Hawks’ Boyd resigns after two seasons at helm to become next head coach at Valparaiso

QUINCY — Courtney Boyd didn’t recognize the phone number associated with the text message she received at the start of this week or the area code from where it was placed.

“I had not put my name in for any position,” said Boyd, coming off her second season as the Quincy University women’s basketball coach in which the Hawks won 25 games and the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament title. “I had not spoken with an agent to put my name in any position. So it came out of nowhere.”

Yet, it was intriguing enough she wanted to hear what Valparaiso University athletic director Laurel Hosmer had to say.

“She said, ‘I heard you might be interested in the women’s basketball position,” Boyd said. “And I said, ‘I’m actually not looking, but I’d be silly not to hear you out.’”

Boyd’s decision to listen led to additional conversations which translated to a job offer and Friday’s decision to resign at Quincy. Valpo announced it had hired Boyd as its next women’s basketball coach late Friday afternoon, making her the ninth coach in program history.

The GLVC Coach of the Year replaces Mary Evans, who compiled a 75-135 record in seven seasons at the helm. The Beacons went 13-19 last winter and 9-11 in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Valpo has enjoyed only one winning season in the past 16 seasons.

“They are in a great conference, and I think there are a few things that have been untapped there for a number of years,” Boyd said. “There’s a new athletic director there, which is exciting. There is a new administration coming in. Usually when you do something like this, it is never the right time, but if you’re going to do it, who better to do it with than a new group of people and see where you can take it.”

Boyd knew leaving Quincy after a 25-8 season — the first winning campaign since the 2015-16 season — wouldn’t be easy, but her team meeting with the Hawks on Friday afternoon reiterated how difficult this is.

“Two years was not the Quincy plan,” said Boyd, who went 35-26 as Quincy’s coach after winning an NAIA national championship at Clarke University in 2023. “You go into a group of people and tell them we have to be family in order to win, we have to support each other, we have to do it this way and that way. Two years later, you walk in and say, ‘Well, about that family, some oif the family is leaving.’

“It doesn’t feel genuine, but I hope we created that relationship and enough respect for each other to understand everybody has goals. I want my student-athletes to reach their goals. It just so happens my goals affect their student-athlete experience.”

It made for a quiet, tear-filled meeting.

“They were pretty somber,” Boyd said. “There were tears shed. No questions asked. No congratulations. And that was that.”

The challenge facing Quincy University athletic director Josh Rabe and his administrative staff will be to keep the ball rolling forward while trying to hire a new coach as soon as possible.

“It’s very, very early in this process, but it’s someone to keep the momentum going,” Rabe said of the type of coach he will seek. “Courtney got us back where we belong at the top of the league. It’s someone not to necessarily emulate that success, but create their own program and continue with the success that we’ve had.”

It’s been a four-year process of getting things closer to right.

“Four years ago, when Kaci Bailey tool over, we were at rock bottom as a program,” Rabe said. “She got it going. Coach Boyd finished it off. As it sits right now, it’s the champion of the Great Lakes Valley Conference. We’re in a much different spot than we were two years ago, let alone four years ago. We’re going to view this job as such.”