The Rams gather before the game; freshman Anisha Wilson

The Playbook

The Playbook is an occasional series on University of Rhode Island Women’s Basketball team and head coach Cathy Inglese as she works to turn around a losing program. See most recent prior entry here.

By Laura Pappano

When Coach Cathy Inglese called a time out with 10:32 left in the second half, the Rams were down by one, trailing St. Bonaventure, 40-39. The music system at the Ryan Center pumped out up-beat lyrics, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fuh-uhnn!!” and it looked like there could be some celebrating when this was over. Celebrating because winning could let the Rams squeeze into post-season play in the Atlantic 10 tournament (only the top 12 go and they were in a three-way tie for that last spot).

Inglese, with all her intensity (it’s not clear why she has a seat in the sideline because she is pacing, calling, shouting, cajoling her players or the refs) draws plays on her clipboard, reminds them to hang tough, but warns — ineffectually, it turns out — “no more fouls!”

The fouls have been killing them. Every other minute, it seems, there is a Bonaventure player at the foul line, especially No. 5 Dana Mitchell ( she shot 12 of 13 from the free throw line). When it’s all over the stats show that the Ram got four shots (made 3) and St. Bonaventure had 30 shots (making 25) from the foul line.

For a tightly fought game that ended 63-53, that is a massive mis-match in free throws. Rhode Island fans, (including Inglese’s younger sister) let the refs hear their displeasure: “Call it at BOTH ENDS!!!” Was it unfair? Should Apolo Anton Ohno have been disqualified in the 500m short track event? Hard to know, given how aggressively both teams battled at both ends of the court.

This is DI basketball and things happen — or don’t happen. The Rams lost. Their season ended. But what was striking about the game, coming as it did slapped as the finale on a 11-game losing streak, was that if you hadn’t known of their struggles, you would never have guessed.

They played at times brilliantly — sharp, intuitive passes, steals, speedy Anisha Wilson tearing down the court or scrappy Lara Gaspar leaping up and twisting in all kinds of traffic to float the ball through the hoop (she scored 22 points).

Later, after her team slipped on warm-ups and ducked out beneath the blue and white streamers and balloons hung optimistically over the locker room entrance, Inglese would push aside her frustration — and when you are building a program there is plenty of that — to give her team credit. Yes, there were problems, including “a lack of consistency, a lack of urgency” and the need to say “the same thing four times.”

“They have battled hard,” said Inglese. “This team has learned to compete. They have lost — how many games in a row? — and every game they come out and they are here to compete.”

The year has ended with a 9-20 record, which is at the high end of what Inglese expected. “I thought we could win 0-10 games this year,” she said.

Winning DI teams aren’t built overnight, but assistant coaches Megan Lanham and Ashley Earley are already talking about next year and the four new recruits: Kerry Wallach (CT); Kiley Hackbarth (IL); Shikkirrie (RiRi for short) Turpin (FLA); and Emilie Cloutier (Quebec).

Lanham and Earley tick through each player’s qualities. Wallach is a 3-4 player who is a “workhorse,” a “competitor” who “will get the top of the rim.” Hackbarth is a point guard, a “spark plug” with great ball-handling skills and, says, Lanham, “one of the best work ethics I have ever been around.” Turpin, says Earley, “is going to rebound for us,” she is also “explosive offensively.” And Cloutier, both predict, “will be the most athletic on the team” with great vertical ability.

Why did they like so much about these four? “All of these kids are used to winning,” says Earley. “That was our deal with these kids,” says Lanham, “hard-working competitive kids that are used to winning.”

Junior captain Megan Shoniker slaps hands during pre-game introductions

Coach Cathy Inglese wants tougher defense against Holy Cross

The Playbook

The Playbook is an occasional series on University of Rhode Island Women’s Basketball team and head coach Cathy Inglese as she works to turn around a losing program. Check out previous installments here, here, here, and here.

By Laura Pappano

With 3:31 to go, it is a six point game, 65-59, Cathy Inglese’s URI Rams trailing Holy Cross at the Hart Center in Worcester.

