booker's firing, why then have they put up with Faith's losing ways, for so long?
If people don't think race plays a factor in the hiring and firing of coaches, you are clueless. Go stick your head in the sand. And it works both ways. Some black coaches should be fired but aren't because of the potential backlash of firing a black coach.
This wasn't meant to be a Faith Mimnaigh bashing. She is a very ncie person who does care about her players. But it's clear to see she is not a good head coach and should not be resigned to a new contract, no matter what her 08-09 record maybe.
Next up, Cal State Northridge and Staci Schulz.
01-02 season: Fullerton, Northridge, and Irvine.
02-03 season: Fullerton, Northridge, and Riverside.
03-04 season: Fullerton, Northridge, Riverside, and Irvine.
04-05 season: Fullerton, Irvine, Pacific.
05-06 season: Northridge and Pacific.
06-07 season: Long Beach, Irvine, and Pacific.
07-08 season: Northridge, Long Beach, and Irvine. Cal Poly and Fullerton both lost 19 games each.
For the 08-09 season, Long Beach, Irvine, and Northridge have 10,11, and 12 losses already. Anybody dare to say two of those teams WON'T lose 20 games?
So what are the problems? Why are BW schools losing? I will take a school by school look of Big West schools that are struggling. But first some general comments.
The first question should be, what are the expectations for BW Women's Basketball. I'm not expecting any BW school to become the next UConn or Tenn. But the BW can become a good conference with a RPI, as a conference between 12-15, a solid mid major. Not the 25 over below, meaning one of the worst conferences in the nation. So what's preventing the BW from getting to that level?
In my opinions scholarship money is not one of the reasons why BW schools are losing. Yes the BW doesn't have the money of the bigger schools in conferences where football brings in a ton of money. But all Big West schools must provide 80% of NCAA maximum for scholarships. So all BW schools have at least funding for 12 scholarships. The NCAA allows 15 schoalrships for women's basketball. Twelve scholarships are more than enough to win. Plus all BW schools spend about the same amount of money for WBB. It's not like one school spends, $250,000 with another school spends, $5 million. Most BW schools spend about $750,000 a year on women's basketball. So one school doesn't have such a big advantage over the other eight schools.
That's not to say BW schools should put more money into women's basketball. They should try to find more funding for programs.
I do think the relatively low salaries for BW head and assistant coaches, is a factor in the poor quality of play in the BW. It's hard to hire good experienced assistant coaches and if you find a good quality assistant coach, it's hard to keep that coach because other schools come in an offer larger salaries.
So what are the reasons for the sorry state of Big West Women's Basketball?
Apathy towards women's basketball:
I think almost all BW schools could care less about WBB. Their attitude is get good kids, who graduate and don't get into trouble. Also don't lose too much money.
No expectations or standards.
In any business there are certain expectations and standards. If you're in sales and you don't meet you sales quotas, you're not going to be working for that company much longer. If you're a teacher and if your students aren't passing the tests, you're not going to be teaching much longer.
But in the BW, why aren't there any standards for winning in women's basketball?
If a coach has been at the school for twelve years and has never had a winning record, how is that coach still at the school?
I wanted to comment on academics. Yes, it's important for kids to graduate. Yes it's important for kids to go to class. But if you have a 100% graduation rate, but can't finish 500 overall, you shouldn't keep your job as head coach.
So let's look at each school. First up Cal Poly and head coach Faith Mimnaugh:
How can a school like Cal Poly keep Faith Mimnaugh for 12 long, losing seasons? In eleven years she was 121-185, with ZERO winning overall records and only two winning records in the BW.
