Changing The Culture
By Brooks Hatch –
The three freshly-inscribed game balls displayed on the top shelf of the bookcase in LaVonda Wagner’s new Gill Coliseum office are tangible proof of the on-court success enjoyed by the
• The Beavers won 10 more games than in 2005 (16-6), matching
• An overwhelming choice to finish last in the Pacific-10 Conference, they instead won seven conference games — six more than the previous season — and placed a surprising seventh.
• They defeated arch-rival
But Wagner’s signature moment came after a romp over Texas-Pan American in the regular-season finale. In their postgame Senior Night remarks, seniors Karen Vickery, Mandy Close, Anita Rivera and Kim Butler each testified to the tremendous impact made by Wagner and her staff in 11 short months.
“The thing I’m most proud of is I’ve got four seniors who went through the year with no regrets,” said Wagner, whose on- and off-court influence on her players led to her selection as the Corvallis Gazette- Times’ OSU Women’s Sport Coach of the Year in a vote of the sports staff.
“To see them gain confidence in themselves and each other, for them to feel good about who they are and to feel good about OSU, that’s been the biggest reward.
“You talk about leadership and teaching life lessons, but sometimes you don’t know if you’re making that impact. As coaches, we’re judged by Ws and Ls, but I know our staff gave a group of young women their spirit back.”
That belief was reinforced in late April when she received a birthday card from
Athletic director Bob De Carolis hired the former Duke/Illinois/East Tennessee State assistant coach in April 2005, to revive a program that had tanked to 6-23 overall and 1-17 in the Pac-10 in 2004-05.
“She changed the culture and made it possible for the players to do things they didn’t think there was any way they could do them,” De Carolis said, using Close’s late transformation from shooting guard to effective point guard as an example.
“She also put us on the map in the conference.”
She also infused new life, energy and purpose into players and a dispirited program that had drawn fewer than 500 fans for some of its games the year before. OSU averaged 1,535 fans, a 32 percent increase from 2005.
“The other thing she did for the kids is (provide) the kind of life skills that should come out of an athletic experience,” De Carolis said. “They are the kind of experiences you want your kids to take with them so college athletics are a life-changing experience.
“If that doesn’t happen, then it’s just a game.”
Wagner said she realized in preseason practice that the solid core of seniors would lead to a better record than in 2005.
“They had bought in, and had decided they were going to do whatever they had to do to make this season a successful one for their last hurrah,” she said.
That feeling was re-enforced in a 62-53 loss at
“I knew if we played a certain way and if everybody accepted their roles, we would achieve more than people expected, that we would be able to achieve some things they didn’t achieve the year before,” Wagner said.
