Small school, big success

Sporting News, The, Nov 29, 1993 by Kevin Gore

The game had been over for 30 minutes. Custodians had begun cleaning William R. Johnson Coliseum.

And Coach Gary Blair stood alone at one end of the court, staring at the shot clock.

His Stephen F. Austin women's basketball team -- the Ladyjacks, otherwise known as the heartthrob of the women's basketball-crazed town of Nacogdoches, Tex. -- had just lost to No.1-ranked Vanderbilt in the semifinals of the 1993 NCAA Midwest Regional before a sellout crowd of 7,203.

Blair, now the coach at Arkansas, was examining the shot clock that malfunctioned with about eight minutes to play with his team and Vanderbilt in a 42-42 tie. At the time, the pressing, running-and-gunning Ladyjacks seemed to be on the verge of an upset. Vanderbilt, a deliberate and precision-passing team, was tired and haggard from what Blair called his "40 minutes of chaos" basketball.

But back to that shot clock. That dam shot clock.

"I sure wanted to know who the electrician was," Blair said after his team lost to Vanderbilt, 59-56.

Although Blair's disappointment was understandable -- he had led Stephen F. Austin to the NCAA Tournament six consecutive seasons without a Final Four berth -- it was no fluke that SFA was ranked in the Top 25 with powers such as Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Louisiana Tech.

How can a two-name team, coaches' shorthand for a small school, like Stephen F. Austin, with an enrollment of 12,800, compete with the big schools?

Like most successful programs, it begins with recruiting.

The Ladyjacks coaching staff has been successful in bringing some of the best high school talent in Texas and Louisiana into Nacogdoches despite having only a $13,000 recruiting budget -- compared with the $30,000 budget Blair has at Arkansas.

Nacogdoches, a town of 31,000 in the piney woods of East Texas, is 2 1/2 hours northeast of Houston, approximately three hours southeast of Dallas and two hours southwest of Shreveport, La.

Of Stephen F. Austin's 13 players, 10 are from Texas, two are from Louisiana and one is from Florida. Though some recruits come from cities such as Dallas, Houston and Shreveport, others come from one-traffic light towns in Texas and Louisiana.

Former Ladyjack Deneen Parker, the Southland Conference MVP the last two seasons, is from Arlington, Tex. Sophomore Latonia Bonnett, a rising star, is from Shreveport. The Ladyjacks' best player, All-America candidate Trenia Tillis, is from the small East Texas town of Grapeland.

It helps that Texas and Louisiana -- Stephen F. Austin's main recruiting base -- are states rich in women's basketball talent.

"It would be extremely difficult for SFA to make it if it was in a state that had mediocre high school basketball players," Blair says. "The two-name teams like Southwest Missouri, Western Kentucky and Old Dominion still come up with kids from their home state. Their reputation in the state is very, very good.

"You're in a position of having to do more with less," Blair says. "We had one third of the budget as most of the other Top 25 teams."

Budget limitations have not hindered Coach Joe Curl's ability to sign some of the nation's premier players. Curl, who came to Stephen F. Austin from Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Tex., signed Katrina Price of La Vega High School in Waco and Lesli Vollrath of C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport during the early signing period. Price is considered to be one of the top five high school players in Texas. Vollrath's team won the Louisiana state Class 5A championship last season.

"I can get it done because of our location," Curl says. "We have some of the best talent in the country. The only difference is when the big schools are flying, we're driving. We're not hurting at all."

It also helps that the Ladyjacks get a hand from the administration, current players and the community when a prospective recruit visits the campus.

University President Dr. Dan Angel, in his second year at the school, meets with Ladyjacks recruits on their visits.

Angel says he arranges his schedule around recruits brought on campus, knowing the players' academic and athletic history before they arrive.

"We're always willing to go the extra mile," Angel says. "We want to do all that it takes within the (NCAA) legalities. We want to know the girls on a first-name basis."

Freshman Tameka Roberts, a 5-foot-6 guard from Corpus Christi, Tex., says she chose SFA over Arkansas, New Mexico State and Texas A&M largely because of the family atmosphere.

"Meeting with (Angel) was impressive," Roberts says. "I didn't meet any of the other presidents at the schools I visited. When I was recruited, I felt like I was already part of the team, although I wasn't officially a Ladyjack."

Tillis considered Texas, Southern California, Louisiana Tech, Houston and Texas A&M, but says she signed with Stephen F. Austin because she wanted to be "a big fish in a small pond."

On her recruiting visit, she went to a store with former Ladyjack Stacye Jackson and was surprised at the response.

"It was totally by accident," Tillis says. "When we went into the store, some people came up to Stacye; they knew who she was; that she played for the Ladyjacks."