Southern Vermont College Interim Director of Athletics Sharief Hashim announced on Monday the hiring of Christin Gowan as the Mountaineers’ new head women’s basketball coach.
Gowan comes to SVC from Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif. where she was an assistant coach for the Tigers’ program for the last two years.
“We were looking for someone who exudes the necessary energy and optimism to lead the women’s basketball program,” Hashim commented. “Christin Gowan quickly separated herself from a group of highly-qualified and well-recommended candidates.
“We’re very excited about adding Christin to our talented and hard-working athletic department,” Hashim continued. “She has been a successful recruiter and has provided great leadership to student-athletes throughout her coaching career. We believe Coach Gowan’s intelligence, experience and vision for the program will allow her to recruit effectively and establish a team culture that translates to success both on and off the court.”
Prior to her stint at OC, Gowan was an assistant at Division II’s California State University, Stanislaus—her alma mater—for three seasons up through the 2014-15 campaign. She received her undergraduate psychology degree from Stanislaus in 2010 before garnering a single subject teaching credential in mathematics in December of 2011.
“I am thankful for the opportunity and endorsement from [SVC] President [David Rees] Evans and Mr. Hashim, and I am excited to learn from the rest of the athletics staff,” said Gowan. “I wanted to take the job at SVC because I resonated with the school’s mission statement: the belief in the potential of every student. This is an opportunity to build a successful program with unbelievable support from the administration and the community at-large.”
While a student at Stanislaus, Gowan was a four-year player on the women’s basketball team and was named the institution’s Scholar-athlete of the Year as a senior. She also earned her way to the California Collegiate Athletic Association’s (CCAA) All-Academic Team three times as a member of the Warriors squad, and she was voted to the Capitol One/College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-District Second Team in 2011.
The new SVC head coach had a knack for shooting the basketball from downtown while in college—hitting the most three-pointers for her Stanislaus crew in both 2010-11 (23) and 2009-10 (38). She also led the Warriors in the assists column each year of her collegiate career with her most dishes coming her senior season during which she tallied 114.
Gowan still holds the Stanislaus record for the best free throw percentage in a single season with an 87.5 mark (70-80) during the 2007-08 campaign—that making way for her to currently sit atop the program’s record list for the best career percentage from the charity stripe with a 79.5 (267-336). Since CSUS joined the CCAA in 1998, she has scored the sixth-most points in Stanislaus history with 947, and she has the second-most assists for the team with 322.
“I expect to bring a new tenacity and energy to the program,” Gowan added. “I expect to be a competitive contender in the New England Collegiate Conference, and I want to bring excitement around the women’s basketball program to our school and the Bennington community.”
After graduating from Stanislaus, Gowan went on to obtain a Master of Arts degree in Coaching and Athletic Administration from Concordia University Irvine in 2013. While assisting the Occidental program, she was a mathematics teacher at Santa Rosa Charter Academy in Los Angeles since July of 2015. Prior to that, Gowan taught math at Edison High School in Stockton, Calif. for four academic years.
Photo Courtesy SVC Athletics
http://www.svcathletics.com/information/2016-17/gowan_hired_as_wbb_head_coach
Tagged with: Christin Gowan DIII NECC Southern Vermont
