A trio of Beacons will take part in the 2024 ‘So You Want to Be a Coach’ program, hosted by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. Olivia Brown (East Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids [St. Bonaventure]), Jill Harris (Navarre, Fla./Crestview [Johnson C. Smith]) and Emma Tecca (Tallmadge, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban [Akron]) will participate in the two-day workshop April 4-5 during the WBCA Convention in Cleveland in conjunction with the Women’s Final Four.

The “So” program increases the understanding and application of skills necessary to secure coaching positions in women’s basketball, increases the understanding and awareness of competencies necessary for success in coaching, introduces female basketball players to coaches and administrators, and raises awareness of the existing talent pool of female basketball players who have a passion and interest in coaching the game of women’s basketball.

Qualified candidates must have exhausted their final year of basketball eligibility at a four-year institution or have graduated within the past year and must be nominated by their WBCA-member head coach. Each participant is selected based on her academics, contributions to women’s basketball on and off the court, professional resume´ and a written recommendation from their head coach. Valpo is the only institution sending three players to this year’s program, as Brown, Harris and Tecca are three of just 55 players across all divisions of women’s college basketball who have been invited to participate.