NMSooner'80
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(Edmond Sun - weekend edition)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Sherri Coale earned her fame as a successful coach at the University of Oklahoma, but she made sure to share the love with her alma mater as she was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
Coale mentioned five current or former Oklahoma Christian players or coaches during her 12-minute acceptance speech June 11 at the Tennessee Theatre, noting how each had helped her along the way as she developed into one of her sport’s top coaches.
“My journey has been one of serendipitous collisions with remarkable people, person after person who absolutely catapulted me to this place today,” Coale said, citing a list of influences from her days as a child in Healdton and a collegiate athlete at OC from 1983-87.
Coale praised both of her coaches at Oklahoma Christian — Max Dobson, who signed her in 1983, and Stephanie Findley, who took over as the Lady Eagles’ coach in 1985, as Coale entered her junior season. Findley, still OC’s coach today, attended the ceremony in Tennessee.
Although Coale never played for him, she also lauded Dan Hays, who stepped down earlier this year after 33 seasons as Oklahoma Christian University men’s coach.
“The serendipity continued in college, with my coaches Max Dobson and Stephanie Findley, who taught me about grace and compassion and respect,” Coale said, “and the best basketball coach I know, Dan Hays, who taught me how to teach and to share and to learn and to never stop learning. He’s forgotten more basketball than I’ll ever know.
“There’s a whole community of people of Oklahoma Christian College that gave me proverbial feedback to move through life and for that I am eternally grateful.”
Coale took time to mention all of her assistant coaches — from her days as Norman High School’s girls coach to the present day — and that included former OC men’s player Scott Raines and former OC women’s player and assistant coach Jan Ross. Coale had special praise for Ross and asked her to stand to be recognized.
“She was my college roommate, the person most responsible for most of my collegiate assists,” Coale said of Ross. “She was the maid of honor at my wedding and she has been my assistant coach for all 20 years at Oklahoma. … A girl could never have as good a teammate. I want Jan to know this award is every bit as much yours as it is mine.”
The story of Coale’s coaching journey is well-known in Oklahoma. By age 24, she was the head coach at Norman High, which competed in the state’s highest class. Seven years and two Class 6A titles later, she was a surprise choice as the new head coach of an OU program so far down that in 1990, the university briefly dropped it before reinstating it after an outcry.
Coale mentioned, by name, each of the players from the 1989-90 Sooners team, saying “without their moxie, without their spirit, without their absolute resolve to be relevant, I would not be here tonight. … Oklahoma women’s basketball is indebted to you.”
Oklahoma struggled in Coale’s first season, going 5-22 in 1996-97 and losing its last 16 games. The Sooners went 8-19 the next season. By season three, 1998-99, the Sooners posted a winning record of 15-14 and made the Women’s National Invitation Tournament field. One season later, the Oklahoma won the Big 12 Conference championship and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
They’ve been to the Big Dance every year since, a run that now stands at 17 years, the sixth-longest current streak in NCAA Division I. In 2002, Coale guided the Sooners to the national championship game, losing to Connecticut in San Antonio. They went back to the Final Four in 2009 and 2010.
In 20 years at Oklahoma, Coale has posted a 442-217 record and won 10 Big 12 titles — six in the regular season, four in the postseason tournament. The four-time Big 12 Coach of the Year has coached four First-Team All-Americans, six Big 12 Players of the Year and 14 WNBA draft selections.
Coale also has been active within USA Basketball, serving on the USA Basketball Committee for a time and also coaching. In 2013, she coached the U.S. team to a gold medal in the World University Games in Kazan, Russia.
Sherri was the fourth person with Oklahoma ties to be inducted, joining legendary high school coach Bertha Frank Teague of Byng, former Southwestern Oklahoma State star Kelli Litsch and the late Oklahoma State coach, Kurt Budke.
Coale had a connection with all three of those previous inductees. She once interviewed Teague for a collegiate paper, her college career overlapped by two seasons with that of Litsch (although OC and Southwestern didn’t play either of those seasons) and she coached against Budke for several years.
Before heading to Tennessee, Coale reflected on each of them.
“That’s good company,” Coale said. “I grew up admiring and adoring Mrs. Teague. I had the unique opportunity in college, I wrote one of my major papers about her life and I got to go to Ada and sit down across her kitchen table and speak with her at length. I have all the notes from that. Just such an amazing woman. And not just here, but she’s an icon across the country.
“And then Kelli … I watched her play, plenty, and was just blown away. She was so good. She’s a major Division I college basketball player playing at Southwestern. But at that time, NAIA could have competed with Division I. I had a great friendship with Kurt. I admire what he did, especially at the junior-college level, but what he had done in turning around the Oklahoma State program, too. We had some great rivalries."
