FORT COLLINS — Despite the worst record in the program’s 33-year history and an unprecedented third consecutive 20-loss season, Jen Warden won’t be the third coaching casualty at Colorado State this school year.
CSU athletic director Paul Kowalczyk, who showed no patience with ex-men’s basketball coach Dale Layer and football counterpart Sonny Lubick after their programs took downturns, said Warden’s job is safe.
“Yes, (she’ll be back),” Ko-walczyk said. “Jen has had absolutely no opportunity to get any traction at this point.”
CSU is 2-24 with four games left. Kowalczyk said the program is nowhere close to where he wants it, but cited the constant rebuilding Warden has had to do, owing in part to a off-campus prank last season that cost two players their scholarships. Kowalczyk denies that budget crimping from the football changeover has any bearing on his desire to keep Warden, who has two years left on her contract.
“Yes, you make decisions based on money, but that’s not the issue here,” he said.
Walk into a CSU practice and Warden is fully in command. She has her players’ attention. There’s no slumping body language to indicate a nearly two-month losing streak. She’s upbeat.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” she said. “It’s not like there is team dysfunction. We have the blessing of coming into this gym every day with 13 players who work hard, that believe in each other, believe in themselves. You have to trust in the long run, you are going to be rewarded.”
To paraphrase Colorado football coach Dan Hawkins: This ain’t intramurals, sister.
“That’s true,” she said, acknowledging the necessity of winning soon.
As for Kowalczyk’s assurance she will get at least one more year, Warden said: “The burden of thinking about next year, other than recruiting, really doesn’t do anybody any good.”
The day ex-coach Tom Collen left the program in 2002 was the day that marked the downturn in CSU women’s basketball. Collen, now at Arkansas, had an 88-37 four-year stint at Louisville.
Warden inherited a mess from Chris Denker, who was fired, and it’s been constant rebuilding since, with sparse crowds usually numbered in the hundreds this season.
Sara Hunter, the lone senior, recalls a freshman-year mutiny by upperclassmen and their parents against Denker’s harsh style. Since, there has been almost nonstop attrition.
Warden signed one player last fall: Longmont Silver Creek forward Meghan Heimstra, who led her team to a No. 1 seed in the state girls 4A bracket. Warden said she has oral commitments from three players who will sign letters of intent this spring.
Kowalczyk hints that Warden may follow Wyoming’s successful model of recruiting international players. CSU already has a Turk and an Australian.
This isn’t what Hunter signed up for out of nearby Rocky Mountain High School. She dreamed of playing for the Rams since she was a junior high school student sitting among the packed crowds during the Becky Hammon-Katie Cronin era.
“It’s been a struggle that I’ve never expected,” Hunter said. “It’s been absolutely humbling. It’s the positive and negative of being so close to home.”
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
Rock bottom
In 2005, CSU went 15-13 and had its first losing conference record since 1995. Chris Denker was fired and Jen Warden was hired. A look at the Rams under Warden:
2006, 9-20 record: First losing season since 1993.
2007, 8-21: Four players involved in off-court incidents. Lost MWC play-in game to Air Force.
2008, 2-24: Most losses in school history; worst overall record by a team in MWC history; 28 points in a 40-point loss at Utah the fewest points in school history; currently on a 16-game MWC losing streak.
Natalie Meisler, The Denver Post