Three good things have just happened: 1) Lindsay Harris sunk two foul shots, 2) the Rams flat out rejected a Holy Cross shot, sending it skittering away from the basket at a downward angle, and 3) a few seconds later URI freshman Anisha Wilson, a 5’6” bundle of speed and intensity, leapt up, Randy Moss-like, and stole a Holy Cross pass out of the air.

Time out called. Rolling Stones come on mid-song at full volume. URI fans rumble the wooden bleachers with their feet. Could this be it? Could this be the momentum-shift URI needs?

Coach Inglese, clipboard in hand, kneels on the wood floor in her pinstripe slacks. “Listen up here,” she says, and starts drawing and shouting over the music with an intensity that has every player focused on her black magic marker and the message that comes with it: “We are playing reactive!” We need to push them on defense. Don’t just stand there! Don’t just be a body! Emanate energy! Challenge them physically!  “We are GIVING them OPEN THREES!!”

When it is over, 80-71, Holy Cross players are whooping it up in celebration, banging their fists against metal AC venting in the hallway leading into the locker room.  And why not? It’s their first home win and the end of an 8-game losing streak.

For URI, which entered this game 7-7, the loss came down to defense – and three-pointers. Holy Cross was a stunning 13 for 22 (59.1%) from 3-point land. (Game stats here.)

Put another way, they scored 39 of their 80 points on threes. If those shots had been two’s the score would have been 67, not 80.  How do you defend against that kind of shooting?

Before she steps into the locker room – as she does before halftime and (though more briefly) during time-outs – Coach Inglese gathers her coaching staff to hash over what they see, what stats show, and proposed adjustments.

There is always a message, but part of building a team, Coach Inglese will say later, is that she needs to give the same message many times, that some players “get it” and some still don’t. That like someone learning new dance steps who is suddenly lost when the full-tempo music comes on, DI basketball is a detailed, skilled business that runs at warp speed. It takes time to master.

At halftime, she let them know that they had dug a hole, but warned, “I’m not asking anyone to play extra ordinary.” Her message then was about defense and team play. “Everyone is out there doing their own thing. That was 10 games ago. The games we’ve won, we’ve played as a team,” she says. “They are jacked up. We let them get hot. It’s all about you. It’s not about them.”

Despite the message that if they played their game (instead of just responding) that they could win, it happens some — but not enough. In the locker room afterwards,  there is the smell of sweat and the sound of silence. The players sit on wooden benches, shoulders slumped, knowing what’s coming. Coach Inglese, intense, but purposeful, fires. “What lost us this game?”

After a very long quiet, a voice offers, “Defense.”

“Our transition defense was God awful!” she says. “This team is not that good! We made them look good!”

She is concerned that players aren’t making the adjustments she’s asking them to make. “What are you guys afraid of?” she asks.

Her point is this: if opponents keep beating you on drives to the basket, if they keep beating you on three-pointers, then know they will do those things and step up your defense against those tendencies. “You’ve got to make them beat you on something else!! Make them beat you another way!!!”

Her messages to players during time-outs (plus halftime) have been the same messages — and that’s the well of her frustration. As she wraps up, she gives them the positives – they outscored their opponent in the second half (four players scored double digits), they out-rebounded Holy Cross (34-30) and killed them on the offensive boards (17-7). Later, when they are showering and heading to the bus, she gathers some perspective. They are good kids, no attitude, no eye-rolls — nothing — when they are yelled at or yanked for messing up. They listen. They are trying.

At 1:42 a.m. Coach Inglese e-mails. She has gone over the film and she wants to point out that there are some small, but worthy developments. Players are talking and interacting more, showing more emotion.  When one player was knocked down on defense, another jogged over and helped her up.  “Believe me,” she writes, “this was big. Small signs that mean a big thing.”

And, she acknowledges, Holy Cross was hot.  “I wish the outcome could have been a little better,” she writes, “but after watching the game tape I have to say that Holy Cross hit a lot of big 3’s…we were on them for many and they still put them in.” (Video post-game interview with Coach Inglese here).

The Playbook is an occasional series on University of Rhode Island Women’s Basketball team and head coach Cathy Inglese as she works to turn around a losing program. Check out previous installments here, here, and here.

By Laura Pappano

Ten games into the 2009-2010 season, Coach Cathy Inglese is one game behind. At the same point last year, the team was 5-5; this year they are 4-6, but just beat Towson at home to put them at 5-6. And that home win was big.

