TicketsDec. 14, 2010
This is the second in a series profiling the 2010 James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame class. This week, we catch up with Valerie King, a 2,000-point scorer for the Bearcats who is now in coaching. She makes a return trip to Fifth Third Arena on Saturday with her team, Wright State.
By Dave Malaska
GoBEARCATS.com
This weekend, as Valerie King steps onto the court at Fifth Third Arena, things might seem a little strange.
Little has changed since 2004, when the Bearcat legend finished her four years with the UC women's basketball team just 201 points shy of the school's scoring record. There's plenty to fuel familiarity -- the same baskets, her target through countless games and practices, still hang there. The banners that extol the Bearcats' four post-season appearances during her career, still adorn the arena's walls. And, more than likely, fans will still cheer as the Bearcat chair-sleds down Fifth Third's bleachers.
The only thing that will be different is that King will be on the visitor's bench as Cincinnati hosts Wright State on Saturday.
"I'd like to think that it will be just another game," says King, who is in her first year as an assistant coach with the Raiders, "but it will be a little weird."
Though she's been in coaching for five years now, Saturday's game will be her first time back in the confines of the Bearcat gym since graduating with a communications degree in 2004. It'll also be her first trip back to UC since being inducted into the James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in October, an honor that was a surprise for the former guard, but to no one else.
During her playing days, King set the bar for excellence for the Bearcats. A three-time all-conference selection, she ended her four-year run at with 2,156 points, second only to the program's first star, Cheryl Cook. Only she, Cook and Oscar Robertson eclipsed the 2,000-point mark during their UC careers. King owned several of the program's records, including three-pointers made and games played, after helping the Bearcats to post-season play all four years during her career. The run included UC's first back-to-back NCAA appearances in 2002-03.
After graduating, she was signed as a free agent by the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs, and then went on to play overseas for a year. It was then she did something she never thought she'd do -- move into coaching.
"It never crossed my mind while I was playing," King admits. "I never wanted to coach. Ever. But when you get away from the game, you miss it. I like competition. I missed competing every day."
| Valerie King is now coaching at Wright State. |
With the help of former UC assistant Mike Bradbury, then an assistant coach at crosstown rival Xavier, King landed a graduate assistant job with another Bearcat rival, Louisville.
"I didn't know what I was getting into," says King. "I jumped in head-first. Once I got into it, I found out that I loved it. It's a rush."
A year later, after earning a masters degree in sports administration from Louisville, she made the jump to a full-time position when Bradbury took the head coaching job at Morehead State. According to Bradbury, King was one of the first calls he made after taking the job.
"I thought she had a lot of potential as a coach. Her work ethic is just outstanding -- it always has been. Even when she was playing, it was clear that she was one of those kids who can do anything that they want to do," Bradbury says, "Nobody works harder."
During their three years at Morehead, King helped Bradbury rebuild the program, culminating in a 22-11 record last year and a post-season bid to the Women's Basketball Invitational. During her three years with the Eagles, King was credited with tutoring MSU guard Chynna Bozeman, who finished as the national leader in three-pointers made last year. When Bradbury took the job at Wright State, King followed.
Together, along with the addition of another former Bearcat, assistant coach Katrina Merriweather, they have the Raiders off to a 5-4 start heading into Saturday's Cincinnati homecoming for the trio. King is thriving in her new passion, reliving lessons from both Bradbury and her UC mentor, Laurie Pirtle.
"I try to take all the things I learned from all my coaches, but I learned the most from Laurie and Mike," says King. "There are times when I'll say something to the players and then catch myself saying the same things that Laurie and Mike once said to me. I just laugh."
Though those lessons are never far from her mind, her playing days clearly are.
"I don't miss playing, now that I'm coaching. When you're coaching kids day-in and day-out, seeing them take what you teach them and seeing it click during the game, it's so much more gratifying," she says. "I didn't get that feeling from playing."