Marciniak Enjoying Coaching
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If you want to know how a coach really feels about his or her profession, don't ask them about it after a crucial victory. Instead, ask them after a gut-wrenching defeat. If they're still positive about coaching, you can tell they truly love it.
That's exactly the case with former Seattle Storm guard Michelle Marciniak.
"I love it. I've always wanted to coach," Marciniak said minutes after her South Carolina Gamecocks had suffered a 66-63 defeat at the hands of the UNLV Lady Rebels, missing a chance to send the game to overtime on their final possession. "To get an opportunity to coach in the SEC - we've got a great conference, just a really strong conference - it's really a great opportunity to be able to take what I've learned as a player and to start to apply it to coaching. I really enjoy teaching and motivating our players."
 Marciniak is enjoying her second basketball career on the sidelines. Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty |
Through it all, however, Marciniak knew her long-term future lay on the sidelines, not on the court. So when she had the opportunity to join South Carolina Coach Susan Walvius' staff as an assistant, she put her playing career aside and retired.
"It’s been a life-long dream of mine to coach college basketball," Marciniak said in a statement released by the Storm at the time, "and joining South Carolina’s staff is just a natural fit for me as I make the transition into the next phase of my career in women’s basketball."
A year and a half later, as Marciniak begins her second season as an assistant coach, you won't find her second-guessing that decision, though she has found coaching challenging at times as well as exciting.
"What's hard about coaching is that I know things and how I've been taught and I know what I want to say and how I want things done, but saying that to the players and getting them to do that is two different things," Marciniak said. "A lot of times, I want to show them what I'm talking about, and you don't always have those opportunities. It's a little frustrating to learn how to not only show them but communicate to them verbally and to talk to them and explain it in a way that they understand.
"I did not realize it requires a great deal of patience to be a coach. I played at the pro level. College kids are really different from pro players. They're young, their minds are young; they're fragile. You've got a few tough-minded kids and you love them, but the majority of college kids, especially freshmen and sophomores, they're still kind of figuring life out."
That's especially true for South Carolina, which has had an exceptionally young roster the last two years. The Gamecocks have no seniors on this year's roster, and started four sophomores and a freshman against UNLV. While that means some growing pains at times, it also means South Carolina's future is bright.
"We're inexperienced in the fact that not a lot of our players have seen a lot of time on the court," said Marciniak. "The patience comes in telling our players that it's going to be okay, just believe in us and what we're trying to do as a coaching staff.
"I really do believe we can compete for a championship within the next couple of years. People may not see that now, but Susan Walvius has got a tremendous basketball mind and I have a lot of respect for her. She's done it before. She's gotten South Carolina to being an Elite Eight team three years ago. It's been done, it's going to happen again. It's just a matter of when. I think - I know - sooner than later."
Marciniak returned to Seattle in the middle of November with South Carolina for the WBCA/BTI Classic at Bank of American Arena on the University of Washington campus. It was lucky scheduling - South Carolina was slated to play in the four-team tournament before Marciniak was hired - that allowed her to return to the city that was home briefly during her playing career. Despite dropping a pair of tough losses to first UW and then UNLV, Marciniak enjoyed the trip.
"I talked to the Storm fans (Sunday) - they had a little get-together - and got a really nice reception from them," Marciniak said. "They're just great people. I miss Seattle. I love Seattle. I love the city. I love the people here. I love the fans here and the support they give and have given me as a player.
 Marciniak rejoined the Storm for a game to fill in for Elise Woodward. Liam O'Mahony/Storm Photos |
The Storm remains a big part of Marciniak's life even after her retirement, and she continues to follow the team from afar and was rooting for them en route to this year's WNBA Championship.
"It was awesome," Marciniak said of watching the Storm win it all. "I told the fans (Sunday), I go to WNBA.com, go to the left side, click on teams, scroll down, click on Storm every single day and check on how they're doing every single day during the summer. It's just something I do. It's my morning ritual. I really feel a part of it - I was a part of it. I feel a part of it. I couldn't have been happier. Anne Donovan is one of the most special people I know. I have a lot of respect for Anne. I've known Anne for a long time, played for Anne with USA Basketball. Great things happen to great people. She deserves a championship."
Marciniak got a chance to be a part of this fall's Storm run when she served as the color commentator for the Storm's first playoff win in franchise history at Minnesota in Game 1 of the Storm-Lynx series. With regular color commentator Elise Woodward doing her other job as the sideline reporter for UW football games, Marciniak stepped in and worked with Storm play-by-play announcer David Locke, a fun experience - even with Locke calling her Elise at one point during the game.
"I tried to do the best job that I could," said Marciniak. "I really enjoyed working with David. He made it really easy. It was fun for me to get back. I had dinner with a bunch of my former teammates afterwards, spent some time with Lauren (Jackson) and just had a great time."
WNBA fans may not have seen the last of Marciniak in the league. While a Cynthia Cooper-esque comeback from the sidelines can probably be ruled out, Marciniak would be interested in coaching in the league somewhere down the road.
"I want to coach at the highest level," Marciniak said. "If that's college, or if that's the pros, I would never be picky about that. There is an aspect of college basketball that is very intriguing, because you have people, you have young minds that you can help form. In the pros, you already have the talent. They're already mature. You have to figure out a way to use talent. I think being a college coach is, at times, a little more difficult because you've got the academics that you have to balance with the kids; their social experience in college; and then their athletic experience and all the change and the growing that they're doing. I think in the pros, you get the athletes and you get to probably concentrate on basketball a whole lot more than you do in college. I would appreciate any opportunity, as I appreciate it now, to coach at the highest level."
