For the first time in 34 years, the Virginia women's basketball team will have a new face as Athletic Director Craig Littlepage named Joanne Boyle the program's fourth coach Saturday. Boyle replaces former coach Debbie Ryan, who stepped down in early March after a storied career that spanned more than three decades.
"Approximately 27 days ago, the process started to find a new leader for the University of Virginia women's basketball program," Littlepage said. "It would have been very easy to have just settled and to have hired a coach maybe after a week or two, but instead we wanted to make sure that we found ... a perfect match for our program ... We've indeed found that match."
Boyle, who was formally introduced at a press conference at John Paul Jones Arena yesterday afternoon, comes to the University following a six-year stint at California during which she posted a 137-64 record. While at the helm of the Golden Bears, Boyle led her squad to four NCAA Tournament appearances, a No. 3 national ranking during the 2009 season and a WNIT crown to finish the 2010 campaign.
Boyle also was named 2007 Pac-10 Coach of the Year for her ability to turn around the struggling Golden Bears program. Prior to her arrival at California, the squad had suffered through 12 straight seasons with losing records. But Boyle was able to make an immediate impact as she led California to four consecutive NCAA Tournament berths in each of her first four seasons as head coach.
But although Boyle has spent most of the last six years on the West Coast, the coach is quite familiar with the ACC. Boyle played four seasons at Duke and finished her Blue Devil career No. 2 all-time in scoring and assists at Duke. Following her graduation in 1985, the Blue Devil great returned to her alma mater, where she served as an assistant coach for nine seasons from 1993 until 2002. She then took the California job in 2005 after a three-year stint at Richmond. In 2007, Boyle was offered the head coaching position at Duke, but turned down the job offer to continue building the California program.
Four years later, Boyle believes she is ready to rise to a new challenge and usher in a new era of Virginia women's basketball.
"The University of Virginia's storied history of excellence and the remarkable people responsible for it compelled me to humbly accept the responsibility of being U.Va.'s next women's basketball coach," Boyle said. "This opportunity opened up in the ACC and was a perfect time in my life, and it gets me back to the East Coast close to my family."
The 47-year-old coach indicated that she is not merely content to see the Cavaliers remain in the middle of the pack within the conference. One of her priorities at Virginia will be to see that the Cavaliers are competing with the likes of perennial powerhouses such as Duke, North Carolina and Maryland - the 2006 national champion.
"No one is ever going to put more pressure on me than I'm going to put on myself," Boyle said. "In taking a job, it's not just, 'Let's just be mediocre' ... My goal is to do the best I can and win as much as we can and build a sustaining program and build a championship team."
The self-proclaimed defensive-minded coach believes that Virginia will need to receive solid play from both the frontcourt and the backcourt if the squad can find success in the conference. Virginia earned its last ACC title in 1993 and was last crowned regular season conference champion in 2000.
Apart from trying to build a championship caliber team, Boyle did not speak about too many short- and long-term goals. She did, however, express her dedication to continuing the excellence Ryan established.
"For the past 34 years, U.Va.'s women's basketball teams have been nationally competitive because Debbie instilled her own selflessness and unfailing commitment to U.Va., her student-athletes and fans," Boyle said. "I'm proud to acknowledge coach Ryan as my mentor, inspiration and dear friend ... I just humbly accept and want to do best by her and the University and just have a charge forward to move this program and continue to build on her success."
Boyle now will begin her search for assistant coaches during the next several weeks and begin preparation for her Virginia coaching debut this fall.
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