OU's Sherri Coale Gets First USA Basketball Assignment

May 2, 2001

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - University of Oklahoma Head Women's Basketball Coach Sherri Coale has accepted her first position as an assistant coach with the USA Women's Junior World Championship Team announced by USA Basketball today. University of Connecticut Head Coach Geno Auriemma has been selected as the head coach while Northeastern University's (Mass.) Willette White will also serve as an assistant coach. The coaching staff was selected by the USA Basketball Women's Collegiate Committee, chaired by University of Texas Senior Associate Athletics Director for Men's and Women's Athletics Chris Plonsky.

"USA Basketball couldn't have made a better choice with Sherri Coale and Willette White," said Auriemma. "Sherri's been able to build her program in just four or five years and get to the (NCAA Tournament) Regionals, and Willette, with all her years at UCLA and now Northeastern, she's got a tremendous amount of experience. Between the two of them, we've got a lot of experience, we've got an awful lot of success and they're going to bring a lot of energy, bring a lot of enthusiasm to the team, and the kids are going to have a great time working them."

Coale has notched an overall 81-69 (54.0 winning percentage) record during her tenure at OU (1996-2001), including an impressive 53-14 (79.1 winning percentage) record in her last two years at Oklahoma.

"It's an incredible honor to be working in any position with USA Basketball," said Coale. "But with this particular team, it's especially a privilege for me. First of all because Geno Auriemma is the head coach and the opportunity to work with him, you can't put a price tag on that. Also, working with such great young talented athletes whose future in representing our country is very bright. To be a part of USA Basketball and working with these talented athletes is just an incredible opportunity."

Taking her first collegiate head coaching position at the helm of the Sooners in 1996, Coale spent her first two years building her program. In her third season she posted her first winning record, 15-14, was issued an invitation to the 1999 Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) and advanced to the second round.

In the past two seasons, Coale has piloted the Sooners to a pair of Big 12 Conference regular season titles with a two-year conference record of 28-4 (87.5 winning percentage) and marched OU to the 2000 and 2001 NCAA Sweet 16, the furthest any OU team has gone in NCAA play. In 2000, Coale's squad notched 25 victories, the most by any Sooner team in the program's history and she improved on that mark in 2001 with 28 wins.

Her accomplishments have not gone unnoticed. The 2001 Women's Basketball Journal National Coach of the Year, Coale was a finalist for the 2001 Naismith and 2000 Associated Press Coach of the Year honors. Furthermore, she garnered a pair of Big 12 Coach of the Year accolades (2000, 2001), and was tabbed the 2000 and 2001 WBCA District V Coach of the Year.

A seven-year (1989-90 to 1995-96) head coach at Norman High School (Okla.) before accepting the position at OU, Coale compiled a 147-40 (78.6 winning percentage) record overall at Norman and posted four consecutive seasons (1992-93 to 1995-96) with 20 or more victories. With Coale at the helm, the Lady Tigers competed in five straight (1992-96) state tournaments, finished as Oklahoma Class 6A champions in 1996 and 1993 and as the state runner-up in 1995.

This is Auriemma's fifth coaching appointment by USA Basketball. Last summer, Auriemma served as an assistant coach to the gold medal winning 2000 U.S. Women's Olympic Team and was the head coach of the 2000 USA Junior World Championship Qualifying Team. Auriemma also directed the 1996 USA Basketball Women's Select Team, which trained in Colorado Springs against the 1996 USA R. William Jones Cup Team and the 1996 Russian Olympic Team, and was head coach of the West Team at the 1993 U.S. Olympic Festival.

One of the winningest coaches in college basketball history, Auriemma was named the 2000 National Coach of the Year by Naismith, the Associated Press and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) after leading the Huskies to the 2000 NCAA National Championship and a 36-1 mark. The Huskies' 36 wins set a Connecticut record and raised Auriemma's 16 year overall record to a shining 425-98 (81.3 winning percentage), making him No. 3 among active Division I coaches in winning percentage. He is also one of only two coaches in Division I history, men's or women's, to post five consecutive 30-plus win seasons.

His most recent squad, despite being hampered by injuries to key players late in the season, posted a 32-3 record, claimed a share of the Big East regular season title, captured the Big East Tournament crown, and advanced to the 2001 NCAA Final Four.

Northeastern's White recently completed her first year as a collegiate head coach after spending 19 years (1980-81 to 1999-00) on the sidelines assisting teams at UCLA, University of Washington, Iowa State University, Ohio State University and University of Idaho. White, who earned her first USA Basketball coaching nod with the USA juniors, is a current member of the USA Basketball Women's Collegiate Committee.

In her inaugural season (2000-01) as a head coach, White's young team finished with a 13-16 overall record and advanced to the quarterfinals of the America East Conference Tournament. Building for the future, Northeastern returns four of five starters and five of six top scorers next fall, four of whom were freshmen and sophomores during the 2000-01 campaign.

The USA earned its Junior World Championship berth in convincing style, which eventually earned Auriemma the 2000 USA Basketball Development Coach of the Year award. The 2000 USA Basketball Women's Junior World Championship Qualifying Team ran through five opponents in five days by an average margin of 50.6 points per game en route to the gold medal at the COPABA Women's Junior World Championship Qualifying Tournament in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

Held every four years since 1985, the U.S. is the defending FIBA Junior World Champions having won its first gold medal in four tries at the event in Natal, Brazil, at the 1997 Junior Worlds. Featuring 12 teams, the 2001 FIBA Women's Junior World Championship is scheduled to be contested July 14-22 in Brno, Czech Republic. To be eligible for the 2001 team, an athlete must have been born on or after Jan. 1, 1982 (19-years-old or younger). Trials to select the 12-member 2001 USA Junior World Championship Team will be held June 15-18 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

As the host country, 2000 European Championship for Junior Women silver medalist Czech Republic earned an automatic bid to the Junior World Championship, while the remaining 11 nations had to compete in zone qualifying tournaments to earn a berth. In addition to the three countries from the America's Zone, Brazil, Cuba and the United States, included in the 2001 field will be 2000 European junior champ Russia, bronze medalist Poland, fourth place finisher Lithuania and, by virtue of silver medalist Czech Republic hosting the 2001 Junior World Championship, fifth place finisher France earned Europe's fourth and final spot. China and Japan took the Asia Zone's two spots with a gold and silver medal finish at the 2000 Asia Junior Women's Championship, respectively, while Australia earned Oceania's lone spot and Mali will be the sole representative from Africa.

The 12 teams have been placed into two groups for preliminary round robin play. The United States has been placed into Pool B and will open preliminary play against Lithuania on July 14. The U.S. will then play China on July 15, Brazil on July 16, Mali on July 18 and will conclude preliminary round play against Russia on July 19. Preliminary Pool A consists of Australia, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Japan and Poland. The top two teams from each group will advance to the medal semifinals, with the winners of the medal semifinal games competing for the gold medal. The remainder of the field will compete for 5th - 12th place.

Owning an 18-9 overall record (66.7 winning percentage) at the competition, after finishing no better than fifth in the first three Junior Worlds, the USA captured the '97 gold medal with an exciting 78-74 overtime victory over 1993 Junior World Champion Australia.

For addition information on USA Basketball please go to http://usabasketball.com.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

OU's Sherri Coale Gets First USA Basketball Assignment

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