Jennifer
03-30-2002, 10:28 AM
I posted this article on the front page, but here it is in case anyone doesn't want to register with the NY Times to read it.
SPORTS OF THE TIMES
Auriemma's Protégée Takes Big Step
By HARVEY ARATON
SAN ANTONIO, March 29 — Sherri Coale recalls an old airplane hangar substituting for a gym, a tile floor, a leaky roof. She remembers Geno Auriemma without socks and thinking, "It's sleeting out, freezing rain, why does he have no socks?"
Auriemma didn't have to explain his peculiarities, as he was that season, 1994-95, coaching a team that would win all its games and a national championship and make him, the sharp-tongued Italian immigrant out of Philadelphia, the main man in the women's world.
"The epitome," said Coale, the Oklahoma coach whose career was dramatically influenced the day Auriemma, in Norman to recruit a high school player of Coale's named Stacy Hansmeyer, approached her after practice and said: "Do you have any idea of how great a job you do?"
This is the way of the working world: people in position helping to empower others who strike a chord. Six years before she would make it all the way to the national championship game against Auriemma on the same night another unbeaten Connecticut team would get there, too, Coale was the coach of Norman High School, a two-time state champion. Auriemma was impressed enough to call her again when the big Division I job in town became available that spring.
"You should apply," Auriemma told Coale.
"Are you drunk?" Coale said.
Maybe he was a bit high on himself, with his newly attained prominence, but Auriemma did make a call to O.U. on Coale's behalf. She interviewed, eight months pregnant with her second child. After a presentation that included a pamphlet on how to energize a lifeless program, a school administrator said, "I'm ready to put on my shoes and go play for her right now."
Positive energy flows from Coale, a quick-talking, frizzy haired blonde, Meg Ryan with an Okie twang. Her repayment to Auriemma for his encouragement and call was to build a talented and balanced team that pulled away from Duke in the second half last night for an 86-71 victory, before Auriemma had another last laugh on Pat Summitt after UConn and the thoroughly entertaining Sue Bird outclassed longtime rival Tennessee, 79-56. Now Auriemma gets to coach the final against a woman he has nothing against, yet.
"If it's all right with you guys, we're going to go ahead and play and see what happens," Coale said, referring to Oklahoma's chances against UConn, and sounding very Geno-like.
Strange world, this college basketball. Coale found her best player, the senior Stacey Dales, north of the border in Brockville, Ontario. Two years ago, she thought she had an exciting 6-foot-4 post player from Tulsa, Iciss Tillis, who opted for Duke. Tillis nearly haunted her home state last night, leading a second-half Duke rally until the eight-player Blue Devils ran out of gas. Tillis would have been useful to Coale tomorrow night against UConn's talented and aggressive athletes.
No one hooks every recruit. Coale had already begun producing the results and providing incentive for another major university to stop treating basketball like a one-gender sport. It reflects well on Auriemma that he was gender blind, that he took the time to give back to the game and contribute, ironically, to the process of squeezing men out of the women's coaching ranks.
As he is on most subjects, Auriemma has been outspoken on the aforementioned hot-button issue, not happy about the trend, sagely asking the other day: "Women need role models. Do they not need fathers?"
Well said, but not the point. Coaches are not hired for their parental or humanitarian instincts, but on the basis of their credentials and on their ability to network. Again, that's the way of the world, and now that the women's college game has become a meaningful industry — politically and practically speaking — that's just the way it is going to work.
Hansmeyer graduated Connecticut and this season became an assistant at Oklahoma for Coale, who pulled her into the system the way Auriemma extended a hand to Coale. The more big schools attach importance to their programs, the more young women will want to perpetuate a good life long into adulthood.
All things being equal, women say they deserve the jobs because they have no crossover opportunities, and it is difficult to argue with that. The men who have helped build the foundation will be fondly remembered for respecting and promoting athletic women before it became a fashionable thing to do.
In the case of Auriemma and Coale, she even credits him for turning the spotlight in Norman onto her developing program two years ago when he brought the Huskies out for a contest that drew numbers for a women's game no one there had previously seen. As Coale said: "Ten thousand, seven hundred, thirteen, not that I remember."
She has it all mentally cataloged and, of the swaggering coach people love or hate, Coale said: "If you know Geno, you buy into him."
