|
|
Daily Chronicle sports editor Jon Styf and sports reporter John Sahly spend their days covering the area’s sports scene, Every week, they give their viewpoint on those local sports.
Today, in the eighth installment of their “Take 2” column, they discuss Northern Illinois’ women’s basketball team:
Styf: I, for one, am surprised. When Carol Owens left $300,000 on the table and walked away from the final two years of her contract as NIU women’s basketball coach, I was taken off guard. I know not everything’s about money, but that seems like a lot to leave for presumably no future job. We don’t know what privately might be going on in her life, but on the surface, it doesn’t make a ton of sense.
Sahly: Yeah that’s just about the last story I expected to write on Thursday and if you told me it would have been about an NIU basketball coach resigning, I definitely wouldn’t have thought Carol. From all aspects, though, this looks like a very personal decision for her and something she’s been thinking about doing, at least in a private way. I don’t know if she’s making the right decision, but I certainly respect her for thinking this is the correct thing to do for her life right now.
Styf: Agreed. Each person has free will to choose what to do with their life. As long as she honestly chose on her own to leave the position, then there is really no legitimate judgment that can be placed on that decision except to tell her good luck in the future. The question now becomes where does NIU go from here?
Sahly: Great question. In talking with NIU AD Jeff Compher on Thursday, he said there will be a national search and he indicated that head coaching experience would be a plus for any potential hire. The current assistants will get a look, but I don’t think it will be that serious of one. The players certainly want at least one assistant to stay to have a familiar face around, but that will be up to the next coach. I think the profile NIU is looking for is a low-major coach looking to move up to a better salary, better facilities and a better homebase for recruiting.
Styf: Now is when I have to bring up a funny idea photographer Beck Diefenbach had after hearing Owens had resigned. Hinckley-Big Rock senior Jenna Thorp has signed with the Huskies and her team’s success, including two straight state titles, has been well documented in our paper. His idea was for NIU to hire H-BR coach Greg Burks, who has won two state titles in two years as a head coach, and we could get a Mighty Ducks storyline going at NIU. He went on to say that, if Tess Godhardt and Kaitlin Phillips could somehow make their way to NIU before graduating, they could just put the whole team over there and keep it going. It’s a joke, but that kind of camaraderie could do a lot over there. Am I wrong?
Sahly: Ducks fly together! D2 was the best of the trilogy, by the way. Kenny Wu, the Bash Brothers, Wolf “The Dentist” Stansson, all fantastic characters. I’m all for Burks coaching NIU and an H-BR reunion in DeKalb. Would the Huskies come out in Royals jerseys for the second half of MAC Championship then? They’d almost have to.
Styf: In all seriousness, this has got to be a big shock to Thorp, but you still would have to think she’ll be a Huskie when the situation gets cleared up. The school and team made a lot of sense to her before, it likely will again. But, like happened with Dave Dudzinski, she’ll reserve judgment until she sees what happens.
Sahly: I think ultimately she’ll stick with NIU as well, but it will be very interesting to see who fills Owens’ shoes.
