{"id":7566,"date":"2013-12-19T16:49:21","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T16:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/coach-abe-and-coach-p-longtime-friends-facing-off-at-duke\/"},"modified":"2013-12-19T16:49:21","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T16:49:21","slug":"coach-abe-and-coach-p-longtime-friends-facing-off-at-duke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/coach-abe-and-coach-p-longtime-friends-facing-off-at-duke\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach Abe and Coach P: Longtime Friends Facing-Off at Duke"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Coach Abe and Coach P: Longtime Friends Facing-Off at Duke<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

ALBANY, N.Y. \u2013<\/strong> On Thursday, two head coaches and friends that have been together through the years will have their teams face-off at Cameron Indoor Stadium, marking another step on the journey that started over 20 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

The University at Albany women\u2019s basketball team, coached by Katie Abrahamson-Henderson<\/a>, will face Duke University, led by Joanne P. McCallie, on Thursday in a game of teams that have combined to win five conference titles in the past four seasons.\u00a0 The two are great friends in a very competitive field, continuing that friendship that has spanned many years and states across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many refer to the two by their nicknames: Abrahamson-Henderson is known as Coach Abe, and McCallie is called Coach P, both referencing their maiden names.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1992, a 26-year-old Joanne McCallie (then Joanne Palombo), a Northwestern graduate and assistant coach at Auburn, took over as head coach at the University of Maine, a strong program in the North Atlantic Conference, now known as the America East.\u00a0 McCallie hired Abrahamson-Henderson (then Katie Abrahamson), an Iowa graduate who had just finished her graduate assistant position at Duquesne, as a full-time assistant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was really enthusiastic as a new head coach, and when I saw Katie\u2019s resume, I knew her from being an All-American in high school,\u201d says McCallie. \u201cI did not know her personally, but when I interviewed her, she was great, and she came on-board.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe knew I was a pretty good player, and she need a post coach,\u201d reflects Abrahamson-Henderson. \u201cShe liked the way I played and the fact that I was tough, and she pretty much hired me on the phone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In their second year together, the Black Bears went 20-9 with 12-2 conference record, earning the North Atlantic regular season championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe both had some great tutelage under our belts, playing for Hall of Fame coaches,\u201d says Abrahamson-Henderson. \u201cWe wanted to outwork people, and we got kids to fit our system and turn the program around.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The following season, Abrahamson-Henderson moved on to become an assistant coach at Iowa State.\u00a0 Each coach found strong success in their separate paths: McCallie\u2019s Black Bears won four-straight conference championships, a feat yet to be repeated in the America East, while Abrahamson-Henderson helped Iowa State earn four straight appearances into the NCAA Tournament, including an Elite Eight appearance in 1999 and a Big 12 title the following season.\u00a0 Though the two were on their separate ways, they kept in regular contact.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game I would call her for advice, she would call me for help on post coaches.\u00a0 We have had some of the same coaches in this small community as well.\u00a0 Joanne is a great role model and person to get advice from,\u201d adds Abrahamson-Henderson.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2000-01 season brought both coaches back to the conference of their alma maters.\u00a0 McCallie was hired to be the head coach of Michigan State, and a month later, brought Abrahamson-Henderson in to be an associate head coach.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot from Bill Fennelly at Iowa State, a lot, but I wanted a new challenge,\u201d says Abrahamson-Henderson. \u201cI fell in love with Michigan State, and we went in and rebuilt another program.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McCallie built a strong coaching staff that year, as all three of her assistants in that season currently run programs of their own.\u00a0 Abrahamson-Henderson is at UAlbany, Felisha Legette-Jack is currently the head coach at Buffalo and Janel Burgess leads Grand Valley State.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great fun; we were older, wiser and had more experiences, yet we were in the same boat, starting a program from the bottom and waiting to rebuild it,\u201d says McCallie. \u201cWe recruited some great kids that helped us get to the national championship in 2005.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From year one to year two, Michigan State made strong strides, earning 19 wins, a nine-win improvement from the first season, and WNIT semifinal berth.\u00a0 The two helped build a foundation that saw Michigan State earn NCAA berths for five consecutive seasons from 2003 through 2007.\u00a0 The Spartans continued to rise, and in the 2004-05 season, defeated Tennessee to earn a place in the NCAA Championship game, falling to Baylor. \u00a0This season, McCallie was named the Associated Press National Coach of the Year.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Abrahamson-Henderson was not there on the Michigan State sidelines, having earned her first head coaching job at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) for the 2002-03 season.\u00a0 In her five years with the program, the Bears earned three Missouri Valley Conference titles and had a pair of 25+-win seasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the 2006-07 season, McCallie took the reins of a new program, being named head coach at Duke.