By FBC reporter Judy Richter
With six freshmen on the roster, the Stanford women’s basketball team has a new look this season. The coaching team also has a new look with the addition of assistant coach Trina Patterson. She replaces Bobbie Kelsey, who left to become head coach at the University of Wisconsin.
Trina brings an impressive resume to the Farm. A graduate of the University of Virginia with a master’s degree from National University, she was head coach at the University of Albany (SUNY) from 2002 to 2010. She also was head coach at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore from 1999 to 2000 and at the College of William & Mary from 1991 to 1999. During all of those years she amassed numerous honors for herself, her teams and her players.
She also has experience working with USA Basketball. That was when she got to know Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer. They served on USA Basketball Women’s Collegiate Committee for the 2005-2008 term.
“It was so interesting to sit and talk with Tara about players around the country because with her international experience and foresight, she could really identify who would be great international players,” Trina said in an interview with SWBB in June. “Tara is a true intellect with basketball. We talked about X’s and O’s, we talked about things outside of basketball, and we talked about life. She is a great communicator.”
Now Trina has a chance to talk with Tara at even greater length. Working with her “is the best job in the country,” Trina said in a recent interview for the Fast Break Club. “Tara is the best coach in the country.”
Trina’s duties with the team include coaching the posts and helping with recruiting. She and assistant coach Kate Paye will share scouting duties. In the meantime, she’s been watching a lot of film of the team’s present players to become acquainted with them and their playing styles.
When she arrived on campus, she lived at the Faculty Club and enjoyed being able to walk to work. Her first official day on the job was June 16, just as the freshmen were arriving for summer school.
Her family – husband Carl and sons C.J. (Carl Junior), 15; Matthew, 10; and Joshua, 4 – arrived in July while she was on a recruiting trip. They live on campus in the new Stanford Athletics housing complex, which is occupied primarily by coaches. Many of those coaches have children, so there are “instant friends for your children,” Trina said.
Her husband served in the Marines for 24 years before going to work in private industry. For now he’s a stay-at-home dad, providing a needed parental presence for times when Trina spends long hours on the job.
It’s hard to achieve a balance between work and family, but “having kids gives us a different perspective” on coaching, she said. “You get (the players) as teenagers, and when they leave, they’re grown women.”
California isn’t totally new to the Patterson family, for they lived in San Diego for three years during Carl’s Marines career. “They love the weather,” Trina said, adding that they try to take sightseeing trips on Sundays, her usual day off.
She also enjoys playing acoustic guitar, either six- or 12-string. She leans toward folk music or toward gospel tunes from her grandmother’s book. She likes to say that her very first paying job was in her hometown of Newport News, Va., at age 12 when she did a concert and earned all of $25.
Although Trina has experience as a head coach, she is enjoying her new duties because of the opportunity to work at Stanford and with Tara. “She has a philosophy of team and hard work. It’s not about me; it’s about the team,” Trina said of Tara. Furthermore, Kate and associate head coach Amy Tucker “have made the transition easy,” she said.
Looking at this year’s team, she said that the “freshmen are coming along pretty well. Tara does a great job of keeping it simple for them.” Still, the game is faster and stronger with many new things for the freshmen to learn. “The train just keeps moving,” Trina said.
The returning players, who understand the concept of passing the torch from one year to the next, also do their part to mentor the freshmen. “There’s a lot of character and characters” in the team’s sisterhood, she said.
This year is going to be different without guard Jeanette Pohlen and forward Kayla Pedersen, both of whom graduated in June and went to the WNBA. They accounted for many minutes and points. Kayla, for example, missed only one game during her entire four years at Stanford.
Nevertheless, Trina said she doesn’t see any difference in the level of excellence from last year. Tara knows how to use practice time wisely. “Great coaches always have an agenda down to the second” for practices, Trina said.
And although she’s looking forward to the games, “I love practice first … because it’s the day-to-day grind, a chess match (with) a lot of teaching.”
“Player development is key,” she said. She sees it as her job to “help them be the best they can be.”
With the team’s lineup of speedy guards, the posts have to be fast, too, and they’ll have to rebound. “It’s going to be fun to watch and hard to stop. It’s just a great journey,” she said.
“I’m ready to enjoy this year and many more years to come,” she said.
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