Weller Reflects on Her Long Career

The facts and figures of Chris Weller's coaching career speak volumes, but they don't really tell the whole story of the woman who put Maryland women's sports on the map.

Weller retired last March after 27 years as head coach of the women's basketball program, and her record of 499 wins against 286 losses ranks her in the Top 25 nationally for all-time coaching wins. She guided her alma mater to national championship tournaments 17 times, averaged nearly 19 wins per year and led the Terps to three Final Four appearances and a record eight Atlantic Coast Conference championships.

Still, for Weller, coaching has never been just about winning championships. "It's not the physical skills, but the social skills that student-athletes learn that are so critical," she says during a recent visit to Cole Field House. "Yes, you should learn how to shoot the ball and run faster, but you also have to grow and learn how to be a team player. ... That's always been my goal from day one, that we graduate students from Maryland as competent, confident individuals who can be successful in anything they want to do."

Weller's own success as a student and college-level player, as well as her winning career as a coach, are the result of hard work and dedication--dedication that she says was instilled in her by her parents, whom she credits with teaching her "to do your very best at whatever you do."

Weller first arrived at the University of Maryland in 1962 as a freshman and was immediately named a starter on the women's basketball team. This was a bit odd, considering that she had never played organized basketball in high school. "I used to play in blacktop pick-up games against the boys while growing up," Weller says. "There weren't very many official [basketball] programs for young women at the time, so the blacktop games provided me with the skills I needed to compete."

She went on to become a four-year varsity letterwinner at Maryland and also participated on the swimming and lacrosse squads. After her graduation in 1966, Weller found a job coaching women's high school sports in Montgomery County, where it became her mission to push for greater opportunities for young women to participate in athletics.

This same commitment would accompany Weller as she returned to Maryland in 1968 to pursue a graduate degree in kinesiology. While attending school, Weller was asked to become an assistant coach with the Terrapin women's basketball team, staying on to coach the junior varsity squad until 1975 when she was offered the head coaching job. "My father was upset," Weller recalls, "because he thought I had committed financial suicide, but he still supported me even though this wasn't a recognized career path for women."

The landmark Title IX federal legislation that passed in 1972 meant that women's sports were supposed to rise financially to the level of men's athletics. But the reality of the situation was that gender equity in athletics was a long, slow process. "I didn't go in [as head coach] and ask for things that were outrageous, but I did ask for things," Weller recalls. "I wanted the things that counted, like good shoes, good equipment, a place to call home, our own locker room. ... We didn't even have warm-ups."

Weller also wanted the women's team to play in Cole Field House, home to the men's basketball program since the building opened in 1955. The Lady Terps had been relegated to playing at Preinkert Field House, where Weller says there "was literally standing room only for about 25 people to watch the games." After some informal negotiations with men's basketball coach Charles "Lefty" Driesell, the women's team moved into Cole for the 1975 season. "We didn't even have our own locker room, we had to use the visitor's locker room," Weller says. "But I knew if we just got our foot in the door, that they weren't going to be able to get us out of there."

Chris Weller spent her entire 27-year collegiate coaching career at her alma mater, winning a record eight Atlantic Coast Conference championships along the way.

Success came quickly for Weller. The Terps produced a 20-win season in her first year as coach, and the following year she led Maryland to a final season ranking of 13th, the first of eight consecutive seasons that Maryland finished in the Top 20 rankings. "I have probably never had a team that I was closer to than that first team, because we went through a lot of the changes together, and we learned together," Weller says. One thing that her players quickly discovered was that Weller had very high standards, and that she made no apologies concerning her reputation as a tough coach. "It's okay to be tough," Weller says, "as long as they know that you care."

Weller says she was harder on her players academically than athletically. "Not running a mile in the required time could be part mental, or part physical, and I could help by getting the player into shape or by motivating them," she says. "But not going to class? That's a conscious decision, and I wouldn't tolerate it." Since 1975, all but two women basketball players who finished their eligibility at Maryland have earned a diploma, and Weller says she is "still on the phone with those two, trying to get them to come back and finish their degrees."

Along with the success of Weller's teams in the 1970s and 1980s came obstacles, including an almost total rebuilding of the program after the death of men's basketball star Len Bias in 1986. "People didn't think that [Bias's death] affected women's basketball," Weller says. "But it affected us deeply." Two first team All-Americans transferred from the women's program because of the incident, Weller says, and it was difficult to recruit new players because "parents were wondering whether to send their daughters to Maryland."

Almost everyone was leaving the program, Weller recalls, "But I stayed because I am an alum, I never even thought about leaving." A core group of players that included Vicki Bullett, Deanna Tate and Christy Winters also stayed. "I think they cared about each other, I think they cared about me, and they wanted to prove that we were survivors," Weller says. Within three years, the Maryland women's team--led by Bullett, Tate and Winters--went from being unranked to competing in the NCAA Women's Final Four.

