A mentor, a close friend and the desire to return: How CMU landed Gail Goestenkors
Heather Oesterle needed an assistant coach. She was running out of time.
After spending earlier parts of the summer finding a replacement for Murriel Page, Oesterle's assistant who left for Georgia Tech, the second-year Central Michigan women's basketball coach was beginning to panic. As the beginning of the school year was creeping in, Oesterle was yearning to replace Mark Simons, another departed assistant who had just announced his retirement.
“Y’all come down here, I have some great news,” Heather Oesterle exclaimed in the Rose Center hallway.
Any news regarding the search could be seen as good news. However, once the name that was on her phone screen was committed to joining the staff, Oesterle was elated. Her staff had to know.
Gail Goestenkors was coming to Central Michigan as an associate head coach.
Great news indeed for Oesterle and the Chippewas.
Through mutual connections, family ties and a burning desire to return to the sidelines, Oesterle added Goestenkors to her staff. The news, which was made official on Saturday, carries heavy weight in the women’s college basketball community.
In 20 years as a head coach at Duke and Texas, Goestenkors made four Final Four appearances with Duke and a pair of National Championship Game showings. Goestenkors' teams made the NCAA Tournament in all but two seasons — her first two at Duke.
To know why Goestenkors, a coaching legend with just under 500 wins as a collegiate head coach, would choose a mid-major program to break out of her coaching hiatus, one must understand the ties drawing her to the university.
The people welcoming Goestenkors to Mount Pleasant are more than just people to her and the state of Michigan more than just a dot on a map.
She’s not just taking a new job — she’s returning home.
Guevara’s influence proves pivotal
Before Goestenkors was a Hall of Fame head coach, the Waterford native was a scrappy point guard at Saginaw Valley State University.
She was an NAIA All-American and parlayed her playing abilities into a graduate assistant coaching position at Iowa State, which kick-started her coaching career. However, it was a bond made with an SVSU assistant coach that would come into play nearly 40 years after the conclusion of her playing career.
That assistant coach?
Sue Guevara.
Guevara, who retired from her post at the helm of the Chippewas following the 2018-19 season, stayed close with Goestenkors as the two built strong coaching resumes on opposite ends of the college basketball spectrum.
Goestenkors turned Duke into a national power, winning seven ACC Coach of the Year awards. Meanwhile, Guevara spent time as Michigan’s head coach before turning Central Michigan into the Mid-American Conference juggernaut and a mid-major force that it is today.
“Sue Guevara has done an unbelievable job really, it’s a legacy now that’s she’s left,” Goestenkors said during her virtual introductory press conference.
After stepping away from coaching after a first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament at Texas in 2012, Goestenkors took on a role in the broadcast booth. Not long after, she had one-year stints with two separate WNBA squads, the Indiana Fever and the Phoenix Mercury. By 2018, she was out of coaching and settled in as the co-founder of Coaching Full Circle, a consulting firm designed to help women’s basketball coaches.
Later that year, her mentor came calling. Guevara wanted to hire her firm, giving Goestenkors a front-row seat to the program that her old coach had built. The former Duke coach was blown away by what she saw.
“It doesn’t matter what league or what conference you’re in, you know good basketball when you see it,” Goestenkors said, “and you see it on a very consistent basis year after year at Central Michigan.”
Around the time of her stint advising Guevara, Oesterle and the rest of the Chippewa staff, Goestenkors started to realize a yearning to get back on the sidelines. She enjoyed helping coaches but wanted to help the players. She wanted to lead, she wanted to help mold players and watch them compete.
But she wasn’t going to just go anywhere.
‘The perfect opportunity’
Goestenkors learned of the job opening at Central Michigan from Simons after his departure. Simons, a coaching colleague and Goestenkors’ ex-husband, thought Goestenkors would be a good fit to replace him. After hearing from Simons, she reached out to Guevara and explained her interest.
She wanted to be at Central Michigan.
This coaching legend felt there was no better opportunity. After conversing with both Simons and Guevara, paired with the proximity to home that Mount Pleasant presents, Goestenkors knew she was a perfect fit for the Chippewas’ puzzle. Goestenkors quickly notified Oesterle of her availability.
“It felt like a win-win,” Goestenkors said. “I want to be a part of something really special. I wasn’t going to just go anywhere. I wanted to go where I felt comfortable with and I trusted the coaches and respected the coaches and I felt comfortable and I felt like I could be utilized.”
Goestenkors’ interest sent Oesterle into a frenzy. Here she sat, worrying about the possibility of even filling Simons’ void before classes started and practices began, and yet a coaching legend was texting her, wanting to come to Central Michigan and work under her.
“The first night after I talked to Gail I woke up and I was like, ‘Is this for real?’” Oesterle said. “I looked at my phone (and) the texts between Gail and I and said, ‘This is for real, she’s really coming here.’”
Oesterle didn’t hesitate to make the hire. She had her new associate head coach, the best one available.
And Goestenkors was free to roam the sidelines once again.
