It was worth the wait for second-year Lady Griz basketball coach Brian Holsinger, who finalized his staff recently.
Holsinger has hired Lisa O’Meara, most recently an assistant coach at Saint Mary’s, and added Haley Simental as the program’s director of operations, a position that went unfilled last year.
“Ecstatic,” Holsinger said, about adding O’Meara and Simental to a staff that includes assistant coaches Nate Harris and Joslyn Tinkle.
O’Meara, a native of Eugene, Ore., played one year of basketball at Saint Mary’s, one at Lane (Ore.) Community College and two at Oregon Tech, from which she graduated with a degree in management in 2010.
She returned to Saint Mary’s to pursue a graduate degree in kinesiology, which she earned in 2012, and got on coach Paul Thomas’s staff as the director of operations, a position she held for three seasons before moving up to an assistant coach position for the next six.
In her nine years on staff at Saint Mary’s, from 2010-11 to 2018-19, the Gaels averaged more than 21 wins per season, never winning fewer than 19, and nine times advanced to the WNIT.
“I’ve known Lisa since she was the assistant coach at Saint Mary’s, so I’ve known her a long time,” said Holsinger. “She was part of a good program, a program that’s been very successful.
“She has a lot of experience for a position like this, so that makes for an easier transition. She knows what it’s like to go out recruiting in July, what it’s like to be an assistant coach on the bench and help the head coach. That experience is invaluable.”
The former Lisa Busch married Brendan O’Meara in 2012. The former all-America rugby player for the Gaels was an assistant coach on Saint Mary’s teams that won club national championships in 2014, ’15 and ’17.
Following the 2018-19 season, Lisa O’Meara moved on to something new, taking a position with PGC Basketball, an organization that helps develop high school coaches and players through clinics and camps.
In 2021, ready to break away from the Bay Area, the husband and wife team moved to Austin, Texas, where Brendan got a job as an assistant coach with Austin Gilgronis, a member of Major League Rugby.
(He’s now an assistant coach for American Raptors Rugby, a union team based in Denver.)
The O’Mearas were in Ireland visiting family this summer and open to a new experience when Holsinger, who had heard O’Meara might be interested in returning to the college game, called.
“I wouldn’t have gotten back into college coaching for just any program. I knew enough about Brian that when he called, I took it,” she said.
“I could be picky about being in a place where you could build a successful program in a meaningful way, where you’re playing great basketball but you’re also making a positive impact on the community and in the life of the players. We really aligned on all of those things. It checked all the boxes.”
That phone call happened in late July. In August the O’Mearas were in town to visit. This is her first week in the office and on the job.
“I was looking for specific things for this position, so I was willing to wait,” said Holsinger. “We’re fortunate. I couldn’t be happier to end up with someone like Lisa.
“One of the things I look for is someone who is genuine, someone who is really authentic in who they are. She is that to a T. She is very relational. That’s very important to her. That’s something I want in this program, and she matches that perfectly.”
One of the things Holsinger wasn’t able to get done for his first year, after getting hired in April 2021, was to find the right person for the director of operations role, a non-coaching position that handles a bulk of the program’s behind-the-scenes administrative work.
Those tasks, from organizing Hoop Club activities to the team’s in-season travel, fell on the shoulders of the assistant coaches.
“Having someone in that position now frees up the assistant coaches to re-prioritize the things they are doing so they can spend more time in the areas assistant coaches should do,” said Holsinger.
Simental joins the program after completing a rare seven-year playing career. She spent four years at Denver but was injured for two of them. Those missed opportunities plus COVID allowed her to play three additional years at Nebraska-Kearney.
She was twice a third-team All-MIAA selection on Loper teams that won 72 games over three seasons and advanced to the NCAA Division II national tournament in 2021 and ’22.
She was going to remain at UNK in a lower assistant role until she learned of the director of operations position at Montana through one of the program’s other assistants, who knows Harris.
“Brian called me and talked about his coaching philosophy and what he would envision for me in this position. I got pretty interested in it,” said Simental, who’s long wanted to get into coaching and comes from a basketball family based in Pueblo, Colo.
Her dad played at a junior college in Wyoming before ending up at Lewis-Clark State. Her younger brother, David, is a sixth-year senior at Division II Regis in Denver. Her younger sister, Hannah, is going into her junior year at Northern Colorado.
She led the Bears in scoring last year (14.7/g) and the Big Sky Conference in 3-point field goals made with 71.
“My dad coached me and my siblings growing up, so I always wondered if coaching was what I wanted to do for my career,” she said.
“Basketball gives players such an amazing opportunity to learn what it means to work hard, to develop leadership skills and life lessons of never giving up,” she said. “I figured this was an opportunity to try it and see how it goes.”
She traveled to Missoula in July and was sold.
“I’m really impressed with how much they care about their players,” she said. “That can be rare in college basketball. People can lose their why’s for why they got into coaching. They have a grasp on the bigger reason for why they coach. It’s more about people and how they treat people.”
Holsinger added, “Haley wants to coach, which I’m excited about. She’s eager, so she’s going to learn a ton. Hopefully we can help her grow and learn.
“I think it’s invaluable for a young coach to learn what goes on behind the scenes at a Division I program. If you start there, later on when you do become an assistant, you’re just that much better.”
https://gogriz.com/news/2022/9/7/womens-basketball-lady-griz-complete-coaching-staff.aspx
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