Rodriguez retires after nearly three decades coaching women’s basketball at JWCC

QUINCY — If there is a universal truth Norm Rodriguez can take from his nearly three decades coaching women’s basketball at John Wood Community College, it might be this.

Even the best laid plans go awry.

Rodriguez intended to coach one more season and then join his wife, Anita, at their new home in Tennessee, where they could be closer to their children and grandchildren. She retired in June after 35 years with the Adams County State’s Attorney’s office, while he retired as a JWCC professor of history and political science in the spring.

“I was going to get her settled in Tennessee and then I was going to come back up August 1 and live in our house until it sold,” Rodriguez said. “Then I was going to live with my step-sister until the season ended. That was the plan.”

Two surgeries in the span of six weeks and the need to focus on his health changed everything.

Rodriguez officially retired from coaching Wednesday, holding a Zoom call with his players to explain the unique timing of the decision and remind them the focus needs to remain on their journey and not his exit.

“It’s never been about me. It’s been about the program, and more importantly, it’s been about the players,” Rodriguez said. “That’s what I got to thinking about. It’s the right thing to do for the players. Yes, it’s the right thing to do for my health, but it’s the right thing to do for the players.”

JWCC athletic director Brad Hoyt said a search for Rodriguez’s replacement will begin immediately and he expects to move quickly with student-athletes expecting to return to campus in approximately a month.

“It’s the end of an era, but it’s also the beginning of another era,” Hoyt said. “That’s the way we’re going to approach it. We’re going to give the process the right amount of attention for where we want the program to get to and grow into. Anytime an era ends you have an opportunity to start a new one.”

The Rodriguez era, though, won’t be forgotten.

“He’s one of those pillars in our department,” Hoyt said. “The majority of all the great moments we’ve had in women’s basketball he’s been involved in. He’s a huge part of the history of Trail Blazer athletics.”

After five seasons as an assistant coach, Rodriguez took over as the head women’s basketball coach in 1999. His first team went 25-7 and won the Community College Conference of Illinois championship — the first conference title in any sport in school history.

He went on to compile a 393-316 overall record with more than 100 players furthering their careers at four-year schools.

“One of my kids brought it up to me and asked, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to go back and get to 400?’” Rodriguez said. “It’s not about that. It’s certainly not about that. If I go back, I go back for kids, not for wins. That’s exactly why I made the decision. It’s for the kids and what’s best for them.”

Their reaction to the news was sort of what Rodriguez expected — they were stunned.

“There was dead silence,” he said.

But he explained after undergoing surgeries for his gallbladder and prostate he needed time to recover.

“The doctor wants my system to have time to have a new normal,” Rodriguez said. “The old normal wasn’t working. So he wants my system to normalize itself.”

Rodriguez considered taking an eight-week break and then returning, but the more he considered the option, the less he became convinced it was the right move. He didn’t see it as fair to the players to go through such a change in the middle of preparing for the season.

“It wasn’t until I was in church last Sunday that I went, ‘Yep, this is the right thing to do,’” Rodriguez said.

So the packers came to the Rodriguez home Monday, the movers loaded up Tuesday and he had moved into the family’s new Tennessee home by Wednesday.

“I did have kids ask me if I was still going to be around,” Rodriguez said. “I explained to them what the process is going to be. I’m going to stay down here now. I’m not going to come back. But I am going to be at games. I told them, ‘You’re not going to get rid of me.’

“I told them I believe in them. I’m excited to see what they can do. I want to come back and see how they grow. I want to see how they grow individually and how they grow as a team. I told them you’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”