Latest women's hoops loss is behind the bench

COURTESY SPORTS PUBLICITY OFFICE Women's basketball coach Cecilia DeMarco is leaving Yale after nine seasons and 107 wins.

Going into the 1999-2000 season, the women's basketball team assumed its biggest challenge would be to replace the scoring punch of its two graduating seniors, Autumn Braddock, BK '99, and Katy Grubbs, SM '99--two of Yale's all-time scoring leaders. Little did they realize they would have to replace the lead position on the bench as well, in the wake of head coach Cecilia DeMarco's retirement, announced on Mon., Mar. 1.

DeMarco leaves as women's basketball's all-time winningest coach, compiling 107 victories in her nine seasons. She arrived at Yale in 1990, following a stint as athletic director at Bridgewater (Mass.) State College. Prior to the Bridgewater position, DeMarco coached both high school and college programs for 13 years. She cited her long coaching tenure as the primary reason for wanting to take a break from the rigors of the job.

"Personally, it's simply a good time for me and for my own life," DeMarco said. "I've been coaching for a very long time, and a coach's life is a difficult one. You simply can't have a good quality of life
as a Division I basketball coach--and right now I just don't have the energy level
to maintain at this level. This decision had nothing to do with a loss of love for
basketball, or the kids I coached. It was about my own life, and my ability to focus on that now."

DeMarco is looking to enjoy some of life's simpler pleasures in the next few years, and hopes to take advantage of things she missed while on road trips or studying game film. She left the door open, however, for a possible return down the road.

"I'm looking forward to the little things, frankly," she said. "I've missed more weddings, birthdays, and christenings than I care to count. I hardly ever get a chance to spend time with my friends and family. Essentially, I've been coaching since I was 21 years old, and I have to find out what life is like outside of basketball. I can't say that I won't coach again if I find that life to be not as meaningful, but right now I just can't wait to do all the little things that others take for granted."

While DeMarco looks forward to her life beyond Yale, the University must now find a new head women's basketball coach. Though she will remain in her head until a replacement is found, DeMarco purposefully announced her retirement immediately following the season to give Yale ample time to find a new coach, which the University hopes to have in place by the end of the school year.

"This will be a national search," Associate Athletic Director Colleen Lim said. "We don't have any predetermined candidate, and we're going to look extremely hard for the best coach for Yale, first by speaking with coaches and administrators from around the country to find who's out there."

The Administration will work with Yale's current players in selecting the coach, and newly elected captain Kelly Denit, DC '00, plans on providing the selection committee with input from her teammates.

"The team will have a meeting to discuss what qualities we're most looking for in a head coach, and the committee will review that," Denit said. "I'll be part of the committee that interviews the coaches, and once the initial number gets narrowed down to a few, they'll be brought in to meet the team and have a discussion with us."

In order to ensure at least one returning face from the bench, Yale has already negotiated a one-year contract renewal with current assistant coach Mary Kalich, CC '95. Rehiring an assistant coach is unusual for the University, as such decisions are normally left up to the newly hired coach. Lim said that the athletic department felt this move was "in the best interests of the team." She added, "We wanted to have some stability from one season to the next." The athletic department has not yet discussed the future of Yale's other assistant coach, Mimi Walters, who is currently away from the University due to a family illness.

Perhaps the most difficult task will be to explain to the Class of 2003 recruits--who agreed to come to Yale under DeMarco's guidance--that they will be coached by a new face when they arrive this fall.

"It's a difficult position because we don't know the recruits so well," Lim said. "The coaches, and coach DeMarco specifically, have had the most contact with them. But we're continuing to inform the recruits of all the latest happenings, and we hope they know that we are making a firm commitment to the women's program."

DeMarco said that even with her departure, however, her last batch of recruits have nothing to fear and even less to regret.

"I would never apologize for introducing a kid to a place like Yale," she said. "They aren't just coming to play basketball--in the process of playing, they are getting one of the best educations in the world. I have told each one of them that I would never leave Yale for another coaching job. I have loved Yale, and loved the kids I coached. And looking down the road, Yale would never hire a bad coach--because they don't hire bad people."

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