SEATTLE — For all the hype (“Psst! Hey, buddy! What’s the over-under on when she’s gonna blubber and bawl like Dick Vermiel watching ‘E.T.?’”) June Daugherty kept her emotions in check Sunday as well as anyone could expect.
On her first return to Hec Edmundson Pavilion since she was fired as women’s basketball coach at the University of Washington, Daugherty brought her Washington State Cougars into Hec Ed, where they were unceremoniously buried by Daugherty’s former team, 84-40.
Certainly the most popular Cougar ever among the Montlake crowd, Daugherty was given a warm, standing ovation when introduced to the 4,129 in attendance. As her team took pre-game warmups, Daughtery, UW fans, and numerous former players exchanged more hugs than the Miss Universe pageant.
But if onlookers such as members of the hated media anticipated water works, they were disappointed. Daugherty was in game mode. And game mode meant Daugherty, for all the pre-game merriment, was all business.
“I got so many phone calls and text messages this week,” Daugherty said, dry-eyed and grinning. “It makes it special. At the same time, I had a game to coach. I had to stay focused on that.”
Public affection for Daugherty largely stems from her forced exit. A day after her seventh NCAA Tournament team in 11 seasons lost its first-round game, then-athletic director Todd Turner announced that her contract would not be renewed because, he said, the program lacked something he referred to as “buzz.”
To some, this was Turner crafting a double standard. Why is it, many asked, that he fires Daugherty despite nine postseason tournaments (two WNITs) and a spotless program out of which her players graduated, when coach Tyrone Willingham keeps his job after three seasons of dismal football?
If Daugherty’s squads lacked optimum results some years, all of her teams, without exception, had in common a lifelong bond founded on a close, family environment created by the head coach. Apparently, that didn’t count in Turner’s world.
Daugherty cheerfully created sufficient buzz later, when hired by archrival Washington State. But that was nothing compared to the buzz that summer when the 51-year-old coach went into cardiac arrest and nearly died.
Daugherty declares herself 90 to 95 percent back to form, helped by one of her former players, Arlington’s Kayla Burt, whose cardiac arrest five years ago and subsequent complications ended her playing career.
Burt has been a rock for Daugherty, a sounding board and authority of cardiac recovery. In the past nine months, they have shared much more than the fact that they each have a defibrillator implanted in their chests.
Every post-traumatic emotion Daugherty goes through is something Burt has experienced. Phone conversations are frequent.
“I’m sure she has her days,” Burt said. “I still have my days when I’m down, like I can’t believe what I’ve been through. I think about the people that were involved and think that they don’t know enough, how thankful I am or I don’t tell them enough. You can’t say enough and you can’t do enough to let them know. I’m sure June’s going through the same thing.”
But life moves on. Although she still takes heart medication, Daugherty and her husband/associate head coach Mike Daugherty still are on the ground floor of the brutal job of turning around a program that has finished either ninth or 10th in the Pac-10 the past eight years.
Already, the Daughertys have made a difference, having signed a recruiting class ranked 16th in the nation by Blue Star Basketball. It’s needed. Currently, the Cougars simply can’t compete in an upper-echelon Division I conference with their Division II talent.
“I think things are going to turn around pretty quickly,” June Daugherty said. “I marvel at the improvement and work ethic our athletes at Washington State have. It takes a long time to understand a new coaching system and a new philosophy. They’re getting it down, so that’s our foundation. And our incoming class is playing exceptional basketball.”
The Daughertys are people whose character and relentless positivism make it impossible to root against them. Should they dig the WSU program out of its current dilapidated state, it will be the crowning achievement of their professional careers.
Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. To reach Sleeper’s blog, go to www.heraldnet.com/danglingparticiples.
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