SEPTEMBER 10, 2007
COURTESY OF RUTGERS-CAMDEN
FORMER KING'S PLAYER KATE BOWES NAMED HEAD
COACH AT RUTGERS-CAMDEN
CAMDEN,
NJ –
Basketball success has followed Kate Bowes
for years, from her scholastic days at Arch Bishop Prendergast High
School in Drexel Hill, through her collegiate career at
King’s College and on to the start of
her coaching career.
Bowes is looking to bring that success to Rutgers University-Camden,
where she has been hired as the Lady Raptors’ new head women’s
basketball coach. She replaces Jean Gyurics, who resigned for personal
reasons, after one year with the Lady Raptors program during the 2006-07
season. Rutgers-Camden posted an 8-17 record last season during a
rebuilding year, an improvement of two wins over the 6-19 club from
2005-06.
“I’m very excited,” said Bowes, who has served as
an assistant coach at Albright College for the last three seasons. “It’s
a blessing and an opportunity. I’m excited to show them, from my
standpoint, the winning tradition I’d like to start here.”
Bowes becomes the fifth head coach in five years for the Lady Raptors,
beginning with the last season of a five-year run by Jackie Trakimas
during the 2003-04 campaign. The Lady Raptors haven’t had a winning
season since Trakimas led the team to a 22-7 record and the New Jersey
Athletic Conference championship during the 2002-03 season, when
Rutgers-Camden earned the lone NCAA tournament berth in its program’s
history. Ironically, that same season was Bowes’ senior year at King’s
College, capping a four-year run in which the Lady Monarchs posted a
combined 92-21 record, earned four straight NCAA tournament berths, two
Freedom Conference championships and added one overall Middle Atlantic
Conference runner-up position. The 2001-02 King’s College team went 25-4
and made the NCAA Elite Eight, while the 2002-03 team was 24-4 and
reached the NCAA Sweet 16.
During her playing career as a point-guard and off-guard at King’s,
Bowes played in 106 games, making three starts, and earning the
reputation as a tenacious defender. She averaged 3.3 points, 1.5
rebounds and 15.4 minutes played per game in her career. She finished
with 188 assists and 106 steals in a Monarchs uniform.
“I believe in defense,” said Bowes, who also played intramural street
hockey in college. “I wouldn’t mind if our team scored 10 points, as
long as the other team scored only nine.”
Ironically, Bowes will return to King's on November 25 when the teams
square off in her former collegiate home - Scandlon Gymnasium.
Bowes earned All-Catholic League basketball honors in each of her last
three seasons at Arch Bishop Prendergast High School. She also was a
three-year letter-winner in softball and served as president of the
Community Service Corps. That track record for service led Bowes to
serve with AmeriCorps following her 2003 graduation from King’s College,
where she majored in Communications and Marketing.
Bowes’ year-long stint with AmeriCorps was spent in New Orleans. During
that time, she also served as the head boys’ basketball coach at Bishop
Perry Middle School for the 2003-04 school year. Her team captured the
city championship, making Bowes the first female head coach to lead a
boys’ team to the New Orleans title.
Returning from New Orleans, Bowes started a three-year run as an
assistant women’s basketball coach at Albright College. The Lady Lions
improved steadily, posting a 5-20 record the first year (2004-05) and a
14-11 mark during the 2005-06 campaign. They capped Bowes’ stay at
Albright with a school-record 18-10 mark last season, reaching
post-season play for the first time in 10 years and competing in the
program’s first ECAC Tournament ever, where they advanced to the
semifinals.
Over the years, Bowes also has coached numerous basketball camps,
including the Albright College Camp (three years), Keystone State Camp
(three years) and the West Chester University Camp (two years). Now
she’s counting on all that experience and success to turn around the
Lady Raptors’ fortunes.
“It’s a great opportunity for me and the team to
grow,” Bowes said. “Although we have seniors, I still feel we’re young.
We’re still growing. We’re both learning. For the first year, it will
probably be a learning process for all of us.
“We have a lot of talent, it’s just how we use the talent together. What
we need is longevity from me. I’m a big believer in respect. They have
to respect and believe in me, just as I will in them.”
With Bowes’ track record for success, the Rutgers-Camden women’s
basketball program is headed in the right direction.
“It’s not the question of ‘can it be done?’” she said. “It’s ‘will it
and when?’”
King's Note: Bowes joins Carissa Ryan as recent
King's graduates serving as head coach of NCAA Division III programs.
Carissa Ryan enters her third year as head coach at Keystone College.
