Now that Wes Moore has left for East Carolina, there are just two female coaches in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic department — Lisa Rhodes (volleyball) and Colette Murray (women’s golf) — compared to eight male coaches.
As athletic director Rick Hart begins his search for a new women’s basketball coach, he said he’ll consider every qualified female candidate. But he’s not going to limit his search to women.
“Absolutely not — I don’t even look at that,” Hart said. “We want to have a diverse staff, but my commitment and what I think we should do and are responsible for is to run an inclusive search, with integrity, that produces the best person. And that’s what we’ll do.”
After all, Hart said, if UTC “had that mentality (12 years ago), then Wes wouldn’t have been here. We absolutely will not rule anybody out.”
Despite the fact that Moore’s move to East Carolina just became official Monday, Hart said he’s already getting swamped with calls, e-mails and text messages from coaches interested in the job or people recommending candidates.
Hart said he’ll conduct the search the same way he did when he had to hire a football coach in 2008 and a wrestling coach last year.
“We’ll do it the same way we’ve done all the other searches we’ve had, which is it will be thorough, it will be expeditious, it will be inclusive,” he said. “We’ll take however much time we have to to get the right person, and as I sit here today I have no preconceived notions about who or from where or any of that.”
Moore said he has spoken with Hart about the search and will monitor it from his new post in Greenville, N.C.
“I still love the players and want to make sure they have a great experience (at UTC), and I have no doubt that Rick Hart’s going to make that happen,” Moore said. “I’ll do everything I can to put in my two cents, too. If I’m concerned about somebody that they’re looking at, I’m definitely going to voice my opinion.”
Moore said associate head coach Nikki Blassingame is going with him to ECU.
The trend in women’s basketball for about a decade has been to hire women, which is likely part of the reason Moore was passed over for some jobs in recent years. Lady Mocs junior guard Kori Penland said she doesn’t think the players care about the gender of their next coach.
“We don’t have a preference, I don’t think,” she said. “We’ll just be excited to have someone that’s excited to be here, is excited about us and has the same goals that we do.”