Shortly after Caroline McCombs was hired as head women’s basketball coach at Stony Brook earlier in the summer, the first-time head coach recently hired her staff for the upcoming season.
After the departure of all of former coach Beth O’Boyle’s staff, McCombs hired Adam Call and Matt Bamford as assistant coaches, with Tatiyiana McMorris as director of basketball operations. This will be the first time that either Call or Bamford will be acting as assistant coaches on the Division I level, acting as director of basketball operations and assistant to the head coach respectively at their last school. McMorris was a graduate assistant last season.
Call comes to Stony Brook from accomplished programs, holding positions at Washington, Northwestern and Texas Christian in the past.
He has held various roles with those teams, giving him experience in many areas of the game.
Call’s past shows that he is capable of working with players in the low post, which is a major part of the Seawolves makeup, pending any changes McCombs will make.
In the 2013-2014 season, Sabre Proctor, rising senior, was named to the All-America East first team at forward, which helped the team earn a spot in the America East Championship game and a postseason berth in the NIT.
Ironically enough, the Seawolves’ trip to the NIT granted them a first round matchup with Bamford’s previous school, Michigan.
While in Ann Arbor, Bamford earned a reputation of having a knack for recruiting top talent, a talent that is necessary at any institution in any sport.
With stars Proctor and Jessica Ogunnorin finishing their tenure at Stony Brook next season, it will be of the utmost importance to find and attract top players to Long Island to keep future teams competitive.
McMorris will be an asset, with experience playing at the highest level of college basketball.
She earned plenty of recognition in the Big East, earning all-conference honors in one of the toughest conferences in the entire country.
Todd Mitmesser notably will not be returning to the Seawolves bench next season. Mitmesser, O’Boyle’s lead assistant coach for the past two seasons has been a major part of the success in the post for the Seawolves, as forwards Proctor and Brittany Snow have both previously expressed the vital role that Mitmesser had in improving their games.
He also addressed the scouting for Albany, which even though it eventually led to a loss in the America East finals, ended the Great Danes’ 38-game conference winning streak in the last regular season contest of the year.
Mitmesser was still an active member of the staff after O’Boyle’s departure, as he attended the annual Wolfie Awards at the end of the year with the team.
It is unclear whether Mitmesser left or was not hired by McCombs, but the combination of Call’s experience with players in the post and Call’s talent identification will be a major asset in making up for the loss.
The rest of last year’s bench has followed O’Boyle to Virginia, all taking spots on her staff at Virginia Commonwealth.
Kate DeSorrento was a major part of the recruiting process as an assistant coach for the Seawolves, and had a lot of prior experience coaching at other institutions.
Nerlande Nicolas, who was in her first season as an assistant coach at Stony Brook, had plenty of experience as a player and organizationally was an asset to the team after serving time as director of basketball operations elsewhere.
Stephanie Witko, also in her first season at Stony Brook acted as director of basketball operations.
She will take the same position at VCU.
Entering next season, the Seawolves look to continue their upward trend, after putting together an impressive 24-win season, their best at the Division I level.
After completing one of the most noticeable turnarounds in the country with just four wins a few seasons back, maintaining momentum would be perfectly punctuated with a trip to the NCAA Tournament come March.
McCombs and company will open their season in the new 4,000-seat Stony Brook Arena in the fall.
