Search for new basketball coaches nears completion

By David Goldenberg

It is a situation unlike any other in recent Yale history. Following disappointing 1998-99 seasons for the men's and women's basketball teams, each of the squads' head coaches decided that it was time to move on to other pursuits. After men's coach Dick Kuchen and women's coach Cecelia DeMarco handed in their resignations within a month of each other, the Athletics Department was left with two huge holes to fill, and only now is it starting to make headway in determining who will fill those spots.

COURTESY SPORTS PUBLICITY Former women's basketball coach Cecelia DeMarco and former men's basketball coach Dick Kuchen.

Kuchen decided to resign over spring break, about two weeks after his team finished its season with the most losses in Yale history at 4-22 (2-12 Ivy). The selection committee made up of administrators and at least one player has been conducting a deliberate and exhaustive search for a new coach ever since. "We've narrowed it down to six or seven candidates, but it's changing every day," Associate Director of Varsity Sports Colleen Lim said. "We're talking to people every day about candidacy." In order to pick the coach, the committee is interviewing several qualified candidates. "Each is impressive in his own way," Lim said. "They have diverse backgrounds, and it's going to be a very difficult decision."

The team doesn't want to rush the selection process. "We're not going to shortchange ourselves by picking someone too soon," center Neil Yanke, MC '01, said. Neither he nor Lim would say specifically when they expect a coach to be named.

The women's coaching situation, though, seems to be somewhat closer to being solved. "We have narrowed down the list and we are doing four campus interviews," Lim said. "We are doing our best to name the new [women's] coach by the end of April."

"We have been absolutely impressed with the choices," she added. "They have all done outstanding presentations, and it's going to be a very
difficult decision. They've all been involved in coaching, and basketball is their vocation and passion."

The team is looking for a replacement for DeMarco, who left to "spend more time with her family" after her team dropped 11 games in a row en route to a disappointing 10-16 (5-9 Ivy) record.

Neither team has had a shot at winning the Ivy title in well over a decade. By hiring new coaches, Yale now has the opportunity to give its basketball teams the shot in the arm they need to climb up the Ivy standings as they enter the new millennium. But it won't be easy to find people who have just the right blend of qualities to win basketball games at Yale. As Lim put it, ""It really takes a special coach to be successful at Yale."

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