{"id":50637,"date":"2017-02-01T15:03:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T21:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=50637"},"modified":"2017-02-01T15:21:54","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T21:21:54","slug":"loyola-womens-basketball-staff-builds-program-from-the-ground-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/loyola-womens-basketball-staff-builds-program-from-the-ground-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Loyola women\u2019s basketball staff builds program from the ground up"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Allie Burger<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Loyola women\u2019s basketball coaches gathered at Revival Social Club in Chicago\u2019s Edgewater neighborhood on a Tuesday night in mid-January after a long week of recruiting. They clinked glasses to commence the meal, celebrating their new 2017 class\u2014the first five women they recruited to join their rebooting program.<\/p>\n

But the conversation then cycled through the present and back over the last six months, turning to the future.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The staff, brought together by a 30-year-old, first-time head coach in Kate Achter, is experiencing the growing pains associated with a rebuild. Nine players transferred away from the program last spring under then-coach and WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes, who was fired last July for alleged player mistreatment.<\/p>\n

The new staff is working with a group of women that they did not recruit\u2014a group primarily of freshmen and junior college transfers whose two tallest players stand at only 6-foot-1. They are currently 1-8\u00a0in Missouri Valley Conference play.<\/p>\n

The topics discussed over bacon-wrapped dates and guacamole were wide-ranging:<\/p>\n

On being the worst team in the conference<\/strong><\/p>\n

It began at MVC media days. Achter\u2019s first trip to the pre-season event as head coach turned \u201cone of the most humbling experiences\u201d of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cA reporter asked if I was a student-athlete and if I was looking forward to the season, when I was sitting next to my student-athlete,\u201d Achter said. \u201cNo one cares who you were and no one cares what you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team was projected to finish last in conference, which Achter has had a tough time accepting.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I sat there and I watched Drake get interviewed and I watched Wichita State and all of those schools, someone was sticking something in my side and just twisting it,\u201d Achter said. \u201cAnd as the competitor, that ate at me and it still does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Achter said she plans to use the experience, and those she continues to have this season, as fuel going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game that we play, I\u2019m like, \u2018It\u2019s okay. You know what? Run up the score now, because in two years, you won\u2019t.\u2019 I can\u2019t wait,\u201d Achter said. \u201cI\u2019m coming after you, here it comes. Here it comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

On being such a young staff<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assistant coach Bianca Smith doesn\u2019t see the staff\u2019s youth as an obvious disadvantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the fact that we\u2019re not all that far removed from where these kids are, I think it helps us,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that there\u2019s anything that we encounter that age would make easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant Maria Noucas came to Loyola from Dartmouth, a program tied with Loyola for fifth-youngest in Div. I women\u2019s basketball. She said that she sees more advantages than disadvantages to working for such a young head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping open-minded, that\u2019s the biggest part,\u201d Noucas said. \u201cNot that older people aren\u2019t open-minded, but \u2026 I think younger head coaches tend to be more collaborative and open-minded than older head coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Achter wanted to build her staff to embody strengths she might not have mastered yet, due to her lack of experience. However, she did not believe older candidates were automatically more qualified.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many more experienced people inquired [for the assistant coaching jobs,]\u201d Achter said. \u201cAnd they were like, \u2018Maybe my age can help you.\u2019 \u2026 Well maybe I don\u2019t want the age. Let me learn and fail on my own and gain my own experience. It\u2019s not necessarily what I needed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She relied on recommendations from friends in college coaching to assemble her staff, and also hired Armelia Horton, who she helped coach at St. Bonaventure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I found the perfect balance,\u201d Achter said.<\/p>\n

On coaching a group the staff did not recruit<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hard for me,\u201d Achter said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to get your own kids in there and then \u2026 we\u2019ll have a whole new set of challenges. But right now, they\u2019ve got to be more mature, they need confidence from me. They\u2019ve got to fail and figure out how to succeed from that and that\u2019s a process. But if I can\u2019t show them that, then who can? It\u2019s been very hard, very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a balancing act for Achter and her staff. She makes a point of letting the current squad know that they are her \u201ckids\u201d and that the staff loves them. But she\u2019s also looking forward to bringing in players who match her vision at Loyola.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople keep telling me and telling our staff, \u2018It\u2019ll be okay when you get your own kids in.\u2019 But these are our kids. They\u2019re a reflection of us,\u201d Achter said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we care so much and we invest in them \u2026 It\u2019s just, they need a lot more than the average bear because they didn\u2019t pick to be in this situation. They\u2019re now on one of the worst teams in Divison I and they have a brand-new coaching staff at one of the most academically rigorous schools in the country. There\u2019s a lot coming at them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven of the 10 players on the roster are either freshman or junior college transfers. As much as they are adjusting to life and basketball at Loyola, the coaches are, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur patience has really increased working with this group,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to help us all grow having to go through this as coaches. When we\u2019re in our fourth year, we can look back and be like, \u2018Y\u2019all, do you remember our first year here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On building for the future<\/strong><\/p>\n

Noucas likes to say Loyola\u2019s coaches are in the business of building confidence.<\/p>\n

But four of the five staff members are also in the business of recruiting. The five-member 2017 recruiting class is Achter\u2019s first, and the staff has a group chat to stay on the same page while on the road, as they seek specific types of recruits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really just need tough competitors,\u2019\u201d Noucas said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how many times I have said that to AAU coaches. \u2018We need them to be talented, but we just need tough, competitive kids. So, if this kid is not tough and competitive, then we\u2019re not doing it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The coaches have an off-court wish list, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan they help my locker room?\u201d Smith said. \u201cYes, she\u2019s tough and competitive. She\u2019s going to help us on the court. No question. But is she going to help our locker room or is she going to hurt it? And that weeds out kids, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recruiting for 2018 is well underway, and the staff continues to build for the long term. But Achter hopes the coaches never forget where they started.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater on, if we leave here and go do our own things 10 years from now,\u201d Smith said, \u201cwe\u2019ll remember this year and all the struggles and everything we went through and this dinner and be like, \u2018We \u2026 just spilled our guts.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were dealing with some stuff \u2026 but it was worth it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Loyola women’s basketball staff coach during 83-64 loss to Wichita State at Gentile Arena on Jan. 29. From left: Maria Noucas, Bianca Smith, Michael Scruggs, Kate Achter and Armelia Horton. (Allie Burger\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Allie Burger The Loyola women\u2019s basketball coaches gathered at Revival Social Club in Chicago\u2019s Edgewater neighborhood on a Tuesday night in mid-January after a long week of recruiting. They clinked glasses to commence the meal, celebrating their new 2017 class\u2014the first five women they recruited to join their rebooting program. But the conversation then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":50648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3516],"tags":[3534,3532],"class_list":["post-50637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-winter-2017","tag-kate-achter","tag-loyola-womens-basketball"],"yoast_head":"\nLoyola women\u2019s basketball staff builds program from the ground up - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/loyola-womens-basketball-staff-builds-program-from-the-ground-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Loyola women\u2019s basketball staff builds program from the ground up - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Allie Burger The Loyola women\u2019s basketball coaches gathered at Revival Social Club in Chicago\u2019s Edgewater neighborhood on a Tuesday night in mid-January after a long week of recruiting. 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