Denver women’s basketball announced the hiring of Doshia Woods to guide the program. Coach Woods comes to DU as an experienced assistant from Tulane University. Other stops included the University of Missouri, Oregon State, New Mexico State, and Western Illinois.
Known as an excellent recruiter, Coach Woods coached the Green Wave for 10 seasons in New Orleans. Tulane experienced six twenty-win seasons during her time on staff along with seven postseason berths. Woods also held a variety of other assistant coaching responsibilities as well.
In a taped interview with Athletic Director Karlton Creech, Woods emphasized an up-tempo style with a focus on sound defense as she guides DU women’s hoops. In May, she received her Masters in kinesiology from Tulane University.
This marks the first head coaching role for Coach Woods. Her Twitter account reflected the many friends and fans she has cultivated over the years.
Tulane ✈️ Denver! @doshwoods is headed to Denver to be the head coach!
"This is a tremendous opportunity for Doshia! I am so grateful for her commitment to our program over the past 10 years and her Tulane family couldn’t be happier for her."
– @lisastockton__ #RollWave🌊🏀 pic.twitter.com/2IQQoyyTKm
— Tulane Women's Hoops (@GreenWaveWBB) July 21, 2020
Coach Woods told DenverPioneers.com, “My experiences, preparation, and hard work during my career have prepared me for this opportunity. I look forward to getting started. Today is a great day to be a Pioneer.”
Coach Woods’ experience, energy, and passion will be a welcome addition to Denver women’s hoops. Due to the timing of the hire, Woods will have an abbreviated practice period to introduce her coaching philosophy to this year’s squad.
There is another important milestone here that is worth mentioning.
Woods is also the first Black woman to be hired as a head coach at DU — something that is long, long overdue.
DU has had women’s basketball as varsity sport for 50 years now…DU has never had a Black head coach in any other women’s sport – soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, swimming, lacrosse, skiing, tennis or golf.
DU has had three Black men’s head basketball coaches since the 1970s – Ben Jobe, Floyd Theard and current HC Rodney Billups.
DU has also had a Black head soccer coach, Albert Adetoye, in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Long, long overdue? In which of DU’s sports would there be a wealth of black candidates to choose from? None, except maybe hoops. (See also men’s hoops, the only sport where there would be many black candidates.) I don’t really care about celebrating the skin color of a coach, just wins and developing young people into good adults. Good luck to coach Woods, and welcome to DU!
Yes, long overdue.
DU has had women’s basketball for 50 years. About 50% of the athletes in the sport at the D-I level are Black athletes, and the percentage has been that way for a while.
Of course, we all want the best possible coaches who win games, develop great people and run programs that are clean. I believe there are plenty of well-qualified Black women’s basketball coaches in the coaching pool. DU now hiring Woods sends a multitude of important signals to athletes, the rest of the sport and the community that Black people are valued at DU. That’s an important message.
As for the other more ‘country club’ sports, the pools of black coaching candidates is indeed tiny, in large part due to the same socio-economic and geographic factors that tend to keep the black athlete talent pool small in those sports. Until America reaches a higher level of racial equality, those numbers can be tough to move in the right direction.
In any event, it would be great to get the point in this country where skin color doesn’t matter. But we’re still a long way from that point. We all should care about equality and about the many additional hurdles that Black people face in this country, and when those barriers come down, it’s good for all of us.