Northridge Sticks With the Familiar, Retains Chandler : Women’s basketball: National search ends with Matadors hiring 27-year-old interim coach.

Cal State Northridge’s search-and-employ mission for a women’s basketball coach ended Friday when the school hired interim Coach Kim Chandler to a two-year contract, despite Chandler’s 8-36 record over the past season and a half.

After conducting a national search for candidates from December through February, Northridge selected Chandler from more than 30 applicants.

“The win-loss record does not reflect the amount of learning and growth that the team indicated to me throughout the season,” said Judith Brame, Northridge associate athletic director.

“I think Kim took over a very difficult situation last year and has turned the program around.”

Chandler began coaching at Northridge in 1991 as an assistant and at mid-season replaced Janet Martin, who was pressured by Northridge administrators to resign as coach. Before that, Chandler was an assistant at Florida Southern College for two seasons and a graduate assistant at Bowling Green for one year.

She played basketball at Ohio Northern, a Division III university.

“There has not been much stability in the program in the past couple of years,” Chandler said. “This has given the program stability, a future that we can build on.”

The Matadors, who had eight freshmen this season, were 6-21. Chandler, 27, said she thought the team improved as the season wore on.

“I think the whole level of play for the program went upward,” she said. “There were times when we were playing five freshmen, and we faced a lot of the problems of being young.” Brame, who led the search for a coach, said the focus of Northridge’s recruiting efforts, “was to do proactive searches where there is outreach to minorities and to women.”

The university notified the NCAA’s Professional Development Department of the job opening. The department, which seeks to match qualified woman and/or minority applicants with employment opportunities, sent Northridge about 15 resumes.

Northridge placed advertisements for the job, which has a salary range of $58,000 to $70,000, in the NCAA News, La Opinion and The Sentinel newspapers.

Fred Williams, a UC Irvine assistant coach who spent eight years as an assistant at USC in the 1980s, said he was one of the finalists.

“I kind of felt they were going to go with Chandler,” he said. “Lots of times when you get your foot in the door--whether you have a lot of experience or not--and have a chance to show what you can do, people are going to give you a shot.”

Three players left the team this season. Senior Sandi Olson quit for personal reasons after two games; freshman Joanna Leese, upset at a lack of playing time and citing problems with Chandler, quit Jan. 2, and Nancy Nicholls left in late January to try out for the national volleyball team.