April 26, 2023: Pruitt hired at Elmhurst, Plymouth State tabs Arsenault to lead program
Good afternoon! Wanted to check in quickly with another head coaching update. In case you missed yesterday’s post, I wrote about Jacey Brooks’ departure from Cortland, as she will be joining the staff at D1 Buffalo, as well as the hirings of Jessica Vormelker at Thiel and Megan Campbell at Brooklyn. If you like, you can check out that post here:
April 25, 2023: Brooks to Buffalo! First D3 HC to move to D1 this offseason + Thiel, Brooklyn tab next HCs
Welcome back to another week! Writing this up as three head coaching moves within the D3 WBB world have been made over the last several days. One such move just broke an hour ago, so I’ll lead off with that.
There is one more update to the head coaching carousel, as La Verne head coach Jason Pruitt was announced as the next head coach at Elmhurst, replacing Tethnie Carrillo. He is the 15th head coach in program history, and honestly, I think this hiring is a slam dunk.
La Verne won plenty of games with Pruitt at the helm, including going 24-3 this past year, as the program broke into the D3hoops.com Top 25 for the first time. An upset in the SCIAC Tournament ended their season, but there was little doubt from most of the D3hoops world that La Verne was a quality contender on a national stage.
The one problem they always had, not unlike most west coast teams, was finding non-conference games. And that is obviously a nonexistent factor at Elmhurst. The midwest is home to a multitude of D-III programs, and the location at Elmhurst is incredibly ideal. Wisconsin is just a couple hours away, so is Indiana to the east. Michigan is not far either, and there are so many top-quality programs that Elmhurst can reach by bus. The word “plane” never has to enter the conversation, much unlike La Verne, where most D-III opponents were flying in to play the California schools. Unlike in California, where you more or less, have to play whoever is willing to make that trip. At Elmhurst, you’re in the heart of the midwest and in a somewhat wide-open league in the CCIW. Best of luck to Coach Pruitt in that new job.
Full press release: https://elmhurstbluejays.com/news/2023/4/25/pruitt-tabbed-to-lead-elmhurst-womens-basketball.aspx
The second head coach hiring came yesterday on the east coast, as Plymouth State tabbed alum Curtis Arsenault to lead the program. It is pretty remarkable that Arsenault has been at Plymouth State for 8 of the last 12 years, spending the first four as a player (where he was a 1,000 point scorer for the men’s team), then the last four as an assistant coach, with two years as a high school assistant between.
Having an alum in the position, and someone who has been around the university for quite a while makes a lot of sense, especially in terms of recruiting. I don’t know a ton about Plymouth State, besides the fact that they are in the Little East Conference. They went 0-16 in LEC play this past season, and 5-18 overall.
Full press release: https://athletics.plymouth.edu/news/2023/4/25/womens-basketball-wbb-arsenault-17-returns-as-head-womens-basketball-coach.aspx
Just wanted to check in quickly today and note those two coaching moves. The coaching carousel keeps turning and we’re up to 16 open head coaching vacancies. That’s all the info I got today. Have a great rest of your afternoon.