Another milestone occured on Feb. 11, 1992. The Terrapins made ACC history by drawing the largest crowd ever to a women's game when more than 14,500 fans showed up at Cole Field House to watch No. 1 Maryland take on No. 2 Virginia. Weller remembers coming out from the locker room tunnel and trying her best not to get caught up in the euphoria. "I marched right over to my seat and didn't look up," she says. "But then I couldn't help myself and took a peak at the crowd--it was awesome."

With a packed Cole Field House cheering them on, the Terps played Virginia tough, but ultimately suffered a heartbreaking one-point loss by missing the final shot as time ran out.

Weller coached her final game for Maryland on Feb. 23, 2002, which was also the final game for NCAA women's basketball at Cole Field House. Reflecting back on her career four months into retirement, Weller says she has no regrets. "I asked [my players] to do their very best," Weller says as she takes a long look around the now-empty historic sports arena. "I wanted them to have courage to stand up for things they believed in, and I wanted them to have confidence to take on challenges and to have them understand that is was neither feminine nor masculine to work hard at something and do well with it."   --Tom Ventsias

Coaches Top 2002 "M Club" Inductees

On the face of things, Charles "Lefty" Driesell and Dick Edell didn't have much in common as Maryland athletics coaches. They shared only two years together as head coaches in

College Park, and even then they worked in distinctly different worlds.

Maryland coaches Charles "Lefty" Driesell (far left, with player Len Elmore) and Dick Edell (below) take their place in the Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame.

While Driesell coached the men's basketball program to eight NCAA tournaments from 1970 to 1986 and engineered some of Maryland's greatest games at Cole Field House, Edell coached on a much smaller, but no less distinguished, stage as head of the men's lacrosse program from 1984 until last year.

What the two did share, however, were winning ways. In their combined 35 seasons at Maryland, Driesell and Edell compiled a combined win-loss record of 516-235, for a remarkable 68.7 winning percentage. In recognition of their successes both on and off the field, Driesell and Edell were both inducted last spring into the University of Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame.

"It was really a thrill for me. I spent almost two decades there and had a lot of special moments," says Edell. "I suppose this one will be the last for me," he added, referring to last May's induction ceremony. Citing health concerns, Edell retired in 2001 after taking his teams to 13 NCAA tournaments and winning three ACC titles.

Driesell, now coach at Georgia State, never had a losing season at Maryland, and he coached some of the school's greatest players, including Len Elmore and Tom McMillen, Buck Williams and Len Bias. In an interview before the induction, Driesell told David Elfin of The Washington Times: "This really a tribute to all my players and all the people who were part of our program. It's an honor, and it will be nice to go back to Maryland. I haven't been there for a couple of years. If I have a chance, I'll go to Cole and take a look around."

Others who received induction into the Hall of Fame for 2002 include:

* Gene Hiser '71, who was named a first-team All-American outfielder in 1970 as a Terps baseball player before joining the Chicago Cubs for a five-season major league career. Hiser ranks eighth among all Maryland players for his .551 slugging percentage and was named most valuable player of the 1970 ACC championship team.

* Albert King '81, Maryland's No. 3 all-time scorer in basketball with 2,058 points and No. 5 in career average points-per-game at 17.5. King was an All-American selection in 1980 and 1981, and was ACC Player of the Year in 1980. He played nine seasons professionally with the New Jersey Nets and ranks as the sixth-leading scorer in franchise history.

* Ed Modzelewski '51, a member of the Terps' first national championship football team and most valuable player in the 1952 Sugar Bowl (a 28-13 win over No. 1 Tennessee). Modzelewski had 22 career touchdowns and was a first-round selection in the 1952 NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was a second-team All-American at fullback in 1951 and an honorable mention All-American in 1950.

*Jasmina Perazic '83, a Kodak All-American basketball player for the Terps her senior season and co-MVP of the 1983 ACC Tournament. Perazic ranks No. 8 at Maryland in scoring with 1,396 points, and played on teams that made it to the Final Four, the Elite Eight and the Sweet Sixteen of women's basketball. She played professionally for two years with the New York Liberty. --DC

Wanted: 12th Terp

Athletics officials are busy recruiting for the football team's "12th Terp" in a campaign aimed at bringing sell-out crowds to seven home games at Byrd Stadium this fall.

Tickets for the 2002 home season, which begins Sept. 7 against Akron and includes four ACC games, are now available from the university's athletics ticket office. Adult ticket packages range from $182 for the whole season to $308 for a "Family 4-Pak," which includes four season tickets in sections 308-312. Individual tickets range from $16 for children to between $26 and $32 for adults, depending upon whether the game is against a conference or nonconference opponent.

Maryland begins its football season on the road with a sellout, when it takes on Notre Dame in the 2002 Kick-off Classic on Aug. 31 at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.

Season ticket buyers also receive proiority consideration for tickets to any post-season bowl game. For more information about purchasing football tickets, contact the athletics ticket office at 301-314-7070.   --DC