The following story ran in the 2018 Winter Edition of Bruin Blue Magazine.
By Chris Foster
UCLA women's basketball coach Cori Close pushes beyond boundaries.
There is a season to be played. Goals for it are clear. But on the other side, there is a purpose.
So she brought in Ryan Hollins, former Bruins' basketball player and ESPN analyst, to talk with her team this fall.
"Ryan told them that the reason he was able to create a broadcasting career at ESPN was because of what he learned as a human being at UCLA," Close said. "I want to hammer home how all of this can affect your life."
Close has always preached what she has practiced. Her path to becoming UCLA's coach was less an evolution and more a relentless pursuit.
That was clear to Mark French, UC Santa Barbara's coach from 1987-2008. He spotted Close, then a 17-year old high school player, at an all-star camp at Pepperdine in 1989.
"At those camps, players don't really know each other and there isn't a lot of communication between them on the court," French said. "There was Cori getting all the players on her team together, putting her arms around them, talking to them. I thought, 'There's a coach.' " Star point guard Jordin Canada (left) and coach Cori Close.
(Photo: Daniel Saunders)
Ann Meyers, former UCLA basketball star, spotted that drive early-on as well. She was working as an announcer for Santa Barbara games in the early 1990s and picked up on Close's determination.
"She was just tenacious as a player and made the team go," Meyers said. "There was no doubt that she was the leader. You can tell a player who can get other players to respond. You knew she was going to take that into coaching."
UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero felt that passion when he was searching for a new women's coach in 2011. Close, then an assistant coach at Florida State, came to town and impressed the UCLA search committee.
"What stood out most to me about Cori – and continues to this day – was her ability to connect, to teach and to lead," Guerrero said. "She is a culture builder."
Close has always sought to expand her coaching vision.
It began with her father, Don, a high school teacher and coach. Her mentors include John Wooden, who Close was able to meet while in Westwood.
"She is just like a sponge," Meyers said.
Close has applied what she has learned to create a UCLA program that is among the best in the highly-competitive Pac-12. The Bruins have reached the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournament the last three seasons, advancing to the Kansas City Regional final in 2018, losing to fourth-ranked Mississippi State.
"I didn't want to build a team, I wanted to build a program that was good for everyone in the community that surrounds us," said Close.
"I saw through my dad's eyes how passionate it was to teach kids and be a part of the growth journey. I saw what it did for him.
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Close heard the same thing over and over as a young basketball player.
"Hundreds of people told me I was too slow and too small," Close said. "They said I should stick to soccer."
That would have been fine with Close, except, "at that time there weren't as many college scholarships for women's soccer."
So, while Close also played soccer and softball, basketball became her focus, a rather intense focus.
"I don't think I would have survived if I wasn't feisty," Close said.
That was reinforced by Julie Plank, then a Stanford assistant. After a basketball camp, Close said Plank pulled her aside and said, "if you play like that, you're a Division I player."
Close didn't have to be told twice.
She started four seasons at Milpitas High School, leading the Lady Trojans to Santa Clara Valley Athletic League titles as a junior and senior. Close was inducted to the school's hall of fame in 2005.
Still, she was not overwhelmed by Division I offers. That, it turned out, worked out to her – and French's – advantage.
When French saw Close in the all-star camp at Pepperdine, his assessment was a player who was solid, but "wasn't the most athletic point guard."
French said, "to be honest, if she had great skills, we never would've had a shot at her." There were intangibles that he liked, particularly Close's leadership.
"She looked like a young woman who be a great fit for our program," French said. "She fit a lot of things were looking for at the time." Cori Close as a student-athlete at UCSB.
(Photo: UCSB Athletics)
Close became the first Santa Barbara player with 1,000 points and 500 assists. She helped the Gauchos win their first Big West Conference championship in 1992. In 1993, she hit a three-pointer on the last possession to give them to the Big West tournament championship – and was named the tournament's most valuable player.
The encore was a victory over Houston, the Gauchos first NCAA Tournament win.
Close wore her heart on her sleeve, or rather wrist. She had a wristband with the initials I.A. – inner arrogance.
"She was a bundle of energy on the court," Meyers said. "She was tenacious and made the team go. She was that as a player and, now, as a coach."
Close had been considering coaching since she was a child.
