Interview with Staci Schulz

Interview with Staci Schulz: August 26, 2005

Staci Schulz will be starting her first season as head coach at Cal State Northridge. A native of South Dakota, Schulz has was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Northridge for the last three seasons. Schulz has also coached at Western Illinois and UNLV.

LA Women’s Hoops had the chance to talk with Coach Schulz. Find out about her love of motorcycles (After all Sturgis is held in South Dakota) and what it will take to Northridge to continue their great turn around.

Tell us about yourself.

I played at a small school, Mount Marty College in South Dakota. It was about one hour from my home town in South Dakota. Back then in South Dakota, I didn’t know AAU basketball, travel teams. I didn’t all that stuff I know now.

I went to graduate school at Western Illinois. There I had a graduate assistantship in the PE department. I was teaching graduate level classes but at the whole time I knew I wanted something to do with basketball. So I volunteered with the women’s team with Regina Miller. Then Regina Miller got the job at UNLV and I started an entry level position at UNLV and after four years I was leading the recruiting efforts.

What brought you to Northridge three years ago?

I was looking to make a change from UNLV, since I had been there for four years. Like Northridge, UNLV at the time was it was in need of a change and was a rebuilding process. After four years at UNLV we made it to the NCAA tournament.

So the Northridge job came up and at the time before Tammy Holder got the job, I had applied here. I have family here so I wanted to be closer to my sister and her family. So I moved into the area and got the assistant’s job with Tammy.

Ed. Note: Former Northridge head coach Frozena Jerro is an assistant at UNLV, under Regina Miller. What a small world?

Talk about how you found out about Tammy resigning and going to South Carolina. Did you have any idea she was going to South Carolina.

No, I didn’t have any idea she was leaving. It was pretty abrupt. I knew she missed home. She’s from the East and is really an East Coast person. But I didn’t know that the job at South Carolina was in the works.

Tammy sat us down and told us that she was going back home. We were like WOW!!! We didn’t know but the decision was already made. It’s not like we knew before the decision was made. But she also played a key role with the administration here to make sure they communicated with us and the team to at least give us a shot at the keeping the staff here.

We were a little nervous for us. But it took a little while during the search process and we were out recruiting almost the whole month of July before we knew anything.

When did you decide to go after the head coaching job at Northridge?

Immediately, I knew I wanted to stay here for the same reasons I moved here. I have my sister here and the rest of the staff have family here too. None of us wanted to go anywhere. Really if I didn’t have the job, I don’t think any of us would still here. Just because that’s really how it goes. When they bring in a new head coach, a lot of times the new head coach wants to bring in his or her own staff. That’s just how it goes in the business. So we were all pulling together and we all wanted to stay. Everyone had the chance to speak to the administration about what they wanted to see happen. The team has their chance to talk to the administration.

The first reports after Tammy left, was that they would hire somebody as an interim coach. Do you know when they changed their minds and offered the permanent position?

Immediately when I talked to administers they told me they wanted to look into it and see where things were. They took into consideration the continuity of the current team and the continuity of the recruiting efforts. We have a good sized class, an impact type class with Ofa, to replace this year.

If they were going to put somebody in as an interim coach, that would have affected recruiting. You can’t go out and recruit someone and say “Come play for us and we’ll let you know who your coach is, in a year.” That was a huge consideration for them.

Also the current team, we had some rebuilding success. We were returning every single player and gaining two more players. I think a major change in the staff could have change the continuity of the direction of the program.

The other two assistants, Carla Houser and Margo Clark are going to stay. Are you going to have a chance to find the third assistant?

As a matter of fact the job listing just got posted today on the NCAA website. That will be a little bit of a process too. We are going to be a bit behind but we’re all been working pretty hard around here. We don’t even have time to decorate our office. (laughing) , recruiting and getting ready for the school year.

Can you talk about Carla Houser and Margo Clark?

The team loves both assistant coaches.

Carla will be taking over my position as recruiting coordinator. As far as I can tell she will do a better job than I did. (laughing) She’s pumped up about it. In the past she done some scheduling.

The new trend in recruiting is that high school junior are committing earlier so that’s been Carla’s focus. Not only are we recruiting our current class but she’s sending letters to high school juniors to get more attention to our school.

