Cal Poly Pomona Women’s Coach Wins a Tug of War

It’s an axiom that winning the first championship is the most difficult.

But not so for Paul Thomas, the fourth-year coach of the Cal Poly Pomona women’s basketball team. It took Thomas three seasons to get his first conference title after inheriting a young team, but that champion started strong and stayed that way.

Repeating as California Collegiate Athletic Assn. champion has been a different matter. The Broncos recently clinched their second consecutive CCAA title, which Thomas described as “a relief.”

“We were 8-8 going into our first conference game and we were not playing our best basketball,” Thomas said. “We just didn’t have the discipline. With 12 returnees, you think that you have good leadership, but they’re kids.”

Thomas told them he was going to make things stricter the rest of the way.

“It was a surprise and a little tough for them. They were used to having a little more rope,” Thomas said. “They got a very good tug.”

Pomona has gone 8-2 since that lecture and is 16-10.

Thomas himself has been working without much rope or net since taking over coaching duties.

He inherited a program from Darlene May, who had never finished lower than tied for first in the CCAA. May resigned in 1994 after learning she had breast cancer, a disease that took her life a year ago.

His first season, he was coaching with the interim label and the team finished with a losing record overall and was sixth in the conference.

He became permanent the next season and showed a slight improvement--a winning record and fourth in the CCAA--but hardly up to Pomona standards.

Reporters, fans and alumni weren’t going to let him forget it.

“Any time a person gets to ask [about succeeding May], they do,” Thomas said. “But Darlene was such a great influence, maybe more so off the court because we had the same coaching philosophies, that I never dwell on it. Her influence is everywhere here and I want that.”

Thomas credits the tradition and legacy of winning to attracting players such as Jessica Eggleston, who leads the CCAA in scoring at 20 points per game and averages 7.9 rebounds. But it also attracts players who might not get a scholarship out of high school but are willing to walk on. Pomona starts two former walk-ons in Christen King and Elizabeth Edmond.

It also attracts players from other colleges. Dawn Mets transferred from Cal State Los Angeles, Ruby Maciel from Loyola Marymount and Edmond was a walk-on at UC Santa Barbara before transferring to Pomona.

With all the parts coming together, Thomas won his first CCAA championship last season. A victory over Cal State L.A. clinched his second title with one game left, and the Broncos will play host to the CCAA tournament Wednesday and Friday.

And still some say, “Only 16 more to go.”

Said Thomas: “I never think about that. I never think ‘Oh my God, Darlene won all those championships,’ or ‘I have to win this game because Darlene never lost to that team.’

“Maybe I’m too narrow-minded.”

Maybe that’s the trick.

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The top-ranked Cal State Bakersfield men’s basketball team (24-2, 10-1 in the CCAA) was upset on Feb. 7 by Grand Canyon (17-8, 6-5), which continues to be the Roadrunners’ biggest thorn.

Since the 1994-95 season, Bakersfield is 72-7 against teams from the Division II West Region, and four of those losses have come against Grand Canyon. The Roadrunners are 4-4 against the Antelopes during that time.

The Antelopes are the only CCAA team to beat Bakersfield since Cal Poly Pomona did it on Feb. 16, 1995.

College Division Notes

Pomona-Pitzer quarterback Jack Ramirez was selected as a first-team member of the Division III All-American team.