Quite the compliment, but some day, maybe tomorrow night, she will best honor his faith in her by beating him at his own game.
SPORTS OF THE TIMES
Auriemma's Protégée Takes Big Step
By HARVEY ARATON
SAN ANTONIO, March 29 — Sherri Coale recalls an old airplane hangar substituting for a gym, a tile floor, a leaky roof. She remembers Geno Auriemma without socks and thinking, "It's sleeting out, freezing rain, why does he have no socks?"
Auriemma didn't have to explain his peculiarities, as he was that season, 1994-95, coaching a team that would win all its games and a national championship and make him, the sharp-tongued Italian immigrant out of Philadelphia, the main man in the women's world.
"The epitome," said Coale, the Oklahoma coach whose career was dramatically influenced the day Auriemma, in Norman to recruit a high school player of Coale's named Stacy Hansmeyer, approached her after practice and said: "Do you have any idea of how great a job you do?"
This is the way of the working world: people in position helping to empower others who strike a chord. Six years before she would make it all the way to the national championship game against Auriemma on the same night another unbeaten Connecticut team would get there, too, Coale was the coach of Norman High School, a two-time state champion. Auriemma was impressed enough to call her again when the big Division I job in town became available that spring.
"You should apply," Auriemma told Coale.
"Are you drunk?" Coale said.
Maybe he was a bit high on himself, with his newly attained prominence, but Auriemma did make a call to O.U. on Coale's behalf. She interviewed, eight months pregnant with her second child. After a presentation that included a pamphlet on how to energize a lifeless program, a school administrator said, "I'm ready to put on my shoes and go play for her right now."
Positive energy flows from Coale, a quick-talking, frizzy haired blonde, Meg Ryan with an Okie twang. Her repayment to Auriemma for his encouragement and call was to build a talented and balanced team that pulled away from Duke in the second half last night for an 86-71 victory, before Auriemma had another last laugh on Pat Summitt after UConn and the thoroughly entertaining Sue Bird outclassed longtime rival Tennessee, 79-56. Now Auriemma gets to coach the final against a woman he has nothing against, yet.
"If it's all right with you guys, we're going to go ahead and play and see what happens," Coale said, referring to Oklahoma's chances against UConn, and sounding very Geno-like.
Strange world, this college basketball. Coale found her best player, the senior Stacey Dales, north of the border in Brockville, Ontario. Two years ago, she thought she had an exciting 6-foot-4 post player from Tulsa, Iciss Tillis, who opted for Duke. Tillis nearly haunted her home state last night, leading a second-half Duke rally until the eight-player Blue Devils ran out of gas. Tillis would have been useful to Coale tomorrow night against UConn's talented and aggressive athletes.
No one hooks every recruit. Coale had already begun producing the results and providing incentive for another major university to stop treating basketball like a one-gender sport. It reflects well on Auriemma that he was gender blind, that he took the time to give back to the game and contribute, ironically, to the process of squeezing men out of the women's coaching ranks.
As he is on most subjects, Auriemma has been outspoken on the aforementioned hot-button issue, not happy about the trend, sagely asking the other day: "Women need role models. Do they not need fathers?"
Well said, but not the point. Coaches are not hired for their parental or humanitarian instincts, but on the basis of their credentials and on their ability to network. Again, that's the way of the world, and now that the women's college game has become a meaningful industry — politically and practically speaking — that's just the way it is going to work.
Hansmeyer graduated Connecticut and this season became an assistant at Oklahoma for Coale, who pulled her into the system the way Auriemma extended a hand to Coale. The more big schools attach importance to their programs, the more young women will want to perpetuate a good life long into adulthood.
All things being equal, women say they deserve the jobs because they have no crossover opportunities, and it is difficult to argue with that. The men who have helped build the foundation will be fondly remembered for respecting and promoting athletic women before it became a fashionable thing to do.
In the case of Auriemma and Coale, she even credits him for turning the spotlight in Norman onto her developing program two years ago when he brought the Huskies out for a contest that drew numbers for a women's game no one there had previously seen. As Coale said: "Ten thousand, seven hundred, thirteen, not that I remember."
She has it all mentally cataloged and, of the swaggering coach people love or hate, Coale said: "If you know Geno, you buy into him."
Quite the compliment, but some day, maybe tomorrow night, she will best honor his faith in her by beating him at his own game.