As women’s basketball head coach Claudette Charney approached her 500th win, she was overcome with memories.
“It makes you think back to a lot of things,” she said.
For the 11th coach in women’s division II basketball history to reach the 500 win mark, those memories came with a feeling of relief.
“As I knew it was coming, I was kind of glad to get it over with,” coach Charney said.
Coach Charney prefers to focus on her current team and the task at hand instead of the milestone achieved during Saturday’s game in Frankfurt, KY, where the Chargers defeated Ohio Midwestern College 70-59 at the William Fleming Classic.
This doesn’t mean coach Charney takes the honor for granted.
“I was fortunate to coach at a young age,” she said. “Being an NCAA coach at 24, 25 was certainly an opportunity. I think it’s sad because coaches don’t stay in it as long now. They view programs as wins and losses and there’s more to it than that. I’ve been blessed, no question. The opportunity to be here has been wonderful.”
Coach Charney began her coaching career at 22 years old, when she graduated from Grand Valley State University, where she ran track and played basketball after transferring from Saginaw Valley State University. She coached at Muskegon Community College for three years while working multiple other jobs to make ends meet.
She coached at Alma College in 1984 and then went to Saginaw Valley, where she spent ten years with a very successful program. In 1995, she coached at Grand Valley, and took the Hillsdale job seven years later, in May of 2002.
“The biggest adjustment in coaching is adjusting to the different culture changes and the changes in the ways the whole game has gone to recruiting,” she said. “The game is still fun to play and fun and challenging to recruit. Here it’s challenging but it’s a fun challenge, recruiting the best student-athletes we can. When you put emphasis on student, it makes it so much better.”
She has been implementing her coaching philosophy and producing winning teams, with the exception of one season, at Hillsdale ever since. Coach Charney is the all-time wins leader at both Saginaw Valley and Hillsdale.
“You have to adjust to your players’ strengths. Some people feel that as a coach you have to take your system and force it onto the players, and I feel that yes, when coaching at the college level you can recruit players that fit your system, but it doesn’t always go according to plan,” coach Charney said.
She always emphasizes the importance of her players when reflecting on her years of success.
“It’s not about me but about the players I’ve had and the great people in the programs that have certainly gotten me in this position now,” Coach Charney said. “…Watching players grow as people and mature, and then grow as players and get better is fun. It really is. It’s fun to watch success. I don’t mean in terms of wins and losses, I mean little successes along way, whether it be in the classroom or on the court when you have a player figure out what you’re trying to teach.”
Coach Charney vividly remembers women from her previous squads, especially the team that won the GLIAC tournament in 2009. She said there are still classes that keep in close contact with each other.
Lea Jones, senior team captain of this year’s squad, said it is coach Charney’s drive to win that has made her teams so successful.
“She just is so competitive; she loves to win. She knows how it feels to win and wants and expects that out of us,” Jones said. “She’s not really super loud all the time but she gets her point across. She has a good way of telling us what we’ve done right and wrong.”
Hillsdale Athletic Director Don Brubacher agreed that coach Charney’s determination is a trait that the most elite coaches share.
“The basic theme is that coach Charney is driven to win, and for most people, if not all in the coaching field, that means coach Charney hates to lose,” he said. “…She’s driven for her teams to succeed.”
One game coach Charney especially hates having lost was the 2009 playoff game against the University of Indianapolis in the first round of the DII regional tournament.
“The only disappointment we had was a one-point loss to Indy, because we had a championship team. That loss will forever haunt me in terms of ‘what if,’” she said. “But we’ve had great experiences… really good things and really great players.”
Jones said along with being driven to win, coach Charney is very invested in the team, and puts her whole self into all her roles at Hillsdale- coach, Associate Athletic Director, and professor.
“She is very invested in it emotionally. After big wins when a lot of people produce, she gets overwhelmed with emotion,” Jones said. “After the 500th win her face got red and we knew the tears were coming.”
Coach Charney is dedicated to her family, her husband, Mark, and her beloved wheaton terrier, Maggie. She attributes where she is today to the support they have given her throughout the years. Jones summed up coach Charney’s love for her dog by comparing it to her competitive drive.
“A couple of things bring coach joy- winning and Maggie,” Jones said.
While coach Charney said she does not see herself coaching as an 80-year-old, she is happy with what she’s doing and plans to continue.
“My players promised (win) 501 will come fairly quickly, which will be good thing,” coach Charney said. “We will see what happens. I enjoy what I’m doing and my family loves it here, so I’ll continue to recruit good fits for Hillsdale College and if we can get wins along the way, that’s great.”