It’s hard to please sports fans.
This is an inevitable truth that any organization or administration is constantly faced with. NC State fans are no exception to this rule, and there has been a certain level of disdain amongst the fanbase towards the head coaches of the two big-revenue sports in the past few years.
Despite any ridicule towards men’s basketball or football, Wolfpack fans should take pride in what Director of Athletics Debbie Yow and her team have been able to accomplish across the board since she was hired in June 2010. During her tenure, Yow has made at least one new hire for 15 of the 19 head coaching positions at the university, with the overwhelming majority of these hires being phenomenal and shifting the direction of the program.
Only baseball’s Elliott Avent, rifle’s Keith Miller, women’s golf’s Page Marsh and cross country and track and field coach Rollie Geiger were at State before Yow, who has fronted a mass overhaul across NC State athletics. Perhaps her greatest hire was former Pack student-athlete Braden Holloway, who was selected to lead the swimming and diving program in 2011.
Holloway has since led the men’s team to three-straight ACC titles and two top-five finishes at the NCAA Championships. The women’s team won its first ACC title since 1980 last year, and has two top-10 finishes at NCAAs.
Holloway has been named the ACC men’s coach of the year four times, and the women’s coach of the year once. Additionally, last season both the men’s and women’s teams had their highest ever national finish, with the men placing fourth for the second-straight year and the women coming in seventh.
Prior to Yow bringing Holloway back to Raleigh, the last ACC championship was in 1992 for the men and 1980 for the women. Now, the Wolfpack swimming and diving team is one of the most formidable programs in the nation, and seems to still be on the rise.
Another program that has completely turned around under Yow is women’s basketball, a sport that is more than familiar to Yow. While Wolfpack women’s basketball flourished under Debbie Yow’s sister Kay Yow from 1975-2009, the program took a major backslide under Kellie Harper.
In her four years at the helm, Harper led the Pack to the NCAA Tournament only once, and compiled an abysmal 23-39 record in the ACC. Harper and the Pack parted ways following the 2012-13 season. Debbie Yow turned to a familiar face to take over the women’s basketball program in Wes Moore, who had been an assistant under Kay Yow at State from 1993-1995.
Moore has taken the Pack to the NCAA Tournament in two of his four years in charge, including a trip to the second round with last year’s squad. The team has a 40-24 ACC record during Moore’s tenure, including a team last year that won 12 conference games that featured back-to-back wins over No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 6 Florida State.
The NC State women’s basketball team is on the rise thanks to Wes Moore, and is just another example of Debbie Yow’s hiring prowess. While Holloway and Moore may be the most notable of Yow’s hires, head coaches across other sports have also found significant success.
Women’s soccer’s Tim Santoro led the Pack to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996 last season, and his squad has spent nearly the entirety of 2017 ranked in the top-25 and looks poised to make another deep tournament run this year.
Linda Hampton-Keith, the head volleyball coach, led her team to an impressive 20-12 (13-7 ACC) season in her first year in charge last year. Volleyball hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2012, and its 13 conference wins in 2016 were the most in program history.
Yow has recently gone on a hiring spree, with five new head coaches being hired in the last year. The reception for new men’s basketball coach Kevin Keatts has been overwhelmingly positive, and he has made a splash in recruiting already. New men’s soccer coach George Kiefer picked up a signature win over No. 3 Clemson in his first ACC game, and seems to already have that program on the rise.
Men’s golf, men’s tennis and gymnastics all also have new head coaches, and if Yow’s track record is any indication, they’ll find success. NC State Athletics is in a place better than it has maybe ever been before, and fans should give credit where credit is due, to Yow and her staff for the hires they have been able to make.
