Edwards to coach Golden Knights
She impressed AD during interview, visit to campus
Lori Anctil and Whitney Edwards weren’t able to seal it with a handshake. After all, this is the era of COVID-19.
But they did get to meet in person when Edwards, the new College of Saint Rose women’s basketball coach, visited the campus last month.
“Her mask was on, so I knew she was a rule-follower, which was really good,” said Anctil, Saint Rose’s athletic director. “She offered me gloves. We gave each other an air hug when we left … We would have loved to have done a handshake at the beginning and probably a hug at the end.”
That interview and tour of the facilities left Anctil, already impressed with Edwards, more convinced she’s the right person to bring the Golden Knights back to prominence.
Saint Rose announced Monday it hired Edwards, a Northeastern University assistant, to take over the Division II program. She replaces Karen Haag, who changed positions in the Saint Rose athletic department in March after 19 seasons as head coach.
“I’m thrilled not only to have a coach in place, but to have Whitney as our coach,” Anctil said. “She’s just tremendous, so it’s been really exciting for us. I didn’t want to rush anything and I wanted to make sure I did all my homework and talked to everybody I could and get as much information as I could about different candidates. Fortunately, our top candidate was Whitney and she was the only one we offered the posi
tion to and she accepted.”
Edwards wasn’t available for an interview on Monday. She’ll do a Zoom conference call with the media on Tuesday afternoon. She already met the players by video conference on Monday, Anctil said.
Anctil said there were 95 applicants for the job before she began narrowing it down to the most qualified candidates. She said she talked to eight to 10 people about Edwards, including athletic directors and coaches familiar with her.
Edwards takes over a Golden Knights program that went 7-19 in the Northeast-10 Conference this season, the program’s seventh losing season in the past eight years.
She has had success at her other stops. At Northeastern, the Huskies reached the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
She spent 2015 to 2017 as an assistant at New Hampshire, her alma mater, where the Wildcats made a 14-win improvement from her first season to her second.
“Whitney’s one of those people you talk to and you like instantly,” Anctil said. “She’s got a dynamic personality. She’s just a woman of really high character. There’s things I was looking for in our next leader. I wanted somebody that really was a character person, that could recruit and brought a winning mentality. Whitney checked off every single box.”
While it wasn’t one of the boxes, Anctil said it was a bonus Edwards already coached in the NE-10. She was an assistant at Stonehill from 2013 to 2015, when the Skyhawks went 44-15 and went to a pair of Division II NCAA Tournaments. She began her career at Division III SUNY Plattsburgh.
It’s success she’ll try to duplicate at Saint Rose, though it might take time, Anctil conceded.
“I’ve learned you kind of have to be patient,” she said “All I want to do is support Whitney so she has all the tools necessary to bring championships back to Saint Rose. I wouldn’t put anything past her. I wouldn’t be surprised in year one if we’re competing for a championship.”
During her playing career at UNH, Edwards was the America East Defensive Player of the Year in 2007. It gave Anctil some insight into her as a coach.
“She’s going to scrap,” Anctil said. “She’s going to be defensively sound, but she also likes to score. She likes that high tempo, fast pace.”
Though it’s a fairly late hire, Anctil said Edwards still plans to add recruits before next season.