Howard Payne, ranked #3 in the D-III poll, defeated Louisiana College 73-49, improving to 12-0 overall and 8-0 in the American Southwest Conference.
A little something about the success story that is Howard Payne (Brownwood, TX). Their current coach Chris Kielsmeier arrived at HPU as an assistant in '99, immediately after graduating from Iowa State University. He became head coach in 2000.
“When I first got here the program was in terrible shape," he recalled. "They hadn’t had a winning season in four years. The stands were almost an embarrassment. We would have 50 people at halftime. By the end of the game we might have a couple hundred coming in for the guy’s game because we played double-headers. Quite honestly, nobody cared about women’s basketball."
These days, though, Howard Payne averages 1,490 a game, making it Division III's top-drawing program. So what happened?
First, Kielsmeier improved the product on the court. He's become the winningest women's basketball coach in HPU history, averaging over 21 wins per season. But he knows winning doesn't necessarily translate in success.
"You can build a great program and nobody can show up and nobody can care about it," said Kielsmeier. So he's applied all he learned as an intern under ISU head coach Bill Fennelly. “You’ve got to have your players accessible to anybody, anytime, anywhere. Back then, though," he noted dryly, "nobody really wanted to have anything to do with us."
"But, as the program grew and we became more known and won more games, people wanted to get to know our players.” Now his student-athletes can be found volunteering at the local Boys and Girls club and spending an hour a week at area Head Start programs. More fans at the game has been a direct result of building personal connections within the community.
As for Kielsmeier? "I try to talk to everybody in town, be a face to our program, be somebody this town has gotten to know. As a coach you want to do everything you can to generate support for the program. But some of that stuff you can’t control." For instance, his multi-voweled last name has become an unexpected source of publicty.
"People in town call me 'Coach K.' It’s become a big uproar to some people in this area because they don’t think I should be called Coach K because they think there’s only one 'Coach K,'" he chuckled. "That’s part of what I’m talking about – I’ve become a reason for people to talk about our program. It’s nothing I’ve ever done. I just try to be polite to people and give them a reason to come to our games."
Don't think that the growth is directly attributable to some great influx of cash. As a Division III school, said Kielsmeier, "we’re certainly on a low budget. We throw out t-shirts during games, mini-balls that our kids autographed -- it’s nothing that you’d see at a big time school with a lot of great marketing and great money. But we do what we can. Anything that you can to give people a reason to say, 'Hey, that’s pretty fun. Let’s go to that.'”
Kielsmeier sees building his program as a full-time job. And he actually means full-time. "I just think it’s part of your day-to-day activity," he explained. "Every single person you talk to, just try to get to know them a little bit. Give them a reason to come to your game. I just want to be a positive ambassador for our school, and certainly somebody that people know and respect."
The 2006-2007 season was a stellar one for the Lady Jackets. Kielsmeier led them to a 28-2 record, an American Southwest Conference title, and a third straight trip to the NCAA III National Tournament. They also set a single-game NCAA-III attendance record of 4,011.
"It just spread and took off into a thing I don’t think anybody could have envisioned," reflected Kielsmeier. "You just hope that you put yourself in a position – you try not to put limits on it. But certainly you don’t expect to have 15,000 for the last four games of the year. It was pretty neat for everyone."
A little something about the success story that is Howard Payne (Brownwood, TX). Their current coach Chris Kielsmeier arrived at HPU as an assistant in '99, immediately after graduating from Iowa State University. He became head coach in 2000.
“When I first got here the program was in terrible shape," he recalled. "They hadn’t had a winning season in four years. The stands were almost an embarrassment. We would have 50 people at halftime. By the end of the game we might have a couple hundred coming in for the guy’s game because we played double-headers. Quite honestly, nobody cared about women’s basketball."
These days, though, Howard Payne averages 1,490 a game, making it Division III's top-drawing program. So what happened?
First, Kielsmeier improved the product on the court. He's become the winningest women's basketball coach in HPU history, averaging over 21 wins per season. But he knows winning doesn't necessarily translate in success.
"You can build a great program and nobody can show up and nobody can care about it," said Kielsmeier. So he's applied all he learned as an intern under ISU head coach Bill Fennelly. “You’ve got to have your players accessible to anybody, anytime, anywhere. Back then, though," he noted dryly, "nobody really wanted to have anything to do with us."
"But, as the program grew and we became more known and won more games, people wanted to get to know our players.” Now his student-athletes can be found volunteering at the local Boys and Girls club and spending an hour a week at area Head Start programs. More fans at the game has been a direct result of building personal connections within the community.
As for Kielsmeier? "I try to talk to everybody in town, be a face to our program, be somebody this town has gotten to know. As a coach you want to do everything you can to generate support for the program. But some of that stuff you can’t control." For instance, his multi-voweled last name has become an unexpected source of publicty.
"People in town call me 'Coach K.' It’s become a big uproar to some people in this area because they don’t think I should be called Coach K because they think there’s only one 'Coach K,'" he chuckled. "That’s part of what I’m talking about – I’ve become a reason for people to talk about our program. It’s nothing I’ve ever done. I just try to be polite to people and give them a reason to come to our games."
Don't think that the growth is directly attributable to some great influx of cash. As a Division III school, said Kielsmeier, "we’re certainly on a low budget. We throw out t-shirts during games, mini-balls that our kids autographed -- it’s nothing that you’d see at a big time school with a lot of great marketing and great money. But we do what we can. Anything that you can to give people a reason to say, 'Hey, that’s pretty fun. Let’s go to that.'”
Kielsmeier sees building his program as a full-time job. And he actually means full-time. "I just think it’s part of your day-to-day activity," he explained. "Every single person you talk to, just try to get to know them a little bit. Give them a reason to come to your game. I just want to be a positive ambassador for our school, and certainly somebody that people know and respect."
The 2006-2007 season was a stellar one for the Lady Jackets. Kielsmeier led them to a 28-2 record, an American Southwest Conference title, and a third straight trip to the NCAA III National Tournament. They also set a single-game NCAA-III attendance record of 4,011.
"It just spread and took off into a thing I don’t think anybody could have envisioned," reflected Kielsmeier. "You just hope that you put yourself in a position – you try not to put limits on it. But certainly you don’t expect to have 15,000 for the last four games of the year. It was pretty neat for everyone."
posted by Helen at 5:46 AM
