While Tara remains the Dean of Pac 10 Coaches, we have added two new faces to the programs of Arizona and UCLA. Turnover among the Head Coaches has been so great the past few years that only Tara, Charli Turner Thorne and Bev Smith at Oregon have held their positions more than four years.
Let’s look at the seven relatively new Coaches and the Oregon situation.
Niya Butts is the new Head Coach at Arizona, coming from the University of Kentucky where she was the Associate Head Coach. Niya is a graduate of the University of Tennessee where she played for Pat Summitt. She started coaching at Tennessee Tech, and in her two years there also received her Master Degree in Education. She then moved to Michigan State as an Assistant for one season, then on to Kentucky for the past five seasons, the last one as the Associate Head Coach. While at Tennessee as a player, she was Academic All SEC.
Several players were suspended this past season at Arizona, but they have either graduated or, with the recent announcement, won’t be back next season. No rumors of players wanting out of the November Letters of Intent either. So signs are that Niya is being accepted by many of the new and continuing players. Maybe Arizona will look to High School Srs who were not signed or a JC player as ASU just signed. In any case the young Coach will bring a new outlook to a rather stagnant program.
At UCLA, former Tennessee Assistant Nikki Caldwell was signed to a 5 year contract to be the Head Coach. Nikki played for Tennessee and graduated in 1994 with a degree in Public Relations. At a glance one might think Nikki jumped into coaching, but not so. Upon graduating she became the TV color analyst for Tennessee and then SEC games. She also hosted a local TV show, Shop at Home. She returned to Tennessee as a Graduate Assistant Coach for the 1999 season, then to Virginia as an Assistant for three seasons. Nikki then returned to Tennessee and was an Assistant there for the past six seasons.
Two newcomers to the Pac 10 and the West, let alone the West Coast, Butts and Caldwell represent hope to two programs that have missed the NCAA’s more often than not in the past few seasons.
Tia Jackson spent a year coaching for Tara, five years for UCLA and two years for Duke, before becoming the Head Coach at Washington. Her first season was 13-18, but 8-10 in the conference and 10-5 at home. This with a young team. However since the start of last season four of the frosh have left along with another who will graduate and move on.
June Daugherty just finished her first season at Washington State with a 5-25 record. However June has been a Head Coach for 19 seasons, including 11 at Washington. Her career record is 314-213. And she was once an Assistant to Tara. There was only one Senior last season for Washington State and they had their best recruiting class in years. Given the situation of this program for some time, it looks to be on its way up.
LaVonda Wagner has now coached three years at Oregon State. She came to Oregon State after a long time career as an Assistant Coach, including the previous years at Duke. Last season the Beavers were 12-18 and 4-14 in league play.
Joanne Boyle has been at Cal for three years and last year had her team in the Top 10 for much of the season. Cal finished 27-7, and Boyle has a record at Cal of 68-28 for her three years. She came to Cal from Richmond where in three seasons she won 70% of her games. She was a four year letter winner at Duke and has a Masters Degree. Boyle coached as an Assistant at Duke for nine seasons before becoming the Head Coach at Richmond.
Mark Trakh was the Head Coach for 11 seasons at Pepperdine before becoming the Head Coach at USC where he has been in charge for the past 4 seasons. His record at USC is 73-49, a 60% and his overall record at both USC and Pepperdine is 272-172, a 61% winning percentage for 15 seasons.
Bev Smith is a former Oregon All American and in the Oregon Hall of Fame. She became the head Coach at Oregon for the 2001-2002 season and will enter her 8th season next year. Oregon was 14-17 last season and the AD at Oregon has publicly said improvement is needed.
