Goestenkors' hectic summer highlighted by national coaching job

Rarely is a newlywed so busy that she must forego her honeymoon. But rarely do summers offer as much opportunity as this one has for Gail Goestenkors.

What for most coaches is the time of year to take a little time off and prepare for the upcoming season has taken on somewhat of a circus-like atmosphere for women's basketball coach Gail Goestenkors.

"This has been an unbelievable summer as far as things going on and being busy," Goestenkors said. "It's very busy but exciting. It's really going to keep me on the go."

Goestenkors was married in June, ran her basketball camp in early July and then spent the remainder of the month recruiting. In between, she sold her old house and moved into a new one.

On Aug. 1, three days after wrapping up recruiting, she will head to Colorado Springs, Colo., to run tryouts for her USA Women's Jones Cup team. The decision to coach did not come easily.

When the USA Women's Basketball Selection Committee chose her to be one of two assistants for the Jones Cup team, Goestenkors was forced into a decision: Taiwan for the Jones Cup or Bermuda for a honeymoon with her husband.

"When they asked me to be an assistant, I had to decide if I wanted to coach this team or go on my honeymoon to Bermuda, which was already planned," she said. "I decided to take [the coaching position] because it was such a great opportunity. I figured we could take our honeymoon anytime, but these opportunities don't come around very often."

Soon after her selection as one of two assistants, Goestenkors was elevated to head coach after June Daugherty, head coach at the University of Washington, withdrew from the head position for personal reasons.

The coaching position raises the question of Goestenkors' future ambition on the national level. Leading a national team after only five years of head coaching experience is almost unprecedented. But in Goestenkors mind, the most obvious coaching aspiration will have to wait.

"Coaching the Olympic Team has never really been a goal of mine," she said. "My goal is always, and still is, to win a national championship because when you do that, those are your players that you've brought along for four years, watched them grow and worked with them."

Indeed, once Goestenkors returns from Taiwan, she faces one of her greatest coaching challenges with next year's Duke squad. Orr, Hall and Windsor Coggeshall, all leaders both on and off the court, graduated, leaving a dearth of leadership with only one senior, Shaeeta Brown, returning to a team that has fallen in the second round of the NCAAs each of the past three seasons.

"I think this is going to be perhaps my most challenging year, but hopefully my most rewarding year as a coach," Goestenkors said. "It's going to be a whole new ballgame. I think it's going to be a completely different personality.

"We could go further than we've ever gone before. It's going to be a challenge for me as a coach because I have to put together the pieces the right way. When you've got transfers coming in who are already very, very good-it's not like they're freshmen-it's going to be up to me to help everyone to mesh."

In addition, the makeup of the players changes. No longer will the Blue Devils live and die by their outside shooting. Incoming talent like Van Gorp, a transfer from Purdue, creates more of an inside presence for Duke.

In the past three years, the Blue Devils have exited early in March, largely because they were beaten under the basket by bigger and stronger teams.

"Last year we were pushed around inside by stronger teams," Van Gorp said. "Now, we're hoping our toughness on the inside will allow us to go further. There's no reason we can't because we have the talent. There just has to be a commitment from everyone."

The commitment begins with the coach. And judging by her summer schedule, there are few as dedicated.

Bermuda will simply have to wait.