Houston Women's Basketball: Camp Staff
Camp Staff
Joe Curl – Head Coach
Joe Curl, the fifth women's head coach in University of Houston history, enters his ninth season at the helm of the Cougars women's basketball program.
Optimism abounds for Curl and the Cougars as UH returns four starters and welcomes a class of seven talented newcomers to the fold.
Last season's team struggled as the Cougars replaced four starters from the squads that earned two-straight NCAA Tournament berths. Houston was 12-17 (8-8 C-USA) and suffered a loss to arch-rival Rice in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA championship.
There were high points as both Tye Jackson and Sha'Ratta Hawkins earned All-Conference USA honors. Jackson grabbed a first-team slot, the sixth-straight season the UH basketball program had been represented on the first team, while Hawkins was a Third-Team All-League pick as well as a member of the All-Freshman Team.
Jackson, an All-America Candidate, participated in team trials for the U.S. Under-20 National Team this past spring.
She missed Houston's first seven games while fulfilling NCAA transfer requirements, averaged 17.7 points per game in her inaugural campaign with the Cougars and was named All-C-USA First Team.
Jackson finished with 30 or more points on two occasions with a career-best 37 coming against Rice on Jan. 15. She also had 35 at UAB on Feb. 26 and failed to reach double digits in scoring only twice in 22 games while netting eight 20-plus point games. In the UAB contest, Jackson tallied 27 second-half points, including hitting for UH's first 24 of the half.
She also dished out 119 assists, ranking second in C-USA with a 5.4 assists per game average. Two of her season averages, points per game (fourth) and assists per game (second), rank in the top five all time in the UH record book. Jackson had a pair of double-doubles on the season and also had two games with double-digit assists.
Jackson and Hawkins both appear to be ready to take the torch as the next great Houston player, following the standout careers of Sancho Lyttle and Chandi Jones, who are both now playing professionally in the WNBA.
Lyttle (18.8 points, 12.1 rebounds in 2004-05) became the highest WNBA draft pick in program history when she was selected by the Houston Comets with the fifth pick in the 2005 draft.
She led an experienced UH squad that earned a 21-9 (11-5 C-USA) record last season that opened the season with nine-straight wins. UH went on to place in a tie for third in the league last season, while earning its second-straight NCAA bid.
Following the season, Lyttle was named first-team All-Conference USA, which marked the fifth-straight year that a Cougar had been placed among the league's best. Lyttle was also named to the C-USA All-Tournament Team. Joann Overstreet earned a spot on the third team.
UH was seeded No. 10 in the Chattanooga regional with a matchup against No. 7 Boston College on the hallowed floor of the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. UH dropped the contest by a 65-43 margin.
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Wade Scott– Assistant Coach
Wade Scott enters his first year as an assistant with the University of Houston women's basketball program. He replaces David Jones, who resigned his position over the summer to become head women's coach at Galveston Ball HS.
His job responsibilities include the coordination of all film exchange, recruitinig, practice and game preparation as well as on-the-floor coaching.
Scott joins the Cougars after spending the 2005-06 season at Trinity Valley Community College, where he served as an assistant coach. He was responsible for on-the-floor coaching, development of practice plans, recruiting of potential student-athletes and game preparation. At TVCC, he worked for legendary junior college head coach Leon Spencer. Spencer has won over 800 games in 43 seasons as head coach.
Prior to his time at TVCC, Scott was the head women's basketball coach at Grayson County College from 2003-05. At Grayson, Scott was instrumental in the development of UH player Ryan Meyers. His squad won 20 games during the 2004-05 season, finished second in the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference with a 10-4 record and always qualified for the Region V Tournament. He coached a number of players who won NTJCAC honors during his two-year tenure.
From 2003-05, Scott had a 36-19 record as the head women's coach at Clarendon College, a member of the Western Junior College Athletic Conference. While at Clarendon, he coached future UH standout Sancho Lyttle. During his tenure, his team had its first 20-win season in over five years, earned a win over the No. 10 ranked New Mexico Junior College and had the school's first-ever win over South Plains College. Four members of his 2004 starting five signed with Division I universities to play basketball.
Scott was the head men's basketball coach at Western Oklahoma State College from 1995-2001. During his time, the team participated in the Bi-State Regional Tournament in four of his six years. He developed two All-Region players and four of his charges received scholarships to Division I schools.
He spent the 1994-95 season as the head boy's basketball coach at Yale High School in Yale, Okla. He led a turnaround that saw the team win 11 games after earning just three victories the year before. Two of his varsity players earned basketball scholarships. His junior varsity team went undefeated.
Scott also worked as an assistant baseball coach and a physical education instructor at the elementary, junior high and high school level.
His first coaching opportunity came during the 1993-94 season when Scott was an assistant men's coach at the New Mexico Military Institute. Working under head coach Reggie Franklin, Scott's duties included on-the-floor coaching, opponent scouting and game preparation. He was also one of only two people in the history of NMMI to work as a student teacher.
Scott played for three different teams during his collegiate career. He started at UT Arlington (1988), spent one year at Frank Phillips College (1989-90) prior to closing out his career at Eastern New Mexico from 1990-92.
The Roswell, N.M. native earned his bachelor's degree in kinesiology and secondary education from Eastern New Mexico in 1993. In 2001, Scott received his master's degree, also in kinesiology from Midwestern State University. He and his wife Stephanie were married in June of 2006.
Elena Lovato - Assistant Coach
Elena Lovato joins the Cougar women's basketball staff this season, bringing to Houston a wide variety of experiences as a coach and as a player on both the collegiate and professional levels. Included in her duties with the team, is coordinating game tape exchange, oversight of the team's academic and community service as well as assisting with on-the-floor coaching and recruiting. Prior to UH, Lovato spent one season as a graduate assistant at Pitt State, in Pittsburg, Kan. During her time at PSU, she helped with game tape exchange, monitoring the team's academic success, opponent scouting, travel arrangements and recruiting as well as traditional coaching duties. In addition to her experience at the collegiate level, Lovato also has coached at the prep level, serving as the head junior varsity and assistant varsity coach at Buffalo High School in Buffalo, Mo. While coaching at BHS, she also spent one year as a physical education teacher at Buffalo Prairie Middle School, earning 2007 Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year honors. She also has coached and taught at Menaul High School in her hometown of Albuquerque, N.M., where she served as interim head women's basketball coach as well as assistant boys' coach. Lovato brings the experience of sales with her to Houston, after working from December 2003 to March 2006 in private business. No short of accomplishments on the court as a player, Lovato started her collegiate career at West Texas A&M where she played for two seasons (1997-99) before transferring to Missouri Southern State to play her final two seasons, earning team captain and MIAA Newcomer of the Year honors in 1999-2000. Following her collegiate career, she played in the Puerto Rican Women's Pro Basketball League for two years. In 2001, she earned First-Team All-League honors, averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds per game. She averaged 18 points and eight rebounds per game in 2002. In 2002, she also played for the Chicago Blaze of the National Women's Basketball League (NWBL).Lovato received her bachelor's degree in university studies from Missouri Southern State in May 2005 and graduated from Pitt State with her master's degree in physical education in May 2008.