Not just because senior guard Lindsay Harris put up a career-high 20 points, but because it happened in their house. This was a team that last year won more games on the road (they were 2-3 at home at the 10-game mark last year vs. 4-2 at home now). They are turning the Ryan Center into a psychological plus (and yeah, home attendance is up, too).

Before the season started, Inglese wondered how she was going to get baskets. She was counting on Captain Megan Shoniker who averaged 11 points per game at the 10-game mark last year.

But who else would be throwing down 2′s and 3′s?

The answer as turned out to be Ashley Rivera, an Inglese recruit from Lowell, MA, a 5’4″ freshman guard who has averaged 12 points per game (and earned recognition — twice — as an Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week award). Shoniker, meanwhile, has kept up her production, averaging 10 ppg.

That said, stats for the first 10 games show that the team has put up fewer points so far (519 to 584 at this point last year). They are still being outscored by opponents — and losing by wide margins in some cases.

But this year, they have won two tight games — one against Seton Hall by 2 points, and one against New Jersey Institute of Technology by 4 points. Take note. If we are reading tea leaves, that should say something about a team’s resolve and mental toughness moving ahead.

What’s going better than expected? Coach Inglese said in an e-mail that “team chemistry and cohesion on and off the court” is surprisingly smoother. “I feel like our team defense has come together and is continuing to improve,” she says, adding, “We have out-rebounded our opponents most of the time.”  (URI is averaging 39 rebounds per game to opponents 37. Last year, URI and opponents were even at 34.)

What to work on? “Consistency, offensive execution, and minimizing our turnovers.” Amen. This year the team is averaging 22 turnovers per game (to opponents 13.8), compared with last year at this point (17.9 to opponents 18.6).

Work remains, for sure. But this team is hustling.

It bugs me. I drive by the fields in my town – and I only see men coaching the soccer teams.  Don’t get me wrong. It’s wonderful when dads share quality time with their daughters and sons. But where are the moms?

Even in the backyard, it’s dad shooting hoops and playing catch. How can we get moms outside to play?

Our daughters now have the opportunity to play a variety of sports, but we still have too few female role models to guide them.  Showing girls that they can be strong, active, and capable women starts at home, with mothers.

Dolly Ryan (photo), did play basketball in high school and college and now coordinates the 7th and 8th grade youth basketball program in her community. She’s working to creating a co-coaching model that includes at least one female and one male coach for each team. Ryan says she “hopes that through youth basketball more mothers will see they can contribute through youth sports.” Most coaches are dads, she says.

Having moms in coaching positions, says Ryan, brings a valuable balance to a program, helping to “reflect what town sports should be about, i.e. community, having fun, living a healthy lifestyle, challenging yourself, being respectful of refs and coaches – and representing the town in a positive light both on and off the court.”

Contrary to popular belief, you can coach even if you haven’t played the sport. And – truly – your participation matters.  Just in case you need the nudge, here are six reasons why it’s beneficial for your daughters to see you coach:

1.    Doing something together other than shopping at the mall is a fun and alternative way to bond.
2.    She will see you as a whole new person (not just the one upset by the messy room) including as a skilled sportsperson, something we value in our society.
3.    You will feel important and proud of yourself – particularly if it’s a new sport for you.  (Note: When you feel good, your daughter will notice!)
4.    You can share firsthand in your daughter’s accomplishments as an athlete, plus she’ll develop her own self-confidence by wanting to show off her skills!
5.    Learning about your daughter’s sport allows you to be an educated fan and cheerleader.  Dads need not have a monopoly on sports knowledge and when you can talk about the passing game or staying goal-side when defending, she’ll notice.  It will take you from mom role to mentor role.
6.    Mothers can make great mentors, especially when daughters pursue sports.  And the benefits can go both ways. Getting involved in your daughter’s sport may inspire you to ramp up your own activity level. It can be an opportunity to get back to something you love or to redefine yourself!

Emilie Liebhoff is a former co-captain of Dartmouth College women’s ice hockey, mother of two daughters, and founder of Moms as Mentors and the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools.

