Women’s
hoops adds to coaching roster
By Michelle Siazon
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
The
Long Beach State women’s basketball team
adds two new assistant coaches to the staff,
while retaining one assistant, Tuonisia
Turner. Hall of Famer Denise Curry and former
WNBA player Vanessa Nygaard fill in the
two remaining assistant coaching positions
for head coach Mary Hegarty.
“I’m really pleased to bring in both Vanessa
Nygaard and Denise Curry,” said Hegarty.
“Tuonisia is staying on staff from the previous
seven years and that’s just been a great
help to me in getting situated.” These coaches
bring to the program a wide variety of experience
in both playing and coaching.
The coaches have previous connections with
one another. Curry was a senior playing
for UCLA when Hegarty was a freshman. “I’ve
known Denise for 22 years, I respect her,
she’s a great person but she also is an
excellent teacher, especially at the post
position, so that was a critical responsibility
for that spot,” said Hegarty.
Curry was an assistant coach at Cal Berkeley
while Nygaard was playing for Stanford,
two schools of which are in the Pac-10 conference.
Then Curry became the head coach at Big
West school, Cal State Fullerton from 1997-2000
while Turner was an assistant here at the
Beach.
“I’ve known Mary for a very long time,”
said Nygaard. “I’ve known her since I was
like 12-years old, I met her at UCLA basketball
camp.”
Curry’s playing career highlights consist
of three-time All-American at UCLA (1977-81),
named one of the 15 greatest Bruins ever,
enshrined into the Naismith Hall of Fame
in 1997 and she’s played on National teams
and professionally in Europe. Curry’s coaching
experience ranges from colleges such as
Cal Berkeley and Cal State Fullerton to
the professional ranks of the ABL serving
as an assistant with the San Jose Lasers.
“I’m excited about being back in coaching,
I haven’t coached for the last three years,”
said Curry. “I’m excited about teaching
and working with individuals, it’s just
fun to be on a college campus in that academic
environment, you don’t find it any place
else.”
Nygaard played for Stanford from 1993-1997
and continued to a five-year professional
career in the WNBA and Europe. She holds
the Cardinal record for three-pointers with
210 and is one of 34 players to play in
three Final Fours. Although, this is her
first full-time coaching job, she said she’s
excited about the newness of it all.
“I feel like I’ve been preparing my whole
life because I’ve played in so many different
places for so many different coaches and
have lots of other experiences,” said Nygaard.
“Watching basketball and being around it
my whole life, I’ve saved all this stuff
from all these teams, I’m ready to go, I’m
excited about doing it and I’m just learning
new stuff every day.”
The coaching staff is currently on a three
and a half week recruiting trip in hopes
of identifying players they will try to
sign for the Fall. So far, no new players
will be added, with the exception of a few
redshirt players Hegarty said.
“Fitness is extremely important and that’s
a baseline foundation in women’s basketball,”
said Hegarty. “Skill development is going
to be a vital area, but we have good talent
in our returners and I think that with our
coaching staff, we’re going to be able to
develop that talent.”
The Beach returns a majority of the team,
only losing two seniors from last year’s
squad and most of the members are playing
in the Women’s Say No Classic, which is
a Nike sponsored summer league held at USC
featuring current and former college and
professional players. Summer workouts aren’t
mandatory.
“I think the biggest thing is helping the
kids through the transition and I think
they’re very excited about it,” said Turner.
“This is the hardest they’ve worked over
the summer since I’ve been here, so that’s
been positive to see, everything has been
moving in the right direction.”
One of the major goals for the team next
season is to take the conference title from
UC Santa Barbara, who has dominated the
Big West Conference. “I hope that we learn
and grow, but an obvious goal is to flat
out win the Big West Conference,” said Hegarty.
“I know it hasn’t been done in years here,
but to be honest, if we’re not able to challenge
them[UC Santa Barbara] in some way early
on in my tenure here, I don’t feel like
I’ll be doing my job very well and that’s
flat out what we’re going after.”
With a fairly young team it is going to
be really important that they are all able
to start fresh without any preconceived
notions said Hegarty.
“I think this team is going to be important
to set the foundation for all the success
I’m going to expect from this program,”
said Hegarty. “Just as they’re building
the foundation, I think we have a tremendous
possibility to be very successful this year,
even though it’s the first year in the transition.”
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