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Sherri Coale earned her fame as a successful coach at the University of Oklahoma, but she made sure to share the love with her alma mater as she was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
Coale mentioned five current or former Oklahoma Christian players or coaches during her 12-minute acceptance speech June 11 at the Tennessee Theatre, noting how each had helped her along the way as she developed into one of her sport’s top coaches.
“My journey has been one of serendipitous collisions with remarkable people, person after person who absolutely catapulted me to this place today,” Coale said, citing a list of influences from her days as a child in Healdton and a collegiate athlete at OC from 1983-87.
Coale praised both of her coaches at Oklahoma Christian — Max Dobson, who signed her in 1983, and Stephanie Findley, who took over as the Lady Eagles’ coach in 1985, as Coale entered her junior season. Findley, still OC’s coach today, attended the ceremony in Tennessee.
Although Coale never played for him, she also lauded Dan Hays, who stepped down earlier this year after 33 seasons as Oklahoma Christian University men’s coach.
“The serendipity continued in college, with my coaches Max Dobson and Stephanie Findley, who taught me about grace and compassion and respect,” Coale said, “and the best basketball coach I know, Dan Hays, who taught me how to teach and to share and to learn and to never stop learning. He’s forgotten more basketball than I’ll ever know.
“There’s a whole community of people of Oklahoma Christian College that gave me proverbial feedback to move through life and for that I am eternally grateful.”
Coale took time to mention all of her assistant coaches — from her days as Norman High School’s girls coach to the present day — and that included former OC men’s player Scott Raines and former OC women’s player and assistant coach Jan Ross. Coale had special praise for Ross and asked her to stand to be recognized.
“She was my college roommate, the person most responsible for most of my collegiate assists,” Coale said of Ross. “She was the maid of honor at my wedding and she has been my assistant coach for all 20 years at Oklahoma. … A girl could never have as good a teammate. I want Jan to know this award is every bit as much yours as it is mine.”
The story of Coale’s coaching journey is well-known in Oklahoma. By age 24, she was the head coach at Norman High, which competed in the state’s highest class. Seven years and two Class 6A titles later, she was a surprise choice as the new head coach of an OU program so far down that in 1990, the university briefly dropped it before reinstating it after an outcry.
Coale mentioned, by name, each of the players from the 1989-90 Sooners team, saying “without their moxie, without their spirit, without their absolute resolve to be relevant, I would not be here tonight. … Oklahoma women’s basketball is indebted to you.”
Oklahoma struggled in Coale’s first season, going 5-22 in 1996-97 and losing its last 16 games. The Sooners went 8-19 the next season. By season three, 1998-99, the Sooners posted a winning record of 15-14 and made the Women’s National Invitation Tournament field. One season later, the Oklahoma won the Big 12 Conference championship and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
They’ve been to the Big Dance every year since, a run that now stands at 17 years, the sixth-longest current streak in NCAA Division I. In 2002, Coale guided the Sooners to the national championship game, losing to Connecticut in San Antonio. They went back to the Final Four in 2009 and 2010.
In 20 years at Oklahoma, Coale has posted a 442-217 record and won 10 Big 12 titles — six in the regular season, four in the postseason tournament. The four-time Big 12 Coach of the Year has coached four First-Team All-Americans, six Big 12 Players of the Year and 14 WNBA draft selections.
Coale also has been active within USA Basketball, serving on the USA Basketball Committee for a time and also coaching. In 2013, she coached the U.S. team to a gold medal in the World University Games in Kazan, Russia.
Sherri was the fourth person with Oklahoma ties to be inducted, joining legendary high school coach Bertha Frank Teague of Byng, former Southwestern Oklahoma State star Kelli Litsch and the late Oklahoma State coach, Kurt Budke.
Coale had a connection with all three of those previous inductees. She once interviewed Teague for a collegiate paper, her college career overlapped by two seasons with that of Litsch (although OC and Southwestern didn’t play either of those seasons) and she coached against Budke for several years.
Before heading to Tennessee, Coale reflected on each of them.
“That’s good company,” Coale said. “I grew up admiring and adoring Mrs. Teague. I had the unique opportunity in college, I wrote one of my major papers about her life and I got to go to Ada and sit down across her kitchen table and speak with her at length. I have all the notes from that. Just such an amazing woman. And not just here, but she’s an icon across the country.
“And then Kelli … I watched her play, plenty, and was just blown away. She was so good. She’s a major Division I college basketball player playing at Southwestern. But at that time, NAIA could have competed with Division I. I had a great friendship with Kurt. I admire what he did, especially at the junior-college level, but what he had done in turning around the Oklahoma State program, too. We had some great rivalries."