Veronica Nolt has been promoted to the position of head co-coach, alongside Coach Sherri Gorman, of Elizabethtown College’s women’s basketball team.
Director of Athletics Nancy Latimore announced Nolt’s promotion on March 20.
The College’s Hiring and Compensation Review Committee approved the naming of co-head coaches. All hiring decisions made within the College go through this policy.
“With Coach Gorman and Coach Nolt, we have an exceptional women’s basketball coaching staff,” Latimore said. “This promotion and staff restructuring will allow this outstanding staff to continue to lead the Blue Jay women’s basketball program for several years to come.”
35 victories, the first 20-win season since 2000-01, and the first Division III program and the third team in all of women’s college basketball history to win 1000 games, sums up what Nolt has experienced as the assistant coach for Etown’s women’s basketball team over the past two seasons.
The new coaching arrangement will not result in many adjustments for the 2014-15 basketball season, according to Nolt and Gorman. The way the team is coached will look the same from an outside perspective and any changes that occur will be very minor. The team will operate in the same way as it always has, but now there will just formally be two head coaches. “Looking ahead to next year, we are not looking to make big changes, but plan to make the necessary adjustments in order to increase our individual and collective abilities,” Nolt said. Although the new coaching system is different, Nolt and Gorman believe that it will give the coaching staff the opportunity to use each individual’s strengths to their fullest potential and will prove beneficial for the team. A majority of the current women’s basketball team will be returning next season and a large recruiting class is anticipated.
“I could not be happier with the decision to allow us to co-coach; we actually have been operating this way from day one,” Gorman said. “We each have our strengths and we focus on those areas. We collaborate on almost all decisions, and I believe we have a very strong relationship. We are extremely excited about next season and look forward to moving the program to the next level.”
Nolt briefly helped coach the Etown women’s basketball team under then head coach Yvonne Kaufman, who led the Blue Jays to their seventh Middle Atlantic Conference Championship during the 1994-95 season.
When Gorman was named head coach of the Etown women’s basketball program in March 2012, she reached out to Nolt to join her coaching staff. Since then, Gorman and Nolt have led the women’s basketball program to work cohesively as a team and stand out both regionally and nationally.
Gorman has always encouraged high levels of involvement and initiative from her coaching staff. Each individual coach makes a significant contribution to the women’s basketball program at Etown, whether it is at practice, a game or recruiting. “For the past two years, Gorman has been leading the staff in such a way that is very collaborative in nature,” Nolt said. “She has graciously allowed me to have a great deal of responsibility and autonomy as her assistant coach, so the new coaching adjustment will be easy. I will continue in those duties as well as gain additional tasks within the athletic department.”