This is her record at Cal Poly:
Year: Overall BW
97-98 6-20 3-12
98-99 8-18 2-13
99-00 9-19 5-10
00-01 12-17 5-9
01-02 11-17 7-9
02-03 10-17 6-10
03-04 14-14 10-8
04-05 11-16 5-13
05-06 13-14 7-7
06-07 14-14 9-5
07-08 13-19 8-8
Cal Poly was a D2 school until the 93-94 season. Starting in 94-95 they moved up to D1. Cal Poly students passing a fee referendum to pay for the move to D1. During the 94-95 and 95-96 seasons, Cal Poly was in the four team American West Conference. Then starting with the 96-97 season they became members of the Big West Conference.
Back in 2006 Cal Poly gave Faith a one year contract extension but never bothered to announce it through the Cal Poly's SID office. WHY? What do they have to hide?
Interesting that all three of Faith's assistant coaches from the 04-05 season left the program. Amy Saneholtz going to Montana St, Kristi Baker to Utah St, and Odessa Jenkins going into private business. Anytime all three assistant coaches leave, that should raise red flags. I'm sure all three assistants thought about the possibility that they would have to move on after the 05-06 season, and decided to leave on their own terms.
In June of 2007 Cal Poly did release Faith got a two year contract extension.
http://www.calpolymustangs.com/index.php?p=sports&tab=news&id=29941&article_id=8121
So during the 06-07 season, what great things did Faith do to get that two year extension? 14-14 overall, 9-5 in the BW, mind you, a BW with three teams that lost 20 or more games.
Currently Cal Poly is 8-5 overall and 1-1 in the BW. But her 7 non BW wins, have come to teams with a 31-42 record. Her 4, no BW losses have come to schools with 30-12 record. Meaning she hasn't beaten a team worth a damn. Her best wins are against San Diego and Illinois-Chicago. Not exactly powerhouses.
Faith's contract is up at the end of the year. The real question is by what standards will Cal Poly use to decide whether Faith gets a new contract? If she has a 16-14 overall record will Faith get a new contract? Shouldn't the decision be over her entire career and not just ONE season or even one week's (during the Big West Tournament) of good play?
At the very least Cal Poly should see that Faith has reach her "ceiling" at Cal Poly. You know what you're going to get. Why not try to find somebody else who maybe able to acheive more?
One other thing. Faith is white. The AD at Cal Poly is white. San Luis Obispo is mostly white. The coach, who Cal Poly fired and Faith replaced after two years was black. Karen Booker had a two year record of 9-44. No doubt she should have been fired. But if Cal Poly was so quick to pull the trigger on Booker's firing, why then have they put up with Faith's losing ways, for so long?
If people don't think race plays a factor in the hiring and firing of coaches, you are clueless. Go stick your head in the sand. And it works both ways. Some black coaches should be fired but aren't because of the potential backlash of firing a black coach.
This wasn't meant to be a Faith Mimnaigh bashing. She is a very ncie person who does care about her players. But it's clear to see she is not a good head coach and should not be resigned to a new contract, no matter what her 08-09 record maybe.
Next up, Cal State Northridge and Staci Schulz.
Big West Coach’s Salaries
Big West Coach’s Salaries
Sept 9, 2005.
I read a lot of articles about women’s basketball. The past few months, the salaries of coaches listed in those articles really got my attention. I couldn’t believe how much coaches in conferences like the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conference are being paid. Coaches in those two conferences are making a lot more than coaches in the Big West.