By Laura Pappano

It’s starting. New uniforms are arriving. Coaches of other RAMS teams that bump into staff of the URI women’s basketball team are chatting about the season. For the first time in years there is anticipation that this year — maybe — could be the start of something. But as Head Coach Cathy Inglese and her assistants — including two former pro players – prepare for tomorrow’s exhibition game and the season opener next week against Fairfield University, there remains a lot of work ahead for a team that won three home games last year.

Inglese challenged her new team this summer, pressing them to improvetheir grades. Her philosphy: You can’t be excellent on the court and mediocre in the classroom. Players responded.

Now, how do you go from being used to losing to understanding how to win? From playing better on the road to developing a fan base and a home-court advantage?

Coach Inglese, asst. coaches Ashley Earley, Amber Jacobs, and Megan Lanham, director of operations Steve Wallace, and team captain junior Megan Shoniker, spoke with FairGameNews about some of the challenges of teaching players a new system, new expectations — and at the same time building support on campus and across the state for a team that may not — YET — have all the talent it needs to finish near the top of the conference and, dare say, make it to the NCAA tournament.

FGN: As a player, Megan, you were here last year. Does it feel any different now?

Megan Shoniker: It’s a lot different. We are reaching out more and getting people’s attention, going into the community.

Megan Lanham: With men’s basketball, people go and it’s a sport they watch. For women’s basketball, you need to build a sense of ownership. People want to know the players and the coaching staff.

Cathy Inglese: I’ve been out talking with people, groups. I say, ‘We are the State University. We are your University. Come support us. We want to make you proud.’

Steve Wallace: I talk to  my friends and they say they say they don’t go to women’s basketball. I say, ‘Come to one game and you will be hooked.’ And they come and they are.

FGN: How does the team look?

Megan Shoniker: I was really excited about Julia [Barac], one of our freshmen. But she’s gotten injured.

Megan Lanham: We are excited about Megan. The question marks on our team are the point guards. We have two freshmen. That will be something to watch develop.

Cathy Inglese: We need to have some kids stepping up – and it’s still early. I think Julia could be very good. I know she worked hard over the summer and she came back ready. But consistency, that to me right now is our issue. Right now the system is all new to everybody. This is one of my favorite times of the year. I don’t care what the heck anyone else is doing, I’m not looking at scouting reports. I am teaching our players what they have to do on and off the court. Part of it is creating that strong core, teaching them what it’s like to compete, what it is like to go hard.

FGN: I understand that you care a lot about fundamentals. What does that mean?

Amber Jacobs: We break every little thing down. Even the smallest footwork matters like a jump stop or a pivot or jab and go. You learn those in 7th grade, but to break that down again as a college player and build on that to dribbling moves and defensive stances – how to beat your player off that first quick step – footwork and fundamentals are key.

Cathy Inglese: What a lot of kids don’t want to do is break it down. They just want to go out and play. But I’ve noticed that it pays dividends with kids. We run a lot of set plays, but we also look at the fast break. We need to be sure we have smart players so when somebody doubles on the screen, they know what to do…Right now they are running to where they need to be, but not executing. Executing is knowing how to react to the various defenses that are thrown at them. There are all these layers as teacher and coach.

Ashley Earley: The system we ran at Vanderbilt was built on fundamentals. That was one reason I wanted to work for Cathy. As a coach, you can’t skip this step. What’s most exciting to me is to see our evolution. I’m excited to see the team come together. Right now, we are still a group, not a team. But we are 10 steps closer to being a team than we were this summer.

FGN: The Atlantic 10 pre-season coach’s poll has the team finishing 12 out of 14. Does that bother you?

Megan Shoniker: It’s a smack in the face. You never want to be 12 out of 14, but we have yet to prove we deserve higher than that. It’s our job to prove them wrong.

Cathy Inglese: Pre-season polls are guestimates. It’s how you finish at the end. Obviously we are hoping to be much higher than 12th.

FGN: There were also no URI players named to the first, second, third or defensive teams in the Atlantic 10. How does that reflect on your team?

Megan Shoniker: There are a lot of talented players in the A-10.

Cathy Inglese: We are here to change the culture of what people think about URI Women’s Basketball. The players on our team have to get better, but we also have to bring in better talent.

