Morgantown, West Virginia — She hosted the NCAA Division II National Women’s Basketball Championship at Grand Valley State University in 2006. But in West Virginia, Dawn Pritzwight is a “new coach.”
A year ago, she coached South Dakota in Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. But she’s still a new coach in West Virginia.
She is the Deputy Head Coach of Michigan and the Assistant Coach of Wisconsin. In West Virginia, she’s Brock’s new kid.
She owns 346 career wins in 15 seasons as a head coach. In West Virginia, her next victory will be her first.
In many respects, Pritzwight, who replaced veteran Mike Carey as a women’s basketball coach for the Mountaineers on March 31, this year after he announced his retirement, is starting over. She is the head coach of the Division I Power 5 conference.
She has a new home, a new office, many new players … but she stuck to some of herself in both the roster and her coaching staff.
And through all its years, she has created a coaching philosophy that goes beyond just the courts and locker rooms, a holistic approach to the game and the people who play it.
And she’s smart enough to know that basketball is basketball, players are players, and those who worked during that national championship season at Grand Valley State University work in West Virginia.
That 2006 season and everything she learned before it paid dividends and sent her in the direction of success.
“As we entered the season at Grand Valley State University, we felt we needed to meet the expectations placed in front of the team. Since then, those expectations have been the same every year,” she said earlier this week. The basketball camp I said before heading.
“These expectations are No. 1.” Do your best. “From a team perspective, they were under a lot of pressure at the time, but we tell them everything you do. I wanted you to concentrate on doing your best on a daily basis.
“The second expectation was’thank you. Thank you for what you have. Thank you for the opportunity given to you,” she continued.
“And the last expectation, the third, was to enjoy a precious gift. Focus on what you can do here now.”
That’s how it all came together.
“I really believe that year helped me as a coach more than any other year,” she said. “We are better at defining who we want to be in terms of what our goals are and what our expectations are each year. It hasn’t changed. Hmm.”
She creates such an atmosphere with her first WVU team and the team that comes after this first year.
“It’s a great situation here, sharing those expectations with these young women and they understand what it really looks like and what it means,” she says. I did.
It’s not what you use as a basketball player. You use it all in your life.
“As an example, I think our players are currently in individual camps and are absolutely surprised to be camp counselors. They give every energy to the young girl here trying to develop the game. They have not only encouraged them, but also enjoyed with them. “
The question is whether it will lead to game play.
“I really think so,” she said. “We believe that the way you do something is the way you do everything. If we apply ourselves and do our best, that’s the number one expectation. Then good things will follow you.
“You are laying the foundation to help you continue to grow. That does not mean that you are trying to avoid all adversity. You learn to embrace adversity and learn how to overcome it.”
The philosophy began with her upbringing.
“When I grew up, it was in a small farm area and stayed on a small farm,” she said. “It was the spirit we had to work until we got it done. Even with a little inconvenience, we had to find a way to get it done. It’s the process of learning to grind and chase it.”
She became a point guard, attended Michigan Technological University as a point guard, and while leading Husky, was awarded the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year in a row, honoring all four conferences and all three defense teams. Won. To the 99-22 record.
She was a floor coach and was about to be alone on the bench.
“When I first started as a coach, there was one assistant coach who worked with me, probably the head coach. Mike Williams is now the head coach at Grand Valley State University,” she said. Told.
“Currently, we have four coaches on staff, and players have the opportunity to learn from them and grow. We talk different things and perform different scenarios. We tell players, we Let us know that we will grow with them. We will find ways to continue to improve so that we can serve you at a higher level.
“We’re really lucky that really good people are doing this,” she said, referring to the staff she gathered, most of them with her in South Dakota. She said, “Yes, there is a process. Yes, we want to lay the foundation for how we want to continue to build and grow.
“Our staff have been together for a while. We know how to work together. We know how to build and connect.”
In other words, her name may be stamped on the product packaging, but there’s much more to assemble a smacker jelly.
“I think the players were incredibly receptive. They are very hungry and want to do the same good.”
She’s just thinking about how to get closer to it.
“From a basketball perspective, we are based on fundamentals. We are working on” how to build a base defense. ” “How do you build a basic attack?” Building blocks are based on doing the little things really well, “she said.
Creating a roster wasn’t a matter of having a system and finding a suitable player, and conversely, it wasn’t a matter of adapting the system to a player.
“It’s a combination of both. We ran a motion offense. We’ve enjoyed it. But with the people we have, we fix some of the actions in it. We have a system that teaches players how to fit it, but at the same time it recognizes some of the strengths of the team and the strengths of the individual and modifies their attacks and defenses accordingly.
So what does she envision from WVU’s first team?
“We have a team that wants to compete first and foremost. That’s really important. Then I think they’re a vibrant team and I’m really excited to grow as a team,” she said. Told. “We are very fast, but we also have a very good blend of experienced players who have played on different systems. Blending them together will be a lot of fun. ..
“The bottom line is that they want to be very successful and are ready to compete to get to where we play the best basketball.”