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile after a year at Washington, Coach Abe returned to the Big Ten as the associate head coach of Indiana University for two seasons, until returning to the head coaching ranks, taking over at the University at Albany in 2010.\u00a0 Abrahamson-Henderson credits McCallie for helping her with both head coaching jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a great recruiter, and a very selfless person,\u201d says Abrahamson-Henderson about McCallie. \u201cShe is a like a sister, she wants to help out all those who have helped her along the way, and she knows I care about her and that I can coach.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That year, Duke and UAlbany met at Cameron Indoor Stadium.\u00a0 It was Abrahamson-Henderson\u2019s first year, and the schedule had been set before she came to UAlbany, except for Duke.\u00a0 That game was added on. \u00a0It was also the first time Abrahamson-Henderson and McCallie met as head coaches; Michigan State and Missouri State did not play each other during their tenures.\u00a0 An upstart Great Danes team that had started 6-1 but coming off a defeat to Syracuse, was defeated by fifth-ranked and undefeated Duke 83-47.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell I\u2019m very honored and privileged to come back here, or just come here, and see Joanne again and see her team,\u201d said Abrahamson-Henderson after that game in 2010. \u201cA lot of fun to be here in her new environment and I\u2019m just very excited and proud of her. I just really wanted our team to come in and play really, really hard, and that was the goal for the game and to be honest and make Joanna proud of me again and that the team [Albany] is going to do well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s nice about coaching against a former assistant is she knows that we\u2019re serious about the game,\u201d said McCallie after that same game. \u201cThere\u2019s no time for thinking about anything but the game when it\u2019s going on. She\u2019s well aware and she\u2019s doing a terrific job in her first year. I\u2019m excited for her. That team\u2019s got some nice fight. I hope they win the league.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That UAlbany team included young players like Ebone Henry<\/a> and Julie Forster<\/a>, key pieces to a program that won America East championships in 2012 and 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCallie\u2019s Duke teams have seen strong success as well, winning three ACC titles and earning NCAA Elite Eight berths each of the last four years.\u00a0 With Duke\u2019s win over Oklahoma on December 8th<\/sup>, McCallie earned her 500th<\/sup> win as a head coach.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll my former players and coaches are a big part of that milestone, and Katie is a part of it,\u201d says McCallie.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meeting up in 2013, only the UAlbany coaching staff remembers that game from 2010.\u00a0 Abrahamson-Henderson, assistant coach Mary Grimes<\/a> and then director of operations Tahnee Balerio<\/a> were in Durham for that game, but a completely different roster of players will see Duke for the first time.\u00a0 A different story for the Blue Devils, with current seniors Chelsea Gray and Tricia Liston having led Duke with 15 points each in that 2010 game as freshmen.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for this contest, though the coaches are friends, it is about the game, not themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get into the competition, that is what it is,\u201d says McCallie. \u201cWe will focus on our team, Katie will focus on hers.\u00a0 That is a great way to coach, and that is how it is.\u00a0 It is nice to see each other and say hello, but it is still in-season, and it is not as fun seeing each other in the offseason.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is about the quality of the experience for our players, and that is why we both do this game,\u201d adds Abrahamson-Henderson. \u201cIt is not about her and me, even though we like to see each other.\u00a0 It is a great experience for our team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Both are very busy with being coaches and having families, but the friendship remains strong.\u00a0 But one place they will not meet up, is in the pool.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a fantastic swimmer, she could have been one in college even before basketball,\u201d says McCallie. \u201cWe did some swimming together at Maine, and her strokes were so good, in part because of how tall she is.\u00a0 We never raced, no need to; we know what would have been the outcome of that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can beat her anytime swimming!\u00a0 We used to workout all the time at Maine, and I got her into swimming, and we even implemented swimming workouts in our players at Maine,\u201d says Abrahamson-Henderson. \u201cBut she knows she could not beat me, ever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Thursday at Cameron Indoor Stadium, both coaches will focus on one objective, trying to win the game.\u00a0 But no matter what, the ties of friendship will remain strong between these two great head coaches.<\/span><\/p>\n

Credit Duke Photography for the picture of Coach Joanne McCallie and Greg Fisher for the picture of Coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson.\u00a0 Special thanks to Lindy Brown and the Duke sports information office, which contributed to this piece.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\nThe Albany Student Press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coach Abe and Coach P: Longtime Friends Facing-Off at Duke ALBANY, N.Y. \u2013 On Thursday, two head coaches and friends that have been together through the years will have their teams face-off at Cameron Indoor Stadium, marking another step on the journey that started over 20 years ago. The University at Albany women\u2019s basketball team, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[983],"tags":[1127,2973,2976,2975,2974],"class_list":["post-7566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albany-student-press","tag-coach","tag-duke","tag-facingoff","tag-friends","tag-longtime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}