FGN: It seems like a Catch-22. How do you bring in better talent when the program has had a losing record?

Megan Lanham: The responses we are receiving in recruiting [for next year] are great. Having Cathy’s name attached to us is getting us in with high level players. They are calling us, they are visiting, high school coaches are contacting us. People know this is a building year. That’s been established. But there is an excitement to build a tradition and be part of hanging that first banner, to be a difference-maker in a high level conference. And Cathy is regarded as one of the best coaches in the nation. What kid wouldn’t want to come here?

It doesn’t matter to me where you play soccer — grass, dirt, turf, parking lot, or gym floor. I have trained girls on each surface who have found their passion for the game.

And yet, there is a serious opportunity gap that bothers me: Inner city and poor girls face obstacles that make their participation drastically lower than boys and their suburban female counterparts.

We know millions of children are registered in youth soccer leagues (3.1 million with U.S. Youth Soccer alone).  But whether soccer or other sports, more are white, male, and affluent.

A 2008 Women’s Sports Foundation study, for example, showed that by age 6, 53 percent of white girls and 68 percent of white boys are involved with sports, compared with just 29 percent of African American girls and 51 percent of African American boys (it’s 32 percent and 44 percent for Hispanic girls and boys). A NY Times story also pointed out the discrepancies.
To me, just as troubling as the low entry rate is the high drop out rate from sports (18 percent for poor kids). How can we get girls from all backgrounds to continue to play soccer — as well as other sports?

Many people focus on the hurdles to access, including funding, transportation, cultural mores. I believe it’s equally critical is to understand WHY certain girls choose to play high school sports.

Recently, I surveyed 75 female high school athletes (60 who participated in the SportsChallenge Leadership and Education Alliance‘s Summer Academy) and 15 from a U19 soccer team I coach in San Francisco). (SportsChallenge brings a wide spectrum of student-athletes together from around the country to train as athletes and leaders). Here’s what they had to say about why they play (in no particular order):

I play sports because I can …

* Be myself (without worrying what others think)
* Escape from all the other stresses of my life
* Control my destiny – set goals, make my dreams come true and ultimately lead others to success
* Make myself a better person – stronger and more confident in all aspect of my life
* Keep out of trouble and stay motivated for school, especially to get good grades
* Open doors to attend college
* Have a safe space where I can learn from others
* Stay fit and active
* Make an impact on the history of my sport

And, on the majority of lists… “Because I love the game!”

By addressing both sides of the equation – the hurdles and the incentives – I believe we can create a lasting pipeline of young girls who continue to play into their teens and beyond.

Molly Hellerman is executive director of the non-profit SportsChallenge Leadership and Education Alliance, based in Washington, D.C.

R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter, professors emerita at the City University of New York’s Brooklyn College and co-authors of a book on Title IX, have collected data on women’s roles on – and off – the field in college athletics since 1977.  They have chaired departments, taught pre-med courses, coached men’s and women’s college teams, and been a force in the governance of athletics for decades. Acosta played varsity basketball, field hockey, volleyball, tennis, softball and badminton for Brigham Young University during her college days; Carpenter was on BYU’s basketball, volleyball, softball, swimming, and gymnastics teams (“The seasons were short” back then, notes Acosta)

Today, Carpenter enjoys waterskiing, golf, and badminton. The day before her 70th birthday in July, Acosta won gold and silver medals in badminton at the Connecticut Senior Games. She also enjoys golf. We spoke with Acosta and Carpenter at their lakeside home last month.

FGN: Your data shows that just 42.8 percent of women’s college teams have female coaches, down from over 90 percent when Title IX was passed in 1972. Why does this matter?

LJC: It is important for female coaches to be around because [playing college sports] is a very intense part of your life and to ave female role models in an intense part of your life is particularly valuable. Guys have role models everywhere – politics, business – they are tripping over male role models.

FGN: But you hear some women saying they prefer male coaches…

RVA: Today if you ask women if they would prefer to have a male or female coach, most would say “male” because that is what they know. I would like to see more females coaching both males and females [only 2 percent of men’s team have female head coaches]. They need to see women as capable leaders, as capable of making decisions.