Coach Mo is like a big sister in a way. They look up to them. Coach Mo has done film exchange and she’s also our academic liaison. Our team has taken a great jump academically the last year, so she’s done a great job.

A lot of roles can change depending on who the third assistant will be. But all four coaches will be very involved with recruiting.

After you got hired did you have a chance to talk to the whole team?

Not as a whole team. Most of them were around all summer. At the time about half the team was here. So we got them together and Janet Lucas, Interim Athletic Director at Northridge, wanted to talk to them and make a presentation about the hire. They were excited. There was a shout out in the room at that moment. It was a goose bumpy moment for everybody.


Talk about your philosophy on scheduling?

Every year we want to challenge our team. I really think anything can happen. We are still challenging them with the Pac-10 and Mountain West. I’m not so worried about the end record as long as the games we are playing early are used as a learning experience.
I won’t take a big loss for money. I don’t think that prepares us either.

There seems to be some schools in the Big West who is willing to take a big loss for money. Does that help the conference?

Not always. But sometimes that out of the coaching control. I know coaches around the country who say they need so many guarantee games to help the program out.

But if you’re going to do something like that, it has to be a winnable game or at least good competition.


What are your expectations for the team?

To continue to do well. To take more steps forward. A transition can go many different ways. It can go poorly. It can go pretty good, keep it at the same level. Or take a step forward. I think with the continuity of what’s going on, I expect at least to maintain our performance from last year but our goals our to take a step forward. Our goals are to win our conference and that means going to the NCAA tournament. That’s our next goal is to increase our wins even more.

Talk about Ofa. Will she be able to play this year?

Ofa was never really an injury. It was a recurring issue. There was never an additional tear or anything. She’s back at 100%.

The thing about Ofa is that she is so unselfish that it adds to her greatness. She will always thank her team. She do not care if she doesn’t have the greatness night because that means someone else on her team did. But then she’ll turn things around and have a wonderful night.

Talk about the two new players. How did they feel about the coaching change? What kind of impact do you think they’ll make.

They didn’t have any concerns. They will contribute. I can’t say to what extent at this point but I think a great deal. I expect them to contribute but at what level it’s up to them. It’s a transition for them just going to college and then there a change with the coaching but it may go smoother for them than the returning players.

Ashley Blake is a combo guard. She handles the ball real well but she can also shoot the 3. Her high school coach Karen White is now an assistant coach at Pacific.

Crystal Hahs is a post player from San Clemente and she will battle for playing time.

With Crystal you have another post player to go with Katie Holloway and Jazelle Burries. Are you happy with your post position?

I expect all our post player to battle for playing time. I think Katie Holloway needs to battle against players like Jazelle. Jazelle has come a long way since her freshmen year. I really expect all of them to make each other better and go against each other really hard each day and share playing time. I don’t think any one post player is going to have so much more playing time than the other. I think they are all right there.

What difference will the player notice between your style of coaching and Coach Holder’s?

I think we are going to come out a little more aggressive. Coach Holder was always energetic but now we are going to take that energy and add a little killer instinct. I don’t want to change the energy this team has. I hope to press and run even more. It should be an exciting brand of basketball.

The difference between the team this year and last year was they were juniors finally. We know each other and we played with each other. It’s not like how close we can get to winning this game. It’s now we are in every game and can beat anybody. I think it’s a natural progression to have this killer instinct. We have this attitude of Respect All but fear none.

How will it be different for the team with you as Head Coach?

The role is certainly different but the one thing about Coach Holder is she always involved the entire staff in practices. She let us implement an offense.

When the three of us were assistants, I wasn’t the “fun” coach and was closer to the head coach side of things. So I think how they look at me will be similar.

What did you learn most from Coach Holder?

Have fun with this. At my previous experience it was a serious matter. My job became all I ever was. Coach Holder really taught us to have fun in what we’re doing. You have a lot of fun by working hard and getting it down.

We still take basketball very serious. But we have fun and enjoy the people around us.


What do you look for when recruiting a player?

Like our current team, they are all good people. We don’t have issues on our team in the three years I’ve been here. That a lot of Coach Holder but she instilled that on the rest of us. We recruit good people and we turn out great people.

I’m pleased to see we have good students. When you have good students, coaches get to coach. Coaches don’t have to worry about academics.

We have three scholarships for sure. We would love to get a post position who is really physical and a point guard who is really quick and can handle the ball.

