Where have you gone, Jodi Gault? UPJ casts its lonely eyes to thee



… women's program has fallen onto hard times 

The stark line in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference women's basketball standings was emphatic: In last place in the PSAC-West were the Pitt-Johnstown (UPJ) Lady Cats at 3-17, 7-19 overall.

What a fall from grace in the past ten years since Jodi Gault, now a hall-of-famer at UPJ, left as coach. Gault compiled a 540-156 record overall for a .776 winning percentage in her 25 years.

She built the Lady Cats into a District II regional contender, averaging 21.6 wins per season.

She recruited outstanding student-athletes to Pitt-Johnstown and was a tough taskmaster, a tough disciplinarian who taught her women the game and how to win the battles in life.

Fall from dominance

After winning almost 78 percent of the games during those 25 years, the Lady Cats are just 118-140 (46 percent) since she left.

Even worse, they are 31-70 in the past four seasons, (30.6 percent).

Granted, the Lady Cats are now competing in the PSAC instead of playing as an independent as they did during Gault's career, but the UPJ hall-of-famer played many of the best PSAC teams during her years and competed well against them.

My guess is that UPJ just does not have the caliber of athletes that it needs to compete in the PSAC.

The Palmer era

Named to succeed Gault in 2007 was Sasha Palmer, who compiled an 87-70 record in her six seasons as head coach. The Lady Cats competed in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference during those years, which is arguably not as strong as the PSAC in women's basketball.

Still, she had a winning record.

Palmer left to take an assistant's job at Syracuse and then after two years moved to Wisconsin-Madison, where the Lady Badgers are now mired in last place in the Big Ten.

Pitt-Johnstown Athletic Director Pat Pecora praised Palmer when she left in 2013. “Sasha stepped into a very tough situation. It’s no easy task to come in and have to replace Jodi Gault, who had so much success. She did a nice job under difficult circumstances. The last couple of years, it really started to show.”

Nevertheless, she did not keep the program at the level that Gault had during her time, though winning 70+ percent is going to be tough for anyone.

The Drahos era

Mike Drahos succeeded Palmer, and he has compiled a 31-70 record, 19-41 in the PSAC, in his four years. Drahos had a good background as an assistant coach at West Liberty, where the program was successful and had competed in the national tournament.

However, all of his coaching ties were in West Virginia. Perhaps he is still acclimating himself to recruiting in Pa.

I do not know. I am just going by numbers here since I do not cover games any more.

While the men's program has competed well in the PSAC -- currently third in the PSAC-West at 11-9, 16-10 overall -- they have been a stable program under Bob Ruckavina.

Future?

Not sure what the answer is now, but the UPJ administration did not make a smart move ten years ago with its treatment of Jodi Gault. If she was still there, perhaps in an administrative position and as coach, the program would not be where it is right now.

This is not intended as a criticism of Pat Pecora. He did not hire Palmer, and Drahos appeared to be a good hire on paper. Sometimes, things do not work out.

However, they really have a deep hole from which to extricate themselves now.

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