LJC: The studies [suggesting women prefer male coaches] are flawed. Your feelings for your coach are often related to whether it was a good season for you, if you liked the people you were with. I wouldn’t want to play for Pat Summitt because I am someone who needs to be nurtured. But the door shouldn’t be closed in one direction; it should swing both ways.

FGN: Despite whistleblower laws and other protections, it remains rare for women at colleges and universities to raise concerns of inequities in athletics – and for them to be in danger of losing their job if they do.

RVA: If their goal is to keep their position and they have no allies on campus, they [female coaches] have only one choice: that is to be quiet. If they are not quiet, they are pegged as “troublemakers.”

LJC: And there is no trouble getting rid of them — you just don’t renew their contracts. We get so many calls from coaches and administrators when things are not going well. I ask, “Who across campus can you go to for informal information?” and they don’t even know a name. You need to be respected across campus and that only happens when you spend time on committees. I find myself when I am speaking with coaches telling them that a multi-year contract is more valuable than a raise.

FGN: Is coaching harder today?

RVA: The pressure on coaches for performance is huge. It is a 24/7 job. They don’t have lives. When I see my athletic friends coaching I ask, ‘How did it get to this point? When did athletics become so darned important on campus?”

FGN: But don’t you think sports are important?

LJC: It depends on what your goals are. Where athletics wags the tail of the institution, athletics needs to be downsized. Athletic directors should not make multiples of what presidents make.

RVA: Or coaches.

LJC: If you believe the data – and its hard not to believe the data – what is this about a money-making business? I don’t think athletic directors deserve to be on campus because they are making money. The question is: How do they contribute to the life of the campus? It is not about making money; [athletic departments] launder money!

FGN: So what does this mean in terms of institutional support for men’s and women’s sports teams?

LJC: There is no reason why, for example, the women’s basketball games should always be the warm up games for the men – or that the banquet at the end of the year be humongous for the guys and lunch at McDonald’s for the gals. If you are always the “Lady Knights” [while the men are “the Knights”] it will always be subtly less valued. If you are having an institution support a program – if the band goes to the men’s game and the head athletic trainer goes to the men’s game, the head athletic trainer needs to go to the same number of women’s games and the same with the band. And that is so easy to accomplish.

FGN: You have watched the development of women’s sports for 32 years. What has surprised you?

RVA: What has surprised both of us is soccer. When we started, it was almost non-existent. Now it is a huge sport – and becoming more and more popular.

LJC: The face of athletics changes, sports become popular and unpopular. They wax and wane. Gymnastics for men and women is a contracting sport. Same with wrestling. To the wrestler on the team, it is the only thing that exists. In the world, wrestling is waning. It is not waning because of Title IX, but because of poor administrative decisions.

FGN: How long will you continue to track the data?

RVA: We were going to stop after 25 years and colleagues said, “You can’t do that!” People trust us. That level of trust has developed because we always keep our word.

When I take a moment to think critically about sports — and youth sports in particular – it seems bizarre to consider how passionate we all are. In concrete terms, after all, the grass field has no meaning without us on it. The rules of the game are worthless unless we believe the score reflects some form of superiority. As athletes, we charge the game with meaning.

But why? Why is it important — and why do we play?

This is one of my favorite questions to ask the laxers I coach. In my small consulting business, I get to work with players on an individual basis and it never takes long for this issue to surface.

Typically, when I first ask the question, I get puzzled looks. The girls suspect I’m some nutty Yale-educated existentialist. After the shrugging, fidgeting and squirming, however, words emerge. The first round of spoken answers are something like “Well, because it’s fun” or “Because my friends do it.” To many young players, this may be all there is to the question. In some cases, I may leave it at that.

But for most of my high school players, I push further. “OK, but what else?”

This gets the wheels turning. From here, conversations embark in unique directions. Some girls talk about wanting to make Dad proud; others describe feeling a sense of identity as an athlete; and still others reference the bonding among teammates that comes with long bus rides and pre-game rituals.

When I think back to why I played, I know my motivations ebbed and flowed over time. I was a ten-year-old who liked to get dirty – and was loud and aggressive. At 14, I was awkward everywhere but on the lacrosse field. As a 17-year-old, I needed sports to balance the chaos of an AP-heavy academic schedule.

