Members of the selection committee that will choose a replacement for former Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland were announced Friday afternoon.
Faculty athletics representative Dr. Scott Kretchmar will lead the eight-member committee.
He will be joined by Kim Daniels, operations director of Penn State Sports Medicine Center; Bruce Ellis, the Big Ten's advisory commission representative; Kam Gissendanner, women's basketball team co-captain; Russ Rose, women's volleyball head coach; Susan Delaney-Scheetz, associate athletics director and senior woman administrator; Susan Sherburne, women's basketball academic advisor; and Vicki Triponey, vice president of student affairs.
"The standard criteria were used, that we wanted different prospective people with administration perspective, myself with academic perspective, a couple of people that know basketball or coaching-hiring pretty well," Kretchmar said.
A press release said the nation-wide search began Friday. Kretchmar added that the process will go quickly, and ultimately, Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley makes the final decision.
So far, Kretchmar said there have been "quite a few inquires" and applications.
An Internet job posting said, among other things, candidates must have "five years of successful college coaching experience," which would preclude Suzie McConnell Serio, a popular choice to replace Portland.
McConnell Serio, a former Lady Lion, has coaching experience at the high school and professional levels, but none in college.
She coached girls' basketball for 13 years at Pittsburgh's Oakland Catholic High School, where she won three PIAA Class AAA titles and compiled a 321-86 record. She also coached in the WNBA and in 2004 was named the league's coach of the year. She could not be reached for comment yesterday.
"There are unique aspects to collegiate coaching," Kretchmar said. "One is the age of the women, another is recruiting, the other parameters have to do with the balancing act student-athletes have that professionals don't have.
"Somebody might be extremely strong on a couple criteria and not on another one, and we make a judgement overall to see to what extent their strengths outweigh their weaknesses," he said.
