Less than six months after her Blue Devils fell justshort of winning a national championship, women's basketball head coach Gail Goestenkors will have the chance to help guide a team to a World Championship Sept. 14 to 25 in China.
Goestenkors will join the USA Basketball World Championship Team for a month-long stint as an assistant coach Monday. She will serve under head coach Van Chancellor of the WNBA's Houston Comets and alongside Anne Donovan of the Charlotte Sting and Syracuse University's Marianna Freeman.
"I feel very privileged that they'd ask me to be the assistant of the world championship team," Goestenkors said. "This is basically our Olympic team. It's going to be a great opportunity for me to work with players at the elite level--all from the WNBA--and with great coaches as well. So I feel like it's going to be a great experience for me."
The team features WNBA stars Lisa Leslie of the Los Angeles Sparks, Sheryl Swoopes from the Houston Comets and the Seattle Storm's Sue Bird, among others. Goestenkors' primary responsibility for the team will be scouting the team's opponents.
"Although [scouting] is tedious, it's something I really enjoy," Duke's 11th year coach said. "I'll be involved very much with the scouting. I think [I will also be involved with] a lot of the individual drills. Our practices begin on the 27th [of August] and our head coach won't be with us if things work out well for him in the playoffs. So it will be an opportunity to get to know the players and run them through some drills. We will start the foundations of what we're going to build upon."
Although leaving her team for a month at the beginning of the school year might seem a risky or unwise move, both Goestenkors and her players feel her departure will not hurt the team and might even prove beneficial.
"[Her departure] is going to force leaders to step up," preseason All-American Alana Beard said. "It's going to make our team chemistry so much better; it's already good, and with the five incoming freshmen we really need that. We really need them to feel they're accepted."
Added junior point guard Vicki Krapohl: "Instead of Coach G telling the freshmen how we play and what goes on, it's going to have to be us. And so by telling them, it's going to force us to take responsibility for the things she would normally be taking."
The only possible negative consequence of Goestenkors' trip is its impact on recruiting. September is one of the most important months of the year for recruiting because coaches can visit recruits in their homes. But Goestenkors plans to make four home visits in the three days after she returns from China.
Goestenkors is confident the trip will ultimately be a good deal for Duke.
"I just want to learn and grow as a coach and as a person," she said. "My goal is to take all the knowledge I can gain while working with these players and coaches and bring it back to help [the Duke team]. So in the long run I think it's going to be very beneficial for the team, the program and myself."
Notes: Goestenkors will visit three high school seniors and a junior at the end of the month. Two of the three seniors are wings and the other a post player. Two scholarships will be available to the seniors.
Incoming freshmen Caitlin Howe and Jessica Foley, who had knee and ankle surgeries respectively in the off-season, are both recovered and cleared to play.
Beard kept a lighter schedule this summer, playing the least basketball for a summer in four years, but she spent time at home working on the consistency of her jump shot and working out--she can now bench nearly twice the weight she could as an incoming freshman.
Krapohl, on the other hand, worked as a counselor at seven basketball camps this summer. She spent June and July working at the Duke camp and practicing with freshmen Lindsey Harding, Mistie Bass and Brooke Smith who were taking summer classes.
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