Success, retirement mirror JHU images
Funk, winningest women’s coach with Blue Jays, steps away after 31 seasons
The idea of retiring as Johns Hopkins women’s basketball coach began to dawn on Nancy Funk in mid-February. That notion took serious hold after Bill Nelson — her counterpart on the men’s basketball team who began coaching in 1986, the same year that Funk started — announced his retirement in March.
“I think when Bill decided that he was going to retire, it caused me to take a step back and say, ‘How do I feel about coming back another year with a new colleague in the other position?’ ” Funk recalled. “Bill and I started the same year here. It’s a unique situation and quite frankly, the successes of our program have mirrored each other throughout our tenure here. So we’ve established this wonderful working relationship over the years where he’s a colleague I can certainly count on to talk to for advice and friendship and the whole gamut. … So I think the process was more at full-tilt when Bill made his decision.”
Funk, who will step down June 30, amassed a 537-264 record in 31 years as the winningest coach in Blue Jays women’s sports history and a 663-353 overall mark that includes nine seasons at Messiah, her alma mater. Her tenure includes 26 winning seasons, four Centennial Conference titles and 10 NCAA tournament appearances.
Funk said she and her husband, Dave, had several lengthy conversations about retiring from coaching. (“I had to wrap my head around it,” said Funk, who declined to reveal her age except to say that she is in her “mid-60s.”) But once she made the decision two weeks ago, she said, the timing was right.