{"id":52760,"date":"2018-08-23T14:50:33","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T18:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=52760"},"modified":"2018-08-23T16:32:50","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T20:32:50","slug":"rao-named-interim-coach-of-brock-badgers-womens-basketball-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/08\/rao-named-interim-coach-of-brock-badgers-womens-basketball-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Rao named interim coach of Brock Badgers women\u2019s basketball team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The Brock Badgers women\u2019s basketball team is headed into the new year with a new coach at the helm.<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Welland native Mike Rao is moving over from his role as an assistant coach with the men\u2019s basketball team to take on the role of interim head coach of the Badgers women\u2019s program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Rao coached the Notre Dame high school boys basketball team for 36 years before joining the Badgers in 2016. He played a key role under coach Charles Kissi last year as the men\u2019s team made it to the U SPORTS National Championships for the first time in 10 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Brock Sports Director Neil Lumsden said Rao was the perfect fit for the role.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cMike brings great depth and experience as head coach of the women\u2019s basketball program. His familiarity with both of Brock&#8217;s basketball programs and his coaching experience and basketball acumen make him a perfect choice to lead these highly motivated student athletes,\u201d he said.<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The Badgers women\u2019s team finished seventh in the OUA West Division last year with a 6-18 record. Rao said his aim for 2018-19 is simply to get the team working hard and giving their all in every practice and game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWe\u2019ve been on the court every day and my only goal right now is to see what everyone brings to the table,\u201d he said. \u201cAs long as they give me effort, we\u2019ll deal with the mistakes and those little things. I don\u2019t have many rules or high expectations, by my one rule is that they come out every day and work hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">One of the highlights of the 2017-18 season came at the end of the year, when rookie guard Kristin Gallant was named to the OUA all-star game. Rao said the Halifax native\u2019s talent will be relied upon in the upcoming season, but he\u2019s not putting any extra pressure on her.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI\u2019ve got five players out there so I don\u2019t want to rely on just one,\u201d he said. \u201cKristin is a very good, physical player and she\u2019s going to be a big piece of the puzzle. But I want everyone to be part of the bigger picture. I just need her to contribute the way I think she can. If we win a game, I don\u2019t want it to be just because of her and if we lose a game, it won\u2019t be just because of her.\u201d<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The Badgers will open the 2018-19 season with tryouts being held Friday, Sept. 7<\/span> <span class=\"s1\">from 6 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 8 from 10 a.m. to noon. in Bob Davis Gymnasium.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The regular season gets under way Friday, Oct. 26 and Saturday, Oct. 27 when the Badgers host a doubleheader against Laurier and Guelph, respectively. The women\u2019s games start at 6 p.m. at Bob Davis Gymnasium with the Badgers men\u2019s team to play the same two teams starting at 8 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Brock Badgers women\u2019s basketball team is headed into the new year with a new coach at the helm.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":52761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,1,4,58],"tags":[256,4437,6928,6927,3805,694],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52762,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52760\/revisions\/52762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}