Catching Up With Coach Coquese Washington Indiana Fever guard Coquese Washington spends the WNBA "offseason" as an assistant coach for the Notre Dame women’s basketball team.

Well, the regular season is finally here! It seems like it came very fast. After my last Indiana Fever playoff game, I had two days off before I returned to work for Notre Dame. I spent my two days in a very wild and crazy manner - sleeping! But once I got back in the office and around the team I was rejuvenated and ready to go. The team is a fun bunch to be around and a joy to coach, so I was happy to return.

Coach Coquese Archives Volume II: Ready for Season Volume I: Preparation

Since I've been back, I've been doing a lot of recruiting. This is the first year I have been able to recruit off-campus and it's been a lot of fun. We are pretty much finished recruiting in the 2003 high school class. Now I am travelling all over the country watching underclassmen play. There are a lot of good kids out there and I try to see as many of them as I can. Recruiting can be a lot of fun. I really enjoy going to the games and watching the high school kids play. The only thing is sometimes I find myself wanting to cheer, but I'm supposed to be impartial, so I have to sit on my hands.

When I'm out of town, I will occasionally miss a practice, which I don't like. I love being in the gym with the team. It's my favorite part of coaching. At practice, my job is to work with the guards. I get them prepared to play and help them develop their games so they can reach their potential as a player. If their goal is to get to the WNBA, I can help them get there, because I know first-hand what skills a WNBA guard needs to have. We watch a lot of film and do individual work to make sure they are constantly improving.

During the games, all of the assistants are there to help Coach McGraw monitor the flow of the game. I call the offenses and key on our guard play. But, really, it is a big collective effort. Coach McGraw does a great job of listening to us (assistant coaches) and then making the final decisions on what we should. We have a wonderful rapport on our staff and I think that will go a long way towards helping us be successful this year.

Our biggest strength this year is our versatility. We have a number of players who can play a couple of positions. That makes us capable of playing big lineups, small lineups or traditional lineups. We will be able to create mismatches with our various lineups. I also think our focus and enthusiasm is a strength. This team loves to play and they want to get better. No matter how demanding we are as coaches, they accept our challenges with solid determination. They are a goal-oriented bunch and want to be very successful on the court.

Our biggest weakness, I think, is our youth. We have a lot of young, inexperienced players who will play a lot of minutes. Because they will see many on-court situations for the first time, we will experience growing pains, no question about it. But we will be competitive, which is a must since we play a pretty tough schedule. Purdue, Connecticut, Tennessee, USC, Colorado St...we meet all those teams this year. But we like to play a tough schedule because it's the best way to prepare for the NCAA Tournament.

Until next time...
Coquese

(Photos (L-R): Ron Hoskins/WNBAE/Getty Images; Joe Raymond/South Bend Tribune; Rocky Widner/WNBAE/Getty Images; Joe Raymond/South Bend Tribune; Joe Raymond/South Bend Tribune)