Ginny Boggess is entering her third year as the head women's basketball coach at Toledo. After spending years as an assistant at the mid-major and power-conference levels, this is her second head coaching job. Boggess grew up in Hamlin, W.Va., and graduated high school with roughly 50 people. She played Division-II college basketball and wanted to either be on the news or go to law school.
Now, nearly 30 years later, she's building quite the resume as a basketball coach.
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"This just seems so far beyond my concept or my capacity of dreaming," Boggess said about her coaching career so far.
Coach Boggess was recently on the "Anything But Mid" Podcast. Listen to the full episode:
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After playing four years at Wingate, reaching the NCAA Division-II Women's Basketball Tournament her sophomore year, Boggess spent a year as a graduate assistant at Kennesaw State before she was promoted to assistant coach and held that position from 2004-06. Kennesaw State started the transformation from Division II to Division I in her final season. She credits her time at Kennesaw State for helping her find her way so fresh into coaching.
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"You don't know what you don't know," Boggess said about being a young coach at Kennesaw State.
Upon leaving Kennesaw State, she spent time as an assistant coach at other mid-major programs: Hofstra, Jacksonville and Columbia before making the jump to Marquette. Along with being an assistant, she was the recruiting coordinator for a team that made three straight NCAA Tournaments during her five-year tenure in the Big East.
She recruited back-to-back Big East Player of the Year winners in Allazia Blockton (2018) and Natisha Hiedeman (2019), as well as the rosters that made tournament runs. While recruiting players at Marquette, Boggess learned to look for not only talented players on the court but those who were willing to put in the work beyond the court. She credits Carolyn Kieger, Marquette's head coach at the time, with helping her learn what the standard for a coach should be. These are things she has taken with her to the next stops in her career.
"Carolyn really led the way and showed us kind of the standard for preparation, film, scouting, the details and recruiting that mattered," Boggess said.
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Boggess followed Kieger to Penn State and served as a recruiting coordinator. Boggess took her first head coaching job at Monmouth, where she reached the Big Dance with the Hawks. Now, Boggess is gearing up to build upon two successful seasons at Toledo. While she's built a strong resume in her young career, the road wasn't always easy for Boggess. At every level, she's had to learn and develop herself as a coach and mentor.
Growing up in such a small town and going to a Division-II school, she had to find ways to make her own connections and gain valuable insight from coaches along the way. She had some key mentors throughout her career and talked about paying that forward to younger players and coaches she encounters. One of these early mentors was the recruiting coordinator at Georgia Tech, who'd get frequent calls from Boggess asking how she spent her day, how she'd help the head coach, and what to do in certain situations.
"As I rose, as I went up levels, it wasn't like I played at Rutgers and then I just started as a D-II [grad assistant], and I had context," said Boggess about having to find her own way.
The MAC is always competitive, and Toledo always finds itself towards the top. Boggess led the Rockets to an incredible season her first year, going 24-9 (13-5), culminating in a second seed in the MAC Women's Basketball Tournament, a run to the championship game and a WBIT appearance. The Rockets took a little step back in last year's regular season, going 17-15 (9-9). However, the conference tournament was the same, as they rallied all the way to the championship game as the sixth seed. After losing two straight MAC championship games, Boggess and Toledo are eyeing an automatic bid into the Big Dance.
"[Senior guard] Ella Weaver said the other day: 'I've lost two MAC championship games; now it's time to win one,'" Boggess said. "So, I like where their focus is, but we can't get too ahead of ourselves either. This is a process."
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Boggess went from studying English and playing Division-II basketball to one of the more accomplished young coaches in women's college basketball. She encourages others looking to get into coaching to ask around for advice and to look for mentors just like those who helped her. I asked Boggess what her younger self would say about her coaching career thus far.
"She would say no way … God's plan was bigger," Boggess responded.
Boggess and Toledo open their season at home against Louisiana Tech Nov. 2.
