Past Traditions, Future Traditions

 

The future, it seems to dominate the human mind. What changes are to come? What should we expect to be different? For Whitworth Women’s Basketball, the future is holding on to the past. Whitworth University as a whole has had a sense of community since its establishment in 1890. The Lady Pirates basketball head coach Helen Higgs’ coaching style not only reflect her belief in the sense of community but she keeps that mentality even when she’s out there recruiting new players. As Higgs is going on her twenty-first year as head coach, she expects that traditions of community and winning to continue.

               

“I think we always look for the best people who are the best players that fulfill our needs. I watch how they relay with their teammates.” Higgs said.

In that quote, Higgs put the stamp of “best people” ahead of “best players”. That alone is highly reflective of the values that Higgs has embedded into her coaching mentality. Too many coaches are out there nowadays for simply the best player, and some of them in their pursuit of talent forget that just because someone is talented it does not mean that they are a good person. Vince Lombardi once claimed that one cannot coach if the players have not been taught. So Higgs teaches.

“We try to be team first. We try to [build] a sense of unity and as of family as much as you can. We usually do a lot of team building activities, and we usually have something once a week where the team can go like ‘hey! Let us get to know each other more than as basketball players’. I’m willing to give up some practice time for them to have that team time.” Higgs said.

               

Usually for coaches who put heavy emphasis on what kind of person a player is as opposed to how good a player is the team’s winning percentage pays a price as result. That has not been the case for Higgs’ Pirates. Higgs’ approach to the game as a coach and as a recruiter has resulted in nearly a 60% career winning percentage for the Pirates since 1993. Higgs has also led the Pirates to two conference championship wins, three conference tournament wins and three NCAA tournament appearances.

If one had any questions about the Lady Pirates’ future, the Pirates start to the 2014-2015 season ought to tell the story. The Pirates are currently ranked 16th in the nation with a 6-0 record despite life without last season’s leading scorer and rebounder Kayla Johnson who graduated. The Pirates began their season opener by beating a 4-0 Eastern Oregon team despite trailing by 12 with over 16 minutes left in the second half.

In sports, great players come and go but one of the people that have carried the past into the future is head coach Helen Higgs. Her formula may not have resulted in a championship yet but her formula has resulted in Whitworth being able to hold on to its winning ways and its community traditions. Whitworth Women’s Basketball has not taken away from the Whitworth community feeling but it has helped anchor it, and as long as Higgs remain the Pirates head coach, expect nothing else except for that continue.

Whitworth Women's Basketball: The History of Coach Higgs

For over 21 years, players have come and gone for the Whitworth Lady Pirates, but the one constant has been head coach Helen Higgs. Before Higgs took over as the Pirates head coach in 1993, she was a player at the University of Oregon where she was a three-year starter and eventually became a basketball player in Germany.  Upon her decision to give up her playing career, she went into coaching making stops in Germany as an 18-under head coach, an assistant at Gonzaga then an assistant at Utah. However Higgs never set out to coach the game.

 

“It wasn’t a career goal of mine. I think some people when they’re playing, they start to see themselves as a coach, and that was never me. I went overseas to play basketball and back in those days you wanted to keep your amateur status, and I coached to get paid.” Higgs said. “When I came back [to the United States] I started coaching college and realized that this was the level I wanted to coach.”

Throughout her 21 years as a head coach for Whitworth, Higgs has yet to lead the Pirates to a championship however she does hold a .596% winning percentage over the course during her tenure which remains an impressive accomplishment. To consistently have a winning record over 21-years requires not just good players, but good coaching. Of course, being a good college coach on the collegiate level means not just getting players to perform well during game-time but possibly the more difficult thing to accomplish is to get together a bunch of young men or women who grew up in various different places to work together and be a team.

“We try to be team first. We try to [build] a sense of unity and as of family as much as you can. We usually do a lot of team building activities, and we usually have something once a week where the team can go like ‘hey! Let us get to know each other more than as basketball players’. I’m willing to give up some practice time for them to have that team time.” Higgs said.

It is said that we do not find our calling in life but our calling tends to find us. For Coach Helen Higgs who 30 years ago did not set out to be a coach she has found her calling. In her 21 years as the head coach for Whitworth Women’s basketball she has become the first Northwest Conference women’s basketball coach to cross the 300-win threshold. In addition, she has two conference championship wins, three conference tournament wins, three NCAA tournament appearances, and has received conference coach of the year honor three times. Those are some pretty impressive accomplishments for someone who didn’t see herself as a coach.