Katie Meier, who led Miami to 10 NCAA tournaments and guided the Hurricanes to the Elite Eight past period, introduced her retirement from coaching on Thursday.
Meier, the 2011 Affiliated Press countrywide coach of the yr who experienced four years remaining on her agreement with the Hurricanes, will continue to be with the university as a special adviser and ambassador for the athletic department. She coached at Miami for 19 seasons, going 362-208 in that span.
Her choice to retire — and it was her final decision to go into a new function, an plan that she brought to the university herself — implies Miami will have a new mentor for only the 2nd time in 36 several years following season. Ferne Labati coached at Miami for 17 seasons before Meier was hired in 2005, and now the college will embark on a national lookup for a alternative.
Meier spent 23 seasons as a head coach, the 1st four at Charlotte and the rest at Miami.
Between the responsibilities that are envisioned in her new position: even further assist with fundraising for women’s systems, serving as a mentor and liaising with alumni. She has lengthy been associated with fundraising at Miami, even creating sizable donations herself and challenging other folks in the neighborhood to stick to her direct to support women’s athletes at the college.
Her legacy is sturdy as equally a player and a coach. Think about just her Atlantic Coast Convention accolades: rookie of the calendar year at Duke in 1986, initially-workforce All-ACC as a player in 1990, a member of the ACC’s 50th anniversary crew, an ACC legend range in 2006 and its women’s coach of the yr in 2011.
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She also went into Duke’s Hall of Honor in 2002, was named United states Basketball’s mentor of the yr in 2013 and became aspect of Miami’s Corridor of Fame in 2017.
“Finding out about who she is, the competitor she is, you can see why Miami was so appealing to us,” former Miami guard Hanna Cavinder said in the course of the team’s operate to the Elite Eight very last period.
Beneath Meier, Miami produced 91 appearances in the AP Prime 25. As a No. 9 seed, the Hurricanes pulled off three upset wins in very last season’s NCAA event — topping Oklahoma Condition, leading-seeded Indiana and then Villanova, prior to falling to eventual countrywide winner LSU in the regional final. It was the 2nd consecutive time where Miami was ousted by the eventual NCAA titlist South Carolina defeat the Hurricanes in the second round of the 2022 tourney.
Meier usually spoke about her upbringing and how that shaped her as a mentor.
She never ever satisfied her father Gerry Meier, who performed for Ray Meyer at DePaul, died in a airplane crash 4 months prior to she was born. Meier’s mom ultimately married a widowed gentleman and every single brought 4 young ones into what she has called “a Brady Bunch relatives.”
There was private tragedy along the way as well. Meier has worn a pin with “43” to each and every match for the past 10 years as a tribute to the jersey selection of her nephew Philip Lutzenkirchen, a limited conclude at Auburn who died in June 2014 in a motor vehicle crash in which he was a passenger but not carrying a seat belt. The relatives started off the Lutzie 43 Foundation in his memory, striving to inspire individuals to make superior decisions as drivers and mates.
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