A San Diego paper listed new head coach Beth Burn’s salary at $129,000 per year. The article also listed the salaries of three other Mountain West Conference coaches. All three made much more than Burns’ $129,000. Don Flanagan at New Mexico made $170,000. Regina Miller made $189,000 at UNLV and Ardie McInelly made $144,723. So roughly half of the nine teams in the MWC make over $125,000 a year. (Union-Tribute August 30, 2005)
In the WAC, former Fresno St. head coach, Stacey Johnson-Klein made a base salary of $150,000 and with incentives she could have made over $225,000. (Fresno Bee, March 17, 2005) San Jose St. head coach Janice Richard got a two year contract extension with an increase in salary to $118,000. (Mercury News, April 7, 2005)
As for assistant coaches:
Adrian Wiggins was the first assistant at Fresno St for three seasons. He made $83,000. (Fresno Bee, March 17, 2005)
Selena Ho was an assistant at UCI for two seasons. She left UCI for Oregon and her base salary at Oregon is $50,000 as the third assistant. (Register-Guard June 1, 2005)
So this got me wondering about the salary structure in the Big West. Before I go on, I am not trying to say or imply that any of the coaches in the BW are not qualified. I am not trying to say or imply that BW coaches do not work hard. I have seen these coaches spend long hours at summer tournaments. I know they spend long days and nights preparing their teams. I have spent time interviewing and/or talking to these coaches. They know a lot about the game of basketball and how to teach that knowledge to players. All I’m trying to point out is that these coaches are underpaid and deserve more money!!!
So I asked each BW coach two simple questions:
Do you make over $100,000?
Do any of your coaches make $50,000 or more?
Of the five coaches who replied, two decided not to answer. Three coaches said they do not make $100,000 and only one said they had an assistant coach who was making $50,000. Also an article in a SLO paper listed Cal Poly’s coach Mimnaugh’s salary as less than $100,000. (The Tribune, March 19, 2005)
I do know from talking to boosters and those close to programs that two other BW coaches who did not reply, do make more than $100,000 and one other assistant coach makes over $50,000. So only two of the nine BW coaches make over $100,000 a year, compared to the MWC where four coaches make over $125,000? Only two assistant coaches make $50,000? A BW coach has been the head coach for nine years and still isn’t making $100,000? There are a lot of coaches in the BW who are being underpaid!!!!!!
Now factor in the high cost of living in California, you have a double edged sword, low pay and high cost of living. Have you seen the housing prices in the areas near BW schools? Think you can buy a house or condo in or around Orange County for less than $500,000? Do you know the cost of a two bedroom apartment in the Valley? An extra $25,000 to $50,000 a year in salary could very well the difference between buying a house and renting an apartment. Or the difference between buying a house within a reasonable commute to the school and having a two hour commute each way.
I don’t want to hear excuses that Fresno St and San Diego St. have football teams and access to more money. Most of the football money goes back into the football program. Both schools are part of Cal State University system. The salary scale at the CSU’s do not vary that much and even if they do vary, it’s certainly not $50,000 more at San Diego St than the four BW schools that are members of the CSU system.
Higher salaries allow for schools to attract, hire, and keep quality coaches. But more than that, I believe higher salaries show a commitment not only to the women’s basketball program but to the overall success of the athletic department. That may mean boosters at each school need to step up and supplement the salaries schools can pay, just like Fresno St. Or shifting resources from other sports that do not get the media attention, after all women’s basketball is a Big West priority sport and should be treated as such.
If schools can’t afford to pay the higher salaries or the booster money isn’t there, then BW schools need to get creative. Maybe the schools could buy houses in the area and then allow the coaches to live in those houses for free or at greatly reduced rent. Or at least work out some deal with home and/or apartment owners so that the coaches get a greatly reduced rate. Saving say $1,500 a month on rent can go a long way for a coach making less than $50,000 a year.
So if the BW is serious about becoming a strong women’s basketball conference they need to start paying their coaches at rates that are equal to those of schools in other conferences.
Ed. Note: I do not think comparing salaries of BW schools and WCC schools is fair. The WCC has eight private schools. Private schools practice non-disclosure when it comes to salaries.
Sept 9, 2005.
I read a lot of articles about women’s basketball. The past few months, the salaries of coaches listed in those articles really got my attention. I couldn’t believe how much coaches in conferences like the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conference are being paid. Coaches in those two conferences are making a lot more than coaches in the Big West.
