Until earlier this week, there have been two women’s basketball head coaches at Rutgers University. Following Theresa Grentz and C. Vivian Stringer, Coquese Washington was hired and introduced in a press conference on Tuesday as the third.
A native of Flint, MI, Washington spent the last two years as associate head coach at Notre Dame. Before that, she was the associate head coach at Oklahoma for a season and the head coach at Penn State from 2007-2019. Washington was also the associate head coach at Notre Dame before her most recent stint as well from 2005-07 after being an assistant from 1999-2005.
“I’m not usually an overly-emotional person, but my heart is in my throat right now at the reception from everybody here at Rutgers,” Washington said. “First of all, thank you to Pat Hobbs, (Rutgers) President (Jonathan) Holloway, the Board of Governors, the Board of Trustees, the Cagers Club, and the entire Rutgers Athletics family. The last 24 hours have been an incredible outpouring of connection. Everyone has opened their arms and welcomed myself and my family in. I could not be more thrilled to join this place. The mission of Rutgers athletics and the university completely aligns with who I am as a person, who I am as a coach, and who Iplan to be for this team. That’s a person who is going to pour into our student-athletics in every way imaginable so that whatever dreams they have we can help them achieve that. That includes winning.
“Being at Rutgers is an unbelievable privilege. Following in the steps of Theresa Grentz and coach Stringer, both whom I know, their legacy and imprint they’ve had on basketball and history of the game, it’s inspiring. They’ve impacted so many lives outside of their teams. I’m honored to stand on their shoulders and build on their legacy that they created. I hope to be around here as long as they were because apparently these press conferences don’t happen too often. I’m excited to be here and I'm looking forward to enjoying success on and off the court and representing this university and the program.”
When Stringer announced her retirement in late April, Washington didn’t think she was going to be the next head coach for the Scarlet Knights. Her first thoughts were about everything Stringer stood for. Stringer, who notched a career record 1,055-426, spent 50 years on the sidelines for Cheyney State, Iowa, and Rutgers, is both enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
“When coach Stringer announced her retirement, like most coaches across the country, you were just like wow a legend has left the building. My heart went out with so much appreciation to her for what she meant to me personally. Now coaching in the Big Ten, coach Stringer and I had the pleasure of coaching against one another a couple of times and she’s always giving nuggets. She’s always coming up after the game, giving me a hug and advice, but not even so much advice, but also encouragement. I didn’t really think about who was going to follow up coach Stringer or anything like that, it was just kind of one of those organic things that just kind of happens. So when I got the call, I said oh wow, this is a place I would actually think about and consider having conversations and actually being there.”
Stringer was the first coach to lead three different programs into the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. She tallied 28 NCAA Tournament appearances, went to nine Regional Finals, had 17 All-Big Ten selections, 41 All-Big East selections, and is fifth all-time in wins (both men’s and women’s). The list goes on.
Washington herself went 98-107 overall at Penn State, went to the NCAA Tournament four times, and the NIT three times. She is a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year who went to the Sweet 16 two times with the Nittany Lions. Washington was on the staff at Notre Dame which won both the 2001 Big East Tournament and the National Championship.
Washington is an alum of Notre Dame who then went on to play six years in the WNBA, winning the title with the Houston Comets in 2000.
“You can’t replace a legend, it’s just not possible,” Washington said. “I’m not trying to replace anybody, I’ve been inspired by coach Stringer over my career. I’ve been infused by who she is and the legacy that she has left. I’m not trying to replace her, I’m just trying to build on what she taught and what she meant. The reality is we are two different people, we came from two different areas and I don’t think coach Stringer listens to Da Baby, you might hear it in my car, I don’t know. We are going to do things differently, but what is going to be consistent is the determination to be excellent, the determination to give to your players and the importance of building those relationships that Pat and President Holloway talked about last a lifetime. When you look at coach Stringer’s legacy, they usually look at the championships, but what’s really impressive is when you go to the Final Four and see how many of her former players whether they were at Cheyney, Iowa or Rutgers come together and celebrate coach Stringer, that’s what is impressive. I don’t plan on trying to replace her, but I want to be somebody that she can look at and say, ‘You've done a good job, kid’.”
After a slow start her first two years at Penn State, the Nittany Lions went 17-14 in her third year and made it to the NIT. They then posted four consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament before a fall off for two years. Penn State went back to the NIT in 2016-17 and in 2017-18 before going 12-19 overall in 2018-19, Washington’s last season there.
“I’ll tell you the lessons that I have learned have a lot to do with dealing with things that happen outside your program that can be detrimental, things that happen that you don’t necessarily know are going to be as impactful as they are,” Washington said. “At the same time that we were going through all that, I think one thing that we learned is how important stability and leadership is. How important it is to have that kind of steadiness in an administration. Those things are important and when you are going through a crisis of that sort with a change in leadership, change in energy at the top is to be expected. I thought that we did a good job as a staff maintaining through instability, easiness and uncertainty. I think those are the things that you learn, the ability to be adaptable, the ability to be fluent and to maintain and manage through that kind of level of adversity.”
The roster for 2022-23 is a work in progress.
“I can probably answer that a little bit better maybe the 48 hours after I’ve been here, but maybe not the first 24,” Washington said on the assessment of the current roster. “I’ve had one conversation with our team and I’m excited about their energy and passion for Rutgers, they love this place, love the university and love the program. So I’m excited about that. Like most programs across the country when you look at the transfer portal, rosters are in a flux right now. So it’s a little premature to speak on the roster at this point, it’s not complete and it’s not solid. I’m not really ready to comment on that and I think it’s going to be a few more weeks before rosters anywhere are really complete.”
In addition to forming a roster for the upcoming season and beyond, there’s a lot to be done for Washington. It starts with building relationships with the current players, getting a staff together, and then recruiting.
“The first thing is to get our staff in place and get the people in place that are ready to serve our student athletes, that’s the first thing,” Washington said. “If that’s 1A, then 1B would be like what I just talked about in trying to finalize the roster and make sure that’s complete moving into the start of the fall.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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