West Virginia Homecoming
May 19, 2006 05:32 PM | General
May 19, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Lynn Bria’s cell phone hasn’t stopped ringing since she decided to join the West Virginia University women’s basketball staff earlier this month. The unpacked boxes are stacked high in her brand new town house and her desk at work is cluttered with papers she’s still trying to figure out what to do with.
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| Lynn Bria is settling into her hew role as an assistant coach at West Virginia University.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
She’s also trying to find her way around in a town that she once traveled to frequently to watch football and basketball games as a little girl but that has since grown foreign to her as an adult.
“I can hit three grocery stores on the way home,” she said. “When I used to come to Morgantown you didn’t have any of this!”
But she couldn’t be happier – even sitting in Morgantown’s notorious traffic jams. After spending the last seven years as the head women’s coach at Ohio University before resigning earlier this spring, Mike Carey’s offer giving her the opportunity to return to West Virginia was one she just couldn’t pass up.
“Everyone was ecstatic,” says Bria. “My old high school coached called me. He’s a season ticket holder and he comes up here to every football game. So many people have called me and it’s a big deal to them because they’re all Mountaineers.”
It’s been more than 15 years since Bria played at the University of Charleston where she was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame in 2003, but she has always managed to keep her eye on the Mountaineers while living in such places in Denton, Texas, Orlando, Fla., and Athens, Ohio.
“You grew up here and you cheer for the Mountaineers,” she said. “My parents are retired and living in Florida but they still cheer for the Mountaineers. That does not change. The only time I wanted to beat them was when I played them and I didn’t do a very good job of that.”
Bria got her first head coaching break at Texas Women’s University where she coached from 1993-96. Then it was off to Orlando, Fla., where she led Central Florida to a 50-36 record and an Atlantic Sun tournament title in 1999 and a trip to the NCAA tournament.
That opened up an opportunity to coach Ohio University in the Mid-American Conference. She posted the second-most victories in program history during her seven years there, but her team slipped to 9-20 this past season and she resigned March 14.
Bria’s first inclination was to drop down a level and look for other head coaching opportunities. But when she found out that Carey needed an assistant coach after Sharrona Reeves took the head job at C.W. Post, the stars began lining up.
“This is a different challenge for me but a good one,” she said. “I don’t know if I could have just gone anywhere and been an assistant. There were probably three or four places that I could have done it and this opened up and it worked out.
“I knew I would have to work for the right person and the location was important to me,” she said, her Charleston accent still evident. “I knew I would have to agree with their style with regards to the game. Mike is a demanding coach but he cares about his players and that is important to me as well. The uniqueness of this is that it is home.”
Bria says she got to know Carey on recruiting trips evaluating prospects at high school games and at summer AAU tournaments.
“We would grab some lunch or sit around and talk while out evaluating prospects,” she said. “I would see him at the West Virginia state tournament and through that we got to know each other. When you know people are from West Virginia you just kind of connect with them and you just start talking to them.”
The relationship is a two-way street: Bria has a chance to rejuvenate her career at a major university playing in one of the top basketball conferences in the country and West Virginia gets a former head coach that has developed recruiting contacts throughout the region. She has a good knowledge of the state and particularly the city of Charleston, which has seen a recent run of terrific players that includes Tennessee’s Alexis Hornbuckle and Connecticut’s Renee Montgomery.
“I know Coach Carey wanted both players but they chose not to come here,” Bria said. “Sometimes the player is not choosing us. We’re doing everything we can to recruit them.
“The great players in West Virginia come in spurts,” she said. “There will be some years where there won’t be anybody that can play at this level and then you will go where there will be kids in a row. We’ll get on these kids earlier and I think that will help a lot.”
Bria was able to develop an early relationship with South Charleston guard Brittany Holestine, signing the George Washington star while still at Ohio. Holestine got her release from the Bobcats when Bria departed and she has since signed with WVU.
“I saw her play in a tournament and when you get on them early it makes a big difference,” Bria said. “I still had to fight for her but it sure does help.”
Bria points to her good recruiting contacts in the Midwest and says she will try and expand West Virginia’s efforts in those states.
“We kind of all have our areas but we really share as well,” she said. “It only makes sense that I take West Virginia and Ohio. But I also have got some good Indiana ties and some other ties here and there.”
Despite that, Bria doesn’t anticipate any significant changes in West Virginia’s recruiting approach.
“I have basically taken what they have started,” she said. “They have developed a good list and we’ve kept that. Obviously any players they’ve seen that they think are good enough we need to keep. I’ve just tried to add to that, particularly the younger players: not necessarily ‘07 but the years after that.”
Bria says a big recruiting year for West Virginia is the ‘08 class when they will have five spots to fill. “That class is going to be real big and real important to us,” she said. “We’ve really got to know our ‘08s.”
Bria likens the style of players West Virginia is presently recruiting to the type of players she went after when she was at Central Florida.
“These were the kind of players we signed and got down there and I really enjoy this style of play,” she said. “At Ohio we took a different kind of player: they weren’t as fast sometimes but they did well in that league because they were big and strong. It is just different and you’ve got to adjust to what the head coach wants.”
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| Lynn Bria coached seven season at Ohio University, the second-longest coaching tenure in Bobcats history.
The Post Online photo |
Bria admits that being able to go into gyms and into a prospect’s home selling the opportunity to play in the Big East Conference was very appealing to her.
“It’s a great league,” she said. “The commitment they’ve made here and the stuff Coach Carey has done in regards to women’s basketball and getting some things upgraded … I think people are taking notice and I hope I can add to that.”
In addition to coordinating West Virginia’s recruiting, Bria will also be able to offer another set of eyes in practice and during games.
“Most importantly I will know how the head coach feels,” she said. “That’s the one thing that until you’ve been a head coach and until you’ve done that you really don’t know how the head coach feels. I think he really liked the fact that I can relate to that.”
Bria says she is still learning the players and will get a better handle on them when individual workouts start this summer.
“I know some of them: I know Yinka (Sanni) because we recruited her at Ohio. I know Meg (Bulger) of course, and Chakhia (Cole).
“I might be able to offer a different perspective having seen them for the first time,” she said. “Sometimes that’s really good and players like that because they kind of have a clean slate with someone on the staff.”
Bria has the entire month of June to get her bearings straight before hitting the road for the July evaluation period.
“Chester (Nichols) was telling me when he came in he had to go right out on the road. He bought his house and then he was right out recruiting,” Bria said. “It’s been good for me that I’ve been able to get organized somewhat before I have to get out in July and get a grip on where we need to go and who goes where.”
In the meantime, she can finish unpacking her boxes and learn her way around Morgantown.
“In Athens, Ohio, I used to have to drive miles to get to whatever,” she laughed. “Everything has been so convenient here because everything has been so built up. It’s been great.
“(As a head coach) I had 12 different hats and now I’ve got this one,” Bria said. “Once I get it all organized it will be easy. It will flow and all Mike will have to do is make all of the hard decisions.”
Of course, the easiest decision he made was hiring Lynn Bria.
