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On Tuesday, West Virginia welcomed its new women’s basketball head coach inside the WVU Coliseum. Head coach Dawn Plitzuweit took the stage and addressed Mountaineer Nation for the first time and took questions from the media.
Early on, Plitzuweit set out a guideline of what the goal is at West Virginia.
“Our staff’s mission here at West Virginia is devoted to development,” Plitzuweit said. “That mission starts in the phase of connecting, building relationships, and fostering strong bonds with our players.”
Plitzuweit brings a strong staff and a strong resume with her, as she built up many accolades over the years.
In 2006, Plitzuweit won a Division II National Championship with Grand Valley State and then found much success with the University of South Dakota.
Plitzuweit led South Dakota to three regular season conference titles, as well as three conference tournament championships. This past season, Plitzuweit and her staff led South Dakota to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.
Coach Plitzuweit alluded to some of the things that gave them success at South Dakota, and what should be in store for WVU.
“We have a couple of phrases that are really important in our program; one is toughness,” Plitzuweit said. “Toughness can be defined as a team that really gets after it defensively. We were fortunate at the University of South Dakota, that we had a program and a team that finished second in the country in points per game allowed, so defensively, there’s a toughness to that.”
Plitzuweit also talked about what her staff can do to help develop the athletes on the team.
“I think it’s a strength of our staff to develop players and to continue to help them grow their games and stretch their games, whether that’s stretch it on the perimeter or handle it better, or push it up the court,” Plitzuweit said.
Coach Plitzuweit also added that her group will find enjoyment in what they are doing.
“Our coaches work tirelessly, but I’m going to say, I don’t know if there was a coaching staff in America that had more fun than we did while we were doing it,” Plitzuweit said. “So, yes, we’re going to play music in practice, and the coaches may be the ones dancing every once in a while.”
This is the first time WVU is ushering in a new era of women’s basketball since Mike Carey was hired in 2001. Carey retired after 21 seasons with the Mountaineers, so this is a somewhat new change of pace for WVU women’s basketball.
Coach Plitzuweit has a resume that speaks for itself and a game plan to success, so it will be fun to see this new era get ushered into Morgantown.
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