Felisha Legette-Jack

College coaches have many jobs in addition to the actual X’s and O’s of coaching.  They must recruit, monitor academic progress and deal with the social and emotional needs of a dozen or so young women making the transition to adulthood.  Sometimes that last job is the most difficult.  That is likely the situation facing new Indiana coach Felisha Legette-Jack. 

She will be Indiana’s third coach in three years.  In those three years, a player was critically injured in an automobile accident; a coach was fired and a new one hired; the new coach led them to an unexpectedly successful season and then quit.  The remaining players have been through an emotional roller coaster.  Legette-Jack will first have to deal with the emotional aftermath of the turmoil. 

Her job will be to earn her players’ trust and convince them that they can believe what she says.  They have been burned twice, once by the school and once by Sharon Versyp and they likely won’t welcome her with open arms.  That is not a comment on Legette-Jack, just a reflection on her reality at the moment. 

The initial impression is that Legette-Jack has a personality that will impress the players.  She is a passionate and enthusiastic woman who appears to be easy to like.  Her early comments indicate that she is aware of the problems her teams have had and understand how important dealing with them is. 

If she can get past the initial problems, Legette-Jack has a resume that impresses.  She was a star at Syracuse and has been an assistant coach for USA basketball, as well as for Joanne P McCallie at Michigan State.  For the past four seasons she was the head coach at Hofstra, where she rebuilt the women’s program. 

Legette-Jack plans to run an uptempo offense coupled with a defense based on philosophies she learned from McCallie.  The idea is a good one.  There is not a lot of talent at Indiana.  Legette-Jack will need patience.   

Legette-Jack’s job is not going to be easy.  On the surface, she appears to be well-qualified to do the job.  But this isn’t going to be done on paper.  As it always does, time will tell.

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