(ST. BONAVENTURE, NY): Yes, St. Bonaventure University does in fact have a Division 1 NCAA women’s basketball team. Did you know that? Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t but regardless the Bonnies have a team, and they’re pretty darn good.
Hard working, driven, and motivated young women headline the women’s basketball roster at St. Bonaventure. But they also have a coach like all collegiate and professional sports teams have. Head coach Jim Crowley’s coaching mind, motivational speaking skills, recruiting, and his record have him nationally known.
Crowley, a graduate of Keuka College, played basketball at the small school along the lake in Rochester. He was captain of his team every year but his freshman season. Crowley graduated from Keuka in 1993 with a degree in English and the second he crossed the stage with his diploma he worked day in and day out to get to where he is today.
“My players think it’s funny that I was an English major because my favorite language is swearing,” said Crowley.
The guys got a good sense of humor too.
After graduation, Crowley was the head coach for Keuka’s women’s basketball, cross-country and softball teams, and was an assistant for the men’s basketball team. That wasn’t all he did. He served as the athletic department’s sports information director, and even did what you would call “bitch work” as he would sweep the floor, cut oranges for the players at halftime, run the music during the games, and so on. He was 23 years old at the time.
“I was making $8,000 a year,” said Crowley. “Life was as good as it could be. I was living the dream.”
Crowley may have been living the dream then, but when opportunity came knocking a few years later, he took a top assistant coaching job at St. Bonaventure University. Soon enough he would become the programs new head coach as Marti Whitmore took a year off before taking an assistant coaching job at Western Kentucky. The Bonnies wanted Crowley at the helm.
Things did not start out pretty for Crowley as the Bonnies head coach. From 2000-2006 he did not post a winning overall record going 53-114 (.317) over that span. Regardless of the record, St. Bonaventure kept Crowley as the head coach as they felt that he “maximized players potential.”
Good thing they kept Crowley because the dark days of Bonnies women’s basketball are now a part of the past. Since the 2006-2007 season, Crowley has posted a winning record in five of the last six seasons going 142-85 (.625) over that period. He has coached two former Bonnies, Alaina Walker and Jessica Jenkins, to the professional level as well.
The guy just has a knack for producing talent and success.
“I use the Vince Lombardi method,” said Crowley when asked on his coaching style. “We can do anything we want and set our minds to.”
During his tenure as the head coach of the Bonnies, Crowley is a two-time Atlantic 10 coach of the year (2009 & 2012,) and two-time BCANY Women’s Division 1 coach of the year (2009 & 2012.)
In 2012, Crowley led the Bonnies to a 31-4 (14-0) record and took his team all the way to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16. For that, he was named by ESPN.com as National Coach of the Year.
That’s a decent trophy shelf for a coach, isn’t it?
Crowley is really living the dream now compared to the “dream” he was living at 23. Isn’t he?
For a coach with all the accolades, comes a lot of pressure. After the 31-4 season, Jessica Jenkins and Megan Van Tatenhove, two of Crowley’s captains and star players, graduated leaving him a team of young women looking to win. The winning didn’t come after the 2012-2013 remarkable campaign as the Bonnies went 10-19, missing the Atlantic 10 tournament.
“We have to play for one another.” That is one of the many things that Crowley preaches to his squad. “It is about us and only us. We have a standard. Are we playing to our capabilities?”
For one of the smallest market teams in the Atlantic 10, Crowley has done pretty well. St. Bonaventure is last in the Atlantic 10 when it comes to money for women’s basketball. But how does one recruit with little to no money for scholarships?
“We put it right out there. We tell the soon to be student athletes the second they step on the St. Bonaventure campus how it is,” said Crowley. “Yeah, its cold here, it snows a lot here we are in a town where really nothing goes on. We will coach you to the best of our abilities and also you can get a really good education her too, but if you’re looking for a bigger program or a bigger city, good luck to you. This is what we do here.”
Crowley’s method of recruiting has worked in the years past especially last year when he landed two of his top scorers this season in Katie Healy and Gabby Richmond. Healy averages 15.4 points per game and Richmond is just behind her at 10.3 points per game. This years Bonnies, led by sophomore stars Healy and Richmond are 16-6 (5-2.) Quite a turn around from last year’s 10-19 team.
Guess you could say that Crowley’s talk works pretty well in getting star athletes to come to a not so star studded town.
Well, there you have it. St. Bonaventure does indeed have a women’s basketball team and it is “on the map” as most would say thanks in large part to the mind and talent at the head coaching position. Jim Crowley may not be a Coach K or a Bobby Knight but his method works and he has the Bonnies on track for years of success.
Michael Loffredo 