Women's basketball announces hiring of three new assistant coaches
By Min Kang
May 23, 2011 12:50 p.m.
One month removed from taking office as the head coach of the UCLA women’s basketball team, Cori Close announced on Friday the completion of her coaching staff with the hiring of three new assistant coaches.
Tony Newnan, Shannon Perry and Jenny Roulier-Huth will be joining Close on the sidelines next season, replacing Tasha Butts, Tony Perotti and Stacie Terry ““ all three of whom left with former Bruin coach Nikki Caldwell to work at Louisiana State.
“I really believe that I will have one of the strongest staffs in the country,” Close said on Wednesday, prior to the official announcement. “A lot of people have tried to get me to hire certain people who, on a perception level, could add X, Y and Z.
“But I’m into substance; I want to be able to look a recruit in the eyes and say, “˜You can’t be taught by anyone better.’ I want to be able to look our players in the eyes and know that there’s no one else that’s going to care about them and push them like these coaches will.”
Newnan brings in 20 years of coaching experience and is known for his emphasis on defense. He spent the past eight seasons as an assistant coach at Westmont College and also worked at Oregon State University and UC Santa Barbara.
Perry comes to Westwood after having spent 2004 to 2009 as an assistant at Duke and was also part of the USC staff from 2000 to 2004 and the Iowa staff from 1999 to 2000. She has worked with All-Americans as well as future WNBA players while at Duke.
A member of the 2001 USA women’s basketball team that won a gold medal in the World University Games, Roulier-Huth has five years of experience coaching at the NCAA Division I level. She had a brief stint as an assistant at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., from 2007 to 2009 and also worked as a graduate assistant at Florida State from 2005 to 2007.
Roulier-Huth was a three-time All-Big 12 Conference selection as a guard for Colorado from 1998 to 2002
Compiled by Min Kang, Bruin Sports senior staff.
