COURTESY SPORTS PUBLICITY First-year women's basketball coach Amy Backus has guided the Elis to a mid-season turnaround.

New coach Backus guides Elis out of sluggish start

At the beginning of the 1999-2000 season, the women's basketball team's quest for respect—or even just a few tallies in the victory column—seemed nothing less than futile. "At 2-11, I was wondering when our season was going to turn around," first-year head coach Amy Backus admitted. Within the last month, however, the team has tossed off its early stagnation, silencing Ivy powerhouses Brown and Princeton and bringing their overall record to 7-12. The impetus behind the Bulldogs' recent success has been the more dynamic style of play implemented by the new coach, a style that is "more up-tempo on both ends of the floor," according to Backus. The coach attributes the Elis' initial sluggishness to unfamiliarity with her style of coaching but added that "they are peaking, and it couldn't have come at a better time. They are really starting to understand what they have to do to stay together."

Backus started her training in Vermilion, Oh., where she began playing basketball in sixth grade "because of my height"—6'1''. At Central Michigan University, she played center and was a four-year varsity letter-winner. When Backus began her college playing career, athletic scholarships were not available for women, but she was on full scholarship by her senior season. The athletic director at Central Michigan was the president of the AIWA, the association that used to operate women's collegiate athletics, and was one of the driving forces behind instituting athletic scholarships for women.

Backus held her first collegiate coaching job from 1980-85 at Otterbein College in Westerville, Oh., where she also coached softball. She worked briefly at the University of Vermont and Middlebury College before becoming an assistant coach at Northwestern in 1994. She called her tenure at Northwestern a "great coaching experience at a highly academic institution in the Big 10," one that sufficiently prepared her for coaching at a school like Yale, where the players are held to high academic standards. Upon being named Yale's head coach on Tues., Apr. 27, 1999, Backus' overall head coaching record stood at 160-97.

During the first portion of this season, the team was in a period of transition, as their 2-11 start demonstrates. In addition to losing four senior starters, including stars Katy Grubbs, SM '99, and Autumn Braddock, BK '99, from a team that went 10-16 and 5-9 in Ivy play, the Elis had to adjust to Backus' new system, which features "more of a pressing style on defense." Picked to finish seventh in the Ivies in preseason polls, the Bulldogs began lethargically but seem to have turned the corner since getting acclimated to Backus' program. "We're not playing like a seventh-place team," Backus said. "Teams always know they will be in for a difficult game when we play us, and now we're seeing our point production going up."

Backus commended Maria Smear, SM '03, and Helene Schutrumpf, BK '03, for their role in Yale's turnaround. She also praised the older contingent of 6'1'' center Lily Glick, ES '01, and 5'8'' captain and guard Kelly Denit, DC '00. At first glance, Glick, who "has a very strong half-court game," according to Backus, may not seem to fit in with the coach's up-tempo strategy at first glance. "She and Alyson Miller, JE '01, combine to make a difficult inside game to defend," Backus said. "Lily is also the best free-throw shooter on the team, which presents the opposing defenses with even further problems."

As the lone senior, Denit could have had more difficulty than any other player in making the adjustment to a first-year coach, but Backus happily noted that this was far from the case. "Transition is always hard, especially for Kelly, who knew how to do things under the old system," Backus explained. "But she has been very flexible. I can't say enough about Kelly's hard work and leadership on the floor. She's a calming presence, a defensive specialist who also leads the team in assists and plays point guard when needed. She has great confidence on the floor and always knows what to do."

Up to this point, Backus has had an extraordinarily successful recruiting year. Six of her top recruits were accepted to Yale under early decision. "Next year will be very competitive," Backus said. "The returning players know they have to work extremely hard over the summer." Despite the team's promising future, Back-us will keep her eyes firmly focused on the present. "This is our team. We won't look down the road to when we have only player I have recruited," she said. "We haven't won an Ivy League championship in 20 years, but we have the talent to get it done this year. I think it's up for grabs."

Back to Sports...