{"id":645,"date":"2019-04-26T20:52:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T20:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/?p=645"},"modified":"2019-04-27T00:25:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T00:25:34","slug":"a-winning-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/a-winning-team\/","title":{"rendered":"A winning team"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Anji-huddle\"<\/a>Anji Weissenfluh, \u201994<\/a>, hates to lose. But it\u2019s all right because the long-time women\u2019s basketball coach and athletic director rarely does it.<\/p>\n

EOU\u2019s all-time winningest coach and the CCC\u2019s 2017-18 Athletic Director of the Year<\/a> said she\u2019s driven by a fear of failure more than a love for trophies. That humility grounds Weissenfluh, who said she\u2019s grateful for the many supportive coaches and staff members in the athletics department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are new challenges and rewards every day,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s result-driven, which adds pressure, but you get to see the outcome right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost two decades as a coach and five years as Athletic Director haven\u2019t dulled Weissenfluh\u2019s passion for the game or the students she gets to know each season.<\/p>\n

At the helm of more than 50 coaches and staff members in the department, Weissenfluh said the group is united by a competitive spirit and a willingness to pitch in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just me running the show, we have a good team,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone helps, coaches, administrative staff, assistants, everyone steps up and fills the gaps. There\u2019s no way you could balance coaching and being an A.D. otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the balance is a tricky one, but her win percentage has increased since taking on the leadership role in addition to coaching. Kaki McLean Morehead, EOU\u2019s head volleyball coach since 2007, has worked with Weissenfluh throughout her long tenure and said she appreciates having a leader who is also a teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids don\u2019t care how much I know about basketball until they know how much I care about them.\u201d<\/div>\n

\u201cShe understands the demands of coaching and what it takes to be successful,\u201d McLean Morehead said. \u201cIn her time at Eastern, she truly has done a great job of getting the athletic department all on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weissenfluh\u2019s philosophy as a coach all comes back to trusting relationships and high expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids don\u2019t care how much I know about basketball until they know how much I care about them,\u201d Weissenfluh said. \"Anji-hug\"<\/a>\u201cI\u2019m not an easy coach. I push our team and individuals, and I constantly want to get better, but they know where it\u2019s coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weissenfluh was a four-year starter for the women\u2019s basketball team, and coached the first Mountaineer softball team for 11 seasons. Her own legacy mingles with the university\u2019s as both grow in national acclaim.<\/p>\n

\u201cEOU has always made a strong commitment to athletics,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m grateful the university recognizes the value athletics brings to the community and the vitality it brings to campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Student-athletes are retained at a higher rate than the general student population on campus, and athletics encourage a sense of pride that forms the foundation of school spirit.<\/p>\n

Weissenfluh said she\u2019s proud of recent investments in campus facilities. The new stadium turf and competition track promise expanded capacity for athletes and spectators alike.<\/p>\n

Weissenfluh said increasing funding for scholarships, programs, staff and facilities are creating more opportunities for students to be part of EOU, and the new indoor fieldhouse widens possibilities even further. The planned structure will house an indoor track, climbing wall, lab and classroom space, as well as training rooms.<\/p>\n

The Oregon legislature approved $9 million toward the project. While additional funds are needed, construction is set to begin in 2020. External events like trade shows and concerts could make use of the large gathering space, as well as athletic tournaments and EOU varsity teams.<\/p>\n

But Weissenfluh still has a soft spot for the arena she\u2019s spent most of her life in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nowhere I\u2019d rather be than Quinn Coliseum,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been walking into that building for 30 years. It\u2019s been my home.\u201d<\/p>\n

And throughout those years, she\u2019s opened her home to colleagues, community members and students. She\u2019s developed an atmosphere that instills what she calls \u201cthe intangibles\u201d \u2014 the values and principles that athletics impart to every person who comes in contact with the community Weissenfluh has built.<\/p>\n

Season to season, her team is a winning one.\"Anji-champions\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

WINNING STATISTICS<\/h2>\n

Win-Loss record: 437-149<\/p>\n

Win percentage: .746<\/p>\n

15 seasons of 20+ wins<\/p>\n

11 appearances in the national tournament<\/p>\n

11 CCC regular season titles<\/p>\n

6 conference tournament championships<\/p>\n

First head coach in program history to earn 100th career victory<\/p>\n

Best season in program history with a 33-3 overall record (2012-13), and first team in CCC history to accomplish the feat<\/p>\n

First NAIA Division II Women\u2019s Basketball National Championships victory<\/p>\n

10 NAIA All-Americans<\/p>\n

4 CCC Player of the Year honorees<\/p>\n

23 All-Conference selections<\/p>\n

School record holder for steals (227)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anji Weissenfluh, \u201994, hates to lose. But it\u2019s all right because the long-time women\u2019s basketball coach and athletic director rarely does it. EOU\u2019s all-time winningest coach and the CCC\u2019s 2017-18 Athletic Director of the Year said she\u2019s driven by a fear of failure more than a love for trophies. That humility grounds Weissenfluh, who said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":380,"featured_media":646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,36,3],"tags":[23,25,6],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-spring-2019","category-university-news","tag-alumni","tag-athletics","tag-basketball"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/380"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":712,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}