Wildcat women lose 2 coaches

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Traci Waites

Six players in all have left the team, and, after yesterday, one half of the coaching staff is headed out of town as well.

The destination: Pittsburgh, where former UA associate head coach Traci Waites will take over a squad that struggled last year, finishing 6-21 and in last place in the 13-team Big East Conference.

Along with Waites, former assistant coach Bill Broderick will make the move east after spending the last three years in Tucson.

"I'm definitely going to miss a lot of our players," Broderick said. "But they understand that it's good for people to move on to new challenges."

The move reunites Broderick with an area he is familiar with from having spent his college career at Frostburg State in Frostburg, Md. He also spent a year as an assistant coach at Frostburg State in 1995, the year before he arrived in Tucson.

"It's a bit of a homecoming," Broderick said, adding that both his and his wife's families live within a few hours of Pittsburgh. "I know the hotpockets as far as the talent goes. It's nice to have a head start."

Waites, who played in two Final Fours under UA head coach Joan Bonvicini at Long Beach State and has been on the Wildcat staff for four years, replaces Kirk Bruce, who resigned after leading the Panthers to a 158-214 mark over 13 seasons.

"She's very good with working with the players on the floor. We're definitely going to miss her," Bonvicini said. "She's worked hard in our program. I wish her the very best."

Sophomore point guard Lisa Griffith said she was sorry to see Waites move on, but that she didn't feel it would negatively impact the team for next year.

"It hurts to see her go," she said. "She knows a lot about the game. I can take what she's taught me and use it. I'll be able to show the kids (incoming freshmen) the standard she set."

Bonvicini said she has already begun searching for possible replacements - Waites coached the guards while Broderick worked with the post unit.

"I'm going to bring in the best people and get better," she said.

Broderick said he was grateful to Bonvicini for giving him his first shot with a Division I program, and that he would carry lessons learned at Arizona through future endeavors.

"She really taught me a lot about having a classy program," said Broderick, who added that watching Bonvicini take a program from seventh in the Pacific 10 Conference the year before he arrived (1994) to a team ranked seventh nationally during last season taught him how to resurrect a slumbering program.

"It's all about recruiting," he said.