Date posted: 4-30-01
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By Juan Marquez
DeKalb News Service
DEKALB - When a team hits rock bottom, it rebuilds. Often, that starts with a new coach.
In her almost seven years as NIU athletics director, Cary Groth has had to seek new coaches several times. In the last two years, baseball and men's basketball have been at the point of rebuilding.
Groth acknowledged that rebuilding is a long process. But she doesn't think it's a coach's toughest challenge.
"With rebuilding, you have the opportunity to only go up," she said. "I think the pressure on a coach is much more if they're coming into a successful program, because they've got to maintain that success, and if they don't, it's clear in a year or two that they're not the guy or gal. If a coach rebuilds, people are supporting them and expect them to take a little time."
In 1999, NIU baseball went 4-51. Afterward, coach Frank Del Medico resigned. Groth thought the team wasn't motivated and chose Northern Iowa coach Dave Schrage to help fill that void.
Among the things Groth liked about Schrage was his record at his previous job. With only one scholarship in the program and playing in a tough Missouri Valley Conference, his teams won 210 games in his nine seasons. He also was a two-time coach of the year. With that, Groth thinks Schrage could do wonders with the nine scholarships in NIU's program.
Last year, in Schrage's first season, the team improved to 24-33. The improvement continues, as the team is currently 22-23 [as of April 30] and on pace to win more games than last year.
Schrage addressed the motivation problem by establishing a winning attitude with the players.
"We've established getting the kids to believe they can win," he said. "We go into games believing we can win. That's very important."
The issues with the NIU men's basketball team aren't much different than those of baseball's recent past. This past season, head coach Brian Hammel resigned after the team started the season 1-6, leaving assistant Andy Greer to coach the remaining games. Greer's presence as interim coach resulted in a final record of 5-23.
In March, Groth hired Illinois assistant coach Rob Judson to turn the program around. Groth spoke highly of Judson's knowledge and connections to Illinois high school basketball. Since NIU's emphasis in recruiting is in the state, she thinks this gives the school an advantage.
Judson likes the challenge of rebuilding the program.
"It's been one of the reasons why I moved into coaching," he said. After graduating college, it has been to identify goals and achieve goals. I've been involved in several rebuilding situations at Bradley, at Illinois and then as a high school coach. What's exciting about this opportunity is that we can make Northern what we want it to be. We have a new convocation center coming that gives us a fresh start and can give us a future as bright as we can make it."
Judson also is encouraged by Schrage's early success.
"I think his program is a good model for ours and others at Northern," he said. "To be able to do the things he's been able to do in the time that he has been here is impressive."
Does Groth think Judson can make the immediate impact that Schrage has made?
"I sure do," she said. "In basketball, you only need one or two good players to turn around a program. We have three good recruits coming in. We have one open scholarship. And he's got the contacts to bring in an additional impact player."
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Source list:
· Cary Groth Office #753-7370
· Dave Schrage Office #753-2225
· Rob Judson Office #753-1633
· www.niu.edu/athletics