Now, as a coach, I am struck by what you can learn about a player by asking an open-ended question and shutting up. Each conversation helps me to identify the value systems on which a particular player bases her decisions. I become better informed about root causes of success, struggle and failure. In short, I become a more effective coach.

An example: A young player who tells me she plays because she wants Dad to be proud will not respond to my yelling at her during a game because as I yell, Dad watches, and instead of listening to me, this player thinks about what Dad hears from his seat in the bleachers. Her play suffers. Inevitably, there’s a breaking point beyond which she reasons there’s no way of making him proud today – might as well pack up and go home.

In that scenario, I’ve lost her for the rest of the game — and I may not even know it. That is, unless we’ve discussed her motivations for playing. If we have, then I can use her value system to my team’s advantage – leveraging the fact that Dad is there to privately encourage her to dare to be great today. I can even use her language: “I bet Dad would be really proud if he saw you running as hard as you can after every loose ball.”

This may be a single (and common) example. But I believe it matters at virtually every level of sports competition. Sure, coaching at higher levels you can be more selective about choosing players who are driven to play for one reason or another.

A college coach can seek recruits whose their internal drive is in line with the program and team values. But at youth and even high school levels, attaining such homogeneity almost never happens. Youth coaches, on the other hand, would be wise to accept – and even embrace – their players’ motivational diversity.

Lauren Taylor is assistant lacrosse coach at Yale, a former three-time college All-American selection, and and 2009 graduate of the Yale School of Public Health who now works for the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute.

THE PLAYBOOK

By Laura Pappano

Go ahead and debate whether or not it’s a good thing, but women’s college basketball is changing: Young women don’t just talk about D1 ball as a way to cover the cost of a college degree, but see it as a path to the pros.  Certainly, some players have always aspired to keep playing — in the WNBA, for the USA, or in Europe. But increasingly female players come to college with hoop dreams.

“It’s a change,” says University of Rhode Island head coach Cathy Inglese, noting that’s one reason she hired two assistant coaches with professional experience: Ashley Earley (Vanderbilt ’05 who made 4 NCAA tournament appearances and played in Israel) and Amber Jacobs (BC ’04 who played in the WNBA 2004-2008). Inglese says one of the point guards she recruited this spring, Anisha Wilson from New Haven, CT, has pro aspirations. “Anisha wants to play in the WNBA,” says Inglese. “It’s something she has brought up.”

Sure, there were mixed reactions when Epiphany Prince announced in June she would skip her senior year at Rutgers to play in Europe and enter the 2010 WNBA draft. The worry: Are the women headed down the road of men’s college ball, where many hardly sit through a class before making their way into the NBA? Are inner-city girls now going to think basketball — and go light on the studies?

Unlikely. The troubling example of inner-city boys who plan for NBA careers only to be lost and uneducated at 20 is more about educational guidance and engagement (or lack of) than basketball. The professional venues for women don’t — dollarwise, anyway — negate the necessity for a college degree. Even Prince promises she’ll get hers. (We’ll check). On the other hand, this development will only improve the quality and competition of D1 play.

Meanwhile, let’s talk about coaching.

During her year sabbatical Inglese visited top D1 basketball programs and sat in on practices run by the best coaches in the business —  Geno Auriemma (Connecticut), Pat Summitt (Tennessee), Tara VanDerveer (Stanford), and Gail Goestenkors (Texas), among others.

Some take-aways:

1. When you coach, says Inglese, “you’ve got to do what is your personality. You can certainly pick and choose the drills, people do different things with video. It’s nice seeing it, but you’ve got to go with what you feel and be consistent. If you are up and down that confuses the kids.”

2. “You need to have leadership, a person on the court who sets the goal and creates a standard,” says Inglese, who believes Megan Shoniker could be that person for URI. “When I met with the team in the locker room, we were talking about goals and things and Megan said, ‘I don’t want the winning to start two years from now, I want it to start doing it now. I want to win now.’ She is a gutsy kid.”

3. “Geno and others, they let their staff be involved in the teaching and breaking down at practices. I used to think I had to bring the energy all the time to practice. They have to bring that themselves,” she says.

4. Inglese says she noticed the intensity at practice.  “The top coaches are into detail and being disciplined and doing things hard and game-like. That is something I have always known, but it was good seeing that.” In other words, practice how you play.

