Coach Daron Park, head coach Brenda Frese’s top assistant the past two seasons, is leaving the program for Louisiana Tech, the Athletics Department announced yesterday.
According to Camille Powell of the Washington Post, Frese is looking at Dave Adkins, a former high school boys assistant at Montrose Christian and Dematha and personal trainer for, among others, Marissa Coleman, Greivis Vasquez and Kevin Durant, to replace Park.
On May 15, the team announced assistant Erica Floyd was resigning to pursue opportunities outside of coaching. This came a month after the transfers of Marah Strickland and Drey Mingo. Senior stars Coleman and Kristi Toliver have of course completed their eligibility, are now in the WNBA and graduated last week.
Needless to say, there’s been a lot of turnover within the program in a short period of time. Why is this particular move intriguing? More after the jump.
Often when high-profile assistants like Park jump from team to team, it comes with the promise of the head coaching gig down the line.
That doesn’t appear to be the case with Louisiana Tech. They just hired former New York Liberty guard Teresa Weatherspoon as their head coach in April. Park will receive the title of associate head coach and recruiting coordinator once he arrives in Ruston, La., but is that really a move up form what his job included here?
Park was essentially an “associate coach” in College Park. He took over for Frese during her pregnancy two seasons ago and did a commendable job, with his only loss coming in double overtime at North Carolina. He also ran drills in practice and gave scouting reports and strategical tips.
Hopefully for the Terps, the departures are all over. Already without Coleman and Toliver, Frese will now have that much more rebuilding to do throughout the summer and into the fall.
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