Schuckman: Coaching change is emotional torture on Hawks, but their research reveals ‘good, positive things’ with Boyd’s hiring

QUINCY — The overlapping exodus of Kaci Bailey and arrival of Courtney Boyd made for an emotionally challenging 36 hours for the Quincy University women’s basketball players.

“Definitely a little stressful, a little overwhelming,” freshman guard Rylee Denbow said.

Mix in plenty of uncertainty.

“There are a lot of unknowns up in the air right now,” junior guard Gabby Burns said. “It helps that we have a coach again, but with a lot up in the air, we’re all emotional. We love each other so much and we want things to work out.”

For the better part of two days, the Hawks wanted to be assured it would.

Thursday morning, it felt like that was the case.

QU athletic director Josh Rabe introduced Boyd, who spent the previous six seasons at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa, as the Hawks’ new coach. She replaces Bailey, who officially resigned Tuesday to become the head coach at Drury University, a Great Lakes Valley Conference institution that has been the winningest NCAA Division II program the last 20 years.

Boyd spent a majority of her six minutes at the podium in the Hall of Fame Room inside the Pepsi Arena complex talking about the kind of program she runs and how she runs it. 

She emphasized trust and communication are the two pillars on which everything else rests.

“Without that, we will go nowhere,” Boyd said.

It’s what the Hawks needed to hear.

“Everything she said I agree with,” Denbow said. “My two big things are trust and communication, and her two big things are trust and communication. So it looks promising.”

So does Boyd’s resume.

She owns a 155-42 career record, worked her way up through the coaching ranks, including a two-year stint at former GLVC member Wisconsin-Parkside as an associate head coach, and led Clarke to the NAIA national championship last month.

Those were all things the Hawks knew by the time Boyd arrived on campus Thursday.

“I went back to my dorm and I researched everything about her,” Denbow said after Rabe told the players Tuesday night he’d hired Boyd. “I googled her name, players she’s coached. My next step was to figure out everything I could about her. Everything I saw were good, positive things.”

That was no surprise.

“I know she’s a good coach,” Burns said. “Then I heard about the national championship and I was like, ‘Oh, they’re bringing in a successful coach and this is going to be good.”

Seated toward the back of the room during the press conference, the players listened intently to Boyd’s description of her coaching style, her program and her approach to building the right culture.

“I heard good things,” Burns said.

So did Boyd when she learned the players had researched her background and seemed invested in the direction of the program.

“That says a lot about the university,” Boyd said. “They don’t want to leave if they don’t have to leave. They want to be here. They want to know the next person up is one they can trust, the next person up is going to give them a great collegiate opportunity.

“If we all have the same passion, I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”

Passion is something they share. It spilled out the may you might expect after Bailey announced she was leaving.

“I cried like a little baby when she told us,” Burns said.

Many of them did.

“I would say gut-wrenching,” Denbow said. “It was really shocking. My heart dropped from my chest. That was our first coach. She recruited us. We were her first full freshman class. For her to tell us she’s leaving, it hurt. It hurt a lot.

“And my first question was, ‘Where are my teammates going to end up?’ We’ve gotten so close, and we’ve really become best friends this postseason. We were really excited and looking forward to next year and everything we were going to accomplish. We can still accomplish that. It may look a little different, but we can do it.”

It is now Boyd’s task to make that happen.

“We have to figure out what’s missing,” Boyd said. “We have to figure out what’s working. We have to figure out how to get them on board to believing in what I think is going to help us take that next step.”

Googling her name and seeing her history of success was the first step in that process.