The Playbook

By Laura Pappano

The first game of the upcoming season – against Fairfield University (18-13 last year) – is months away, but Coach Cathy Inglese is thinking about it. More pointedly, she’s thinking about the work she and her team have ahead of them to competitive in that game – and in the season.

In a visit to her new digs on the second floor of the Ryan Center (note: supernice facility) last week, Inglese showed off her freshly-painted lemon yellow office. The color — more intense lemon rind yellow than lilting pale — is not an accident. This is a place that needs some zip. Inglese, just back from a month of recruiting (Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, New York, D.C., Maryland, Chicago) is not new to building programs. She did it at the University of Vermont and at Boston College.

So even as she complains about how far behind she is, how much there is to do, Inglese is clearly far more comfortable with the pressure of a clock than having a a wide open year to contemplate the meaning of coaching. That was last year. It’s nice, she says, to have a purpose again, to be part of a program.

In this case, she’s inherited a mess – and she’s pumped about it.

“Look at this film room!” she says, pushing open the door to a small room a few strides from her office in the women’s basketball suite. Video tape is stacked on tables, shelves – orderless. Down the hallway, newly-hired staff and assistant coaches (more on them in next installment) are in offices that hardly look unpacked, let alone organized. But everybody is busy. Working. Meeting.

The team IS behind. But it wouldn’t be the first time. Before Inglese was named head coach in April, departing coach Tom Garrick (56-112 record) did a mea culpa, apologizing for losing so much (56-112 over six seasons).

Last year, they won just three games at home.  The other stats aren’t any better:  Opponents outscored URI 929-738 in the first half and 972-922 in the second half. In key statistics (free throw, field goal, 3-pointed, rebounds) they were trounced. (URI had edge in steals). Click here for stats.

“I would love to say .500 or above,” as a goal for a win-loss record this season, says Inglese. But she insists she is building for the long term and that means tackling a deeper issue: Getting rid of the losing culture. That means no more dogging it in practice – or in the classroom. That means no cutting classes or saying you e-mailed that paper when there’s no evidence you did. It means practicing like you intend to play.

Because she was only with the team for two weeks in the spring, summer session was the first time Inglese could give players a taste of her expectations. When she discovered that the team GPA was 2.4, she was… “really disappointed.” Not just because she’s a coach who boasts a 100 percent graduation rate, but because she believes you can’t be great in one arena and lazy in the other. There is a connection between life and sports, school and basketball – and she wants players to understand that, too.

“I tell the kids I don’t like mediocrity. I don’t like just getting by,” she says. “I want these kids to know what it takes to be successful. I want them to work hard in the off-season and learn how to win.”

It may be too soon to tell if Inglese can spur a mindset shift. But in her first challenge to them – earn a 3.0 for summer school grades – they responded with a 3.3. “To me that’s something. Our kids were coming in talking excitedly about what grades they got in summer classes,” she says. (The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association in July announced teams with the best GPA’s. Indiana State was top in DI with 3.645)

It’s early, but Inglese sees several keys to turning around the program – short and long term:

1.    Leadership on the court. “You have to have a person on the court who sets the goal, who sets the standard.”

2.    More basketball talent and especially players who get the ball in the basket. “You can’t win a lot of games scoring 54 points a game – and that’s what they averaged last year.”

3.    Limit turnovers. “We have to take care of the ball more. That comes with the teamwork.”

4.    Hard work. Positive attitude. “They are tired of losing and they are at least saying they want to win.”

5.    Understand success is not immediate and keep focused on the goal, realizing in the interim that some losses are better than others. “It is scary to work hard and not win, but even if you don’t win you can measure progress in other ways. Maybe this year you lose instead of by 20 points, you lose by 5.”

Her job? Inglese needs to get to know the players better to understand how to motivate them individually. They are all making short videos of their families and homes to share as a team when they return. Inglese is also listening to a request from players: get more fans in the stands at the Ryan Center (last year’s average home attendance was 2,223).

“The biggest thing the kids have said is, ‘Please ask people to come to our games,’” says Inglese. “People are excited in the community here, Rhode Island is a big basketball state. This is something I promised the players I would work on.”