Blue White Illustrated

he idea, initially, was simply to help out a former colleague. Noth- ing more than that. Longtime Penn State women's basketball assistant Maren Walseth had just accepted a job as head coach at North Dakota State, and when Coquese Washington called Itoro Coleman to tell her the news, Coleman said she would put together a list of po- tential hires. It was understandable that Coleman would want to help. She had been one of Wash- ington's first assistants at Penn State, and the two had stayed in touch after the former Clemson All-American had left in 2010 to become head coach at her alma mater. What Coleman didn't know at the time was that Washington already had a list, and that her name was at the top of it. A few days after they first spoke, Washington called back and said, "Tor, it's time to come home." Coleman was stunned. "I was thinking, whoa, wait a minute. At that point I wasn't even thinking about coming back to Penn State," she said. "But I was very flattered that she even thought about me coming back. So I started talking about it with my husband and we prayed about it and we just got so many confir- mations that this is where I was supposed to be, so I'm here." Indeed she is. Coleman, who coached at Penn State from 2007 to '10 and helped recruit future All-Big Ten guards Alex Bentley and Maggie Lucas, is one of two new assistants on Penn State's staff fol- lowing the departure of Walseth and Fred Chmiel. She will work with the post players and is expected to have a major impact on the Lady Lions' recruiting after signing two top-30 classes in her three seasons at Clemson. The Lady Lions' other newcomer is Jo- celyn Wyatt, a former Georgia State as- sistant who will work with the guards and will look to tap into her deep AAU con- nections in the Southeast to help strength- en a roster that already features four players from Georgia. With Coleman and Wyatt joining long- time assistant Kia Damon, Washington said the staff's chemistry has been "fan- tastic." "They've brought a lot of passion, a lot of energy, a lot of laughter to the office," she said. "So it's been really good." Coleman is returning to a program that she helped rebuild. Not only did she play a key role in the recruitment of Bentley and Lucas, she also helped bring in two other All-Big Ten players in center Nikki Greene and forward Ariel Edwards. She coached Bentley to Big Ten All-Freshman honors, and when she left shortly after the 2009-10 season, she could see where the program was headed under Washing- ton. "Her vision was to make Penn State a relevant program. Everything that she was doing was leading up to that point," Cole- man said. "You could see that it was just a matter of time." The Lady Lions went on to win three consecutive Big Ten regular-season cham- pionships, and while they have some re- building to do this coming season following the departure of four starters, the program is in a much different place than it was four years ago. "It's been so neat to see all the changes that have happened since I've been gone," said Coleman, who was let go by Clemson following the Tigers' 9-21 finish last sea- son. "Coquese has done such a great job with the program as far as changing the culture and getting people excited about Penn State women's basketball. There's just a buzz around the program that gets you excited. So it's been great. Everybody's been so warm and welcoming. I just feel like I left one family and I'm coming into another family." Wyatt wasn't quite as familiar with Penn State's program as Coleman when she was brought aboard following Chmiel's departure for Minnesota. But she was well acquainted with their roster. She had coached Tori Waldner back when the future Lady Lion forward was playing AAU basketball in seventh grade. She also tried to recruit Kaliyah Mitchell and Peyton Whitted to Georgia State, only to see the two Peach State high school stand- outs sign instead with PSU. And she scouted Lindsey Spann, a Maryland native who will vie for the Lady Lions' starting point guard spot this season. Now that HELPING HANDS Two new assistants bring energy, enthusiasm to Lady Lions' sta W O M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L | T COLEMAN WYATT

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