A San Diego paper listed new head coach Beth Burn’s salary at $129,000 per year. The article also listed the salaries of three other Mountain West Conference coaches. All three made much more than Burns’ $129,000. Don Flanagan at New Mexico made $170,000. Regina Miller made $189,000 at UNLV and Ardie McInelly made $144,723. So roughly half of the nine teams in the MWC make over $125,000 a year. (Union-Tribute August 30, 2005)
In the WAC, former Fresno St. head coach, Stacey Johnson-Klein made a base salary of $150,000 and with incentives she could have made over $225,000. (Fresno Bee, March 17, 2005) San Jose St. head coach Janice Richard got a two year contract extension with an increase in salary to $118,000. (Mercury News, April 7, 2005)
As for assistant coaches:
Adrian Wiggins was the first assistant at Fresno St for three seasons. He made $83,000. (Fresno Bee, March 17, 2005)
Selena Ho was an assistant at UCI for two seasons. She left UCI for Oregon and her base salary at Oregon is $50,000 as the third assistant. (Register-Guard June 1, 2005)
So this got me wondering about the salary structure in the Big West. Before I go on, I am not trying to say or imply that any of the coaches in the BW are not qualified. I am not trying to say or imply that BW coaches do not work hard. I have seen these coaches spend long hours at summer tournaments. I know they spend long days and nights preparing their teams. I have spent time interviewing and/or talking to these coaches. They know a lot about the game of basketball and how to teach that knowledge to players. All I’m trying to point out is that these coaches are underpaid and deserve more money!!!
So I asked each BW coach two simple questions:
Do you make over $100,000?
Do any of your coaches make $50,000 or more?
Of the five coaches who replied, two decided not to answer. Three coaches said they do not make $100,000 and only one said they had an assistant coach who was making $50,000. Also an article in a SLO paper listed Cal Poly’s coach Mimnaugh’s salary as less than $100,000. (The Tribune, March 19, 2005)
I do know from talking to boosters and those close to programs that two other BW coaches who did not reply, do make more than $100,000 and one other assistant coach makes over $50,000. So only two of the nine BW coaches make over $100,000 a year, compared to the MWC where four coaches make over $125,000? Only two assistant coaches make $50,000? A BW coach has been the head coach for nine years and still isn’t making $100,000? There are a lot of coaches in the BW who are being underpaid!!!!!!
Now factor in the high cost of living in California, you have a double edged sword, low pay and high cost of living. Have you seen the housing prices in the areas near BW schools? Think you can buy a house or condo in or around Orange County for less than $500,000? Do you know the cost of a two bedroom apartment in the Valley? An extra $25,000 to $50,000 a year in salary could very well the difference between buying a house and renting an apartment. Or the difference between buying a house within a reasonable commute to the school and having a two hour commute each way.
I don’t want to hear excuses that Fresno St and San Diego St. have football teams and access to more money. Most of the football money goes back into the football program. Both schools are part of Cal State University system. The salary scale at the CSU’s do not vary that much and even if they do vary, it’s certainly not $50,000 more at San Diego St than the four BW schools that are members of the CSU system.
Higher salaries allow for schools to attract, hire, and keep quality coaches. But more than that, I believe higher salaries show a commitment not only to the women’s basketball program but to the overall success of the athletic department. That may mean boosters at each school need to step up and supplement the salaries schools can pay, just like Fresno St. Or shifting resources from other sports that do not get the media attention, after all women’s basketball is a Big West priority sport and should be treated as such.
If schools can’t afford to pay the higher salaries or the booster money isn’t there, then BW schools need to get creative. Maybe the schools could buy houses in the area and then allow the coaches to live in those houses for free or at greatly reduced rent. Or at least work out some deal with home and/or apartment owners so that the coaches get a greatly reduced rate. Saving say $1,500 a month on rent can go a long way for a coach making less than $50,000 a year.
So if the BW is serious about becoming a strong women’s basketball conference they need to start paying their coaches at rates that are equal to those of schools in other conferences.
Ed. Note: I do not think comparing salaries of BW schools and WCC schools is fair. The WCC has eight private schools. Private schools practice non-disclosure when it comes to salaries.
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