Don, a teacher at Milpitas High, coached football, basketball and soccer. Close just figured she would follow in his footsteps as a high teacher and coach.
"The dads in our neighborhood, my village, all coached," Close said. "It was bred into me at an early age."
French saw the coaching gene early on.
Close injured her Achilles tendon and missed the second half of her freshman year at Santa Barbara. She insisted on being actively involved.
"We'd wheel onto the court to sit next to me," French said. "She never offered me advice, but I would hear what she said to other players and would think, 'that's a good idea. That makes sense.' She not only was my coach on the court, she was my coach in a wheelchair."
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The decision to morph into coaching was made long ago.
Where to begin was the next step. Kathy Olivier, entering her first year as UCLA's head coach in 1993, had an opening for a restricted earnings coach. Olivier had seen Close work at a UCLA basketball camp in 1992 and offered her the job. Close jumped at the chance.
The job paid $16,000, but the perks that came with the job were priceless.
Close began a friendship with Steve Lavin, an assistant for the men's team and a friend of Wooden.
"I would tease Steve, 'when are you going to take me to meet coach?' " Close said. "One day, Steve came to me and said, 'we're going tonight.' I freaked out. I was a nervous wreck walking from the elevator to his apartment."
Wooden greeted them and asked, "Who are you?"
Close said, "I said, 'Cori,' which came out in 10 syllables. He said, 'How do you spell that?"
Wooden brought her in and showed her the stool belonging to his granddaughter, who was also named Cori.
"He said I was the first person he had met who spelled 'Cori" the same as her," Close said.
Close returned every Tuesday during her two seasons as a UCLA assistant.
"Every coach talks process over product, every coach speaks about relationships with people over X's and O's," Close said. "Coach Wooden lived it so consistently."
The biggest lesson Wooden passed on was the idea of a program being a community.
"It not only has to be good for the student-athlete, but good for the baker and banker and everyone else in the community," Close said. "It was bigger than winning games. That's why Coach Wooden was so special."
Close took that philosophy up the coast to Santa Barbara when she was brought on as an assistant by French. The two spent nine seasons together and Close helped grow the program beyond the court.
She developed a marketing plan that integrated the team and community, with speaking engagements, community service and other public interactions.
"She was relentless," French said. "I felt like other people in the athletic department thought we should focus on the team. I'd get home and she'd call with an idea we discussed 40 times. She would wear me, or whoever she was talking to down."
French said the result was the women's program generated more revenue than any other Santa Barbara program. But it went beyond dollars. To French and Close, it made sense.
"She built one of the biggest booster clubs on the West Coast," French said. "People in the community felt that these were their players. Kids would beg their parents to go to games."
Coach Close as an assistant at UCLA with legendary men's coach John Wooden.
In return, Close enhanced her coaching resume.
Said Close: "Mark would stop practice when a player was tired. He'd tell them, 'Someday you're going to be really tired, tired from staying up all night with your kid. You're going to have to give a presentation for work the next day. No one will care. You have to learn to be productive when you're tired.' "
Close spent seven seasons in Santa Barbara, with the Gauchos reaching the NCAA tournament six times. She was offered a chance to take over the Pepperdine program.
She declined, instead accepting a job working for Sue Semrau at Florida State.
"It was the right thing," Close said. "I learned how to coach at a big school, a football school."
When UCLA Coach Nikki Caldwell jumped to LSU in 2011 – after leading the Bruins into the NCAA tournament back-to-back seasons – Close jumped at the chance.
"I went back to the hotel after the interview and something inside me said, 'This is going to happen,' " Close remembers. "I didn't have any reason to think that. I mean, I didn't hit the interview out of the park."
She did better than she realized.
"What stood out about Cori – and continues to this day – was her ability to connect, to teach and to lead," Guerrero said.
Close built the program, and continued to solicit advice, including attending practices at Connecticut to watch another legendary coach, Geno Auriemma, work – "they were interested in growing the game, not just growing UConn."
Success developed in Westwood.
The Bruins won the Women's NIT in 2015. They have a 78-35 record the past three seasons.
"She has done magical things," Meyers said.
Close, though, is not satisfied. Instead, she rolls relentlessly on.
"It's a very humbling experience," Close aid. "So many people have given so much for us to build a program here, the support staff, the administration, the assistant coaches, the players. We want to do something special. We're not there yet, but we'll get there."
