UWGB women’s coaching legend Borseth retires
GREEN BAY – The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women’s basketball team suddenly has some big shoes to fill.
Longtime coach Kevin Borseth announced he is retiring after more than four decades in the game, a career that includes two stints at UWGB. He met with his players Tuesday to inform them of his decision.
“It’s not easy, it’s something I really loved to do,” said Borseth, who fought back tears several times. “If I had to do anything else, I don’t think I would have been able to have half the success that I was able to have on the basketball floor. It’s been a thrill. It really has been.
“To get up tomorrow morning and to think I’m no longer the head coach, it’s going to hurt.”
The Phoenix went 27-7 this season and played in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018. It lost 92-63 to Tennessee in the opening round.
The joke in the team meeting came from Natalie McNeal, who wondered whether Borseth would have returned for another season had the Phoenix not reached the NCAAs after beating Cleveland State in the Horizon title game.
“I get emotional thinking about it,” McNeal said of making the Big Dance for her legendary coach. “Personally, and I know all my teammates, we feel so much gratification in that win and the season we had knowing now that it was his last year. Being able to do that for him, it’s really cool.”
Although Borseth made his plans official this week, retirement had been on his mind for a while. He will turn 70 in June, and he cited age as a factor. But building a program takes a lot of time, making the job mostly 365 days per year.
It also became more difficult to recruit in recent years, especially this past one. He sensed high school players knew he wouldn’t be coaching much longer, making it a challenge to get talented prospects to commit to a future that could change at any moment.
He believes now is the right time to pass the torch to somebody else.
Borseth coached the Phoenix from 1998 to 2007 after replacing Carol Hammerle, going 216-62 in nine seasons while leading UWGB to the NCAAs seven times and the WNIT twice.
Borseth’s success allowed the Bessemer, Michigan, native the opportunity to take his dream job at the University of Michigan in 2007. He spent five seasons with the Wolverines and went 87-73.
When former Phoenix coach Matt Bollant was hired by Illinois in 2012, it allowed Borseth to return to UWGB, where he went 293-84 in 12 seasons, leading the team to 20 or more wins nine times and to the NCAA Tournament six.