Not much goes on in the Walter Pyramid on a late summer night. The cleaning crew finishes up its work, and most of the lights are usually dimmed. Yet, one coaching staff can frequently be seen hard at work diagramming plays and frenetically moving from room to room.
The staff isn’t led by Dan Monson, the men’s basketball coach who is preparing for a daunting nonconference schedule, but rather his new female counterpart.
Jody Wynn is in her first season as the women’s basketball coach at Long Beach State, and in her seventh month on the job is still getting used to the idea of being the woman in charge.
“Everything comes through me first now,” Wynn said. “I had a lot of responsibility as an assistant coach, so I had my hands in pretty much every little thing. [Now] it’s just on a different level. … I feel like I need 40-hour days, or longer, to get everything done that we need to get done.”
Not much has changed on the court for Wynn, but the day-to-day side of being a collegiate basketball head coach is something that the former USC guard has had to get used to.
“It’s the other umpteen-matrillion hours that you’re in the office, or out recruiting,” Wynn said. “You’re trying to get the schedule and next year’s schedule, and all the other details that are involved with preparing for a season.”
For some coaches, it might be a tall task to work with a team they didn’t recruit, but Wynn has made an effort to improve a 4squad that went 8-21 overall last season.
“Basketball is 94 feet and it’s an up and down game,” Wynn said. “So we are concentrating on getting in shape. You’ve got to run hard consistently. … Some of the slowest kids can beat other kids up and down the floor just because of their heart and effort.”
This new mentality has had an effect on Wynn’s players as well.
“I really think she’s holding us more accountable, especially with things like keeping our body in shape,” senior forward Brett Timmons said. “This year, we have been in the best shape this team has been in. She holds us accountable for every little thing. … When we mess up, we sprint back and we don’t jog anywhere. I think in the long run, that is what’s going to make us a better team.”
She has also been able to connect with her new players on a personal level as well, because Wynn herself went through three coaches in a four-year span. Along with being a younger coach — Wynn is 35 years old — she believes this similarity has created a greater bond between her and the players.
“She went through coaching changes, so I think that she definitely understands what we’re going through,” senior guard Lauren Sims said. “I think everyone was so excited about the change, and new start for our program, that even the tough part of going through a coaching change has been easy because we’re so excited about it.”
With a beaming smile and energized personality, Wynn is also being well-received by the campus and nearby community. Along with Monson, the duo of Beach basketball coaches took part in Weekly Wednesday’s trips to various restaurants around the Long Beach area.
As for the long nights, they are just part of the job for a new head coach trying to make her mark on the collegiate basketball scene.
“Our staff, we’re all putting in 110 percent,” Wynn said. “We want to turn this culture back. We want to bring back the glory days, and we want to bring back the great tradition of women’s basketball here.”
The 49ers are the eighth-winningest Division I program on the women’s side with 772 all-time victories, but they haven’t experienced a trip to the NCAA tournament since 1992.
It seems as though Wynn is well on her way to changing the attitude of women’s basketball at LBSU. And, with opponents like the Women of Troy and California on the home slate, it appears she has The Beach headed in the right direction.
The women’s basketball team will hold an open practice at 10 a.m. at the Pyramid on Oct. 24, and LBSU hosts Prairie View A&M in the season opener on Nov. 13.