The success of the program has allowed us to talk to some players we weren’t able to with the six wins. But now with 18 wins, kids are saying yes I’m interested in talking to you.

How tough is it to recruit with Northridge’s sub par facilities?

It can be challenging. But I don’t worry about that. We try to sell the coaching staff, the current team and where this program is going. We try to sell our school.

We talked about your staff and the athletic department getting new offices. How do you think getting new offices will help?

That will help. The offices themselves here are fine. But pulling up outside and walking into the hallway is not that attractive. The new building will help a lot.

Can you talk about Dick Dull resigning as Athletic Director and becoming head of major fundraising? How that affects your program?

Last year he wasn’t the direct supervisor of many sports because he was really trying to improve our athletic department’s image. I think major fundraising is an extension of that.

I think already he’s hire a wonderful administrator in Janet Lucas. (Interim Athletic Director) She has through the first year was handling the functional, day to day duties. I think the transition was smooth.

I expect great things and I expect to see him around, just not in the athletic department building.

How can the administration be more helpful for your program?

More scholarship dollars. Not that we don’t have our numbers. (NCAA max for women’s basketball is 15 scholarships) but it would give us a little more freedom to recruit across the country. Even though it is my goal is to recruit locally as much as possible. There is just too much talent around here.

Last year, what was your biggest weakness?

I would say early in the season we weren’t in top shape. I really want the team to be in the best shape going into game number one. It’s always different going from practicing for a month and your first game, so you’re always going feel that a little bit. But a lot of times we had to push through because we were a little winded.

Toward the end of the season we had a lot of players with nagging injuries, at a lot of practices we didn’t have 10 healthy players. What would happen is that a lot of players had to play a lot of minutes.

I really feel like if we get them in good shape and bring them along, we’ll have healthier people throughout the year. Which means we’ll have more people contributing and the more people that can contribute the better off you’ll be.

Last year Coach Holder wanted to find a true point guard. Have you found a true point guard?

I think Ashley Blake will contribute. I think most of that goal (finding a point guard) was met. We’re still looking for another point guard this year. Not looking to replace the point guard we have, but we’re looking for even more of a true point guard. Someone with serious ball handling skills.

Let’s talk about some issues in the Big West.

What do you think about losing Idaho and Utah State?

It will be nice not to make that trip. Going to both schools on the same weekend made it very challenging. Both programs are competitive. I’m not sure how that will effect our conference’s RPI. Everybody makes the Big West Tournament so it takes a little pressure off in that respect.

I’m pleased about not having to make the trip, even though I would love to continue to play each team but I don’t know if I want to play them there. Maybe we can combine Utah State with another Utah school.

What do you think about UC Davis coming in?

I think it’s great. They have a great friendly coaching staff, very friendly, good competitive type people. I love communicating with them. It’s been great bumping elbows with them on the recruiting trail.

Going there for the first time last year, a very fun crowd, and fun people to be around up there. It’s not that that bad of a trip with Pacific up there already.

What do you think about the 2pm Saturday afternoon games?

It’s a good efficient thing to do. Because it was between 2 and 4pm we wanted as many 4pm games as possible. Just because it’s a little later in the day and turns into evening at least, you get your shot around without getting up at the crack of dawn.

But the way the economy is right now I can understand not paying for a extra night at a hotel. So I understand it though I do not prefer it.

If I talked to you a year from now, what will have to happen for you to consider this year a success?

Number 1 I want to believe no matter what our record is, we competed every single game, every single minute. I know teams go through slumps. But I think the reason our team is a diamond in the rough, is that they have that competitive spirit about them.

Success is have a similar record and respect from the basketball community, that team really did it again.

But our goals about bigger than what I would consider success.

They still need to make a transition. They are pleased to have the current staff they had the past three years. But it’s still a transition, nobody can deny that. I think making it through the transition with a respectable record and the respect of the basketball community and the players have a good college basketball experience is success, enough.

When you want to get away from basketball what do you do?

I love riding motorcycles. I have a Road King. (That’s a Harley Davidson, for you uneducated people out there.) and I have a horse too. So those are my two escapes. It’s a great thing to be able to do for a couple hours.

(It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Coach Schulz likes to ride motorcycles. After all she’s from South Dakota, home of Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Though surprisingly she’s never been to Sturgis which is like a kid in LA never going to Disneyland.)