In a private meeting with the women's basketball team on April 4, Athletic Director Bill Gehling announced that women's basketball coach Janice Savitz had resigned effective the end of this semester.
The decision to resign came on the heels of disappointing season in which the team went 9-14 overall, including 1-8 in the NESCAC - good for last place in the conference. The outcome was especially surprising considering the squad went into the season with high expectations after a prosperous 2000-2001 campaign.
Gehling said that Savitz resigned because "she has come to a point in her life where she wants to go in a new direction."
Savitz will continue to fulfill her non-basketball obligations to the school, which include work as an weight lifting instructor, until the end of the semester.
According to Gehling, Savitz provided the department with enough time with which to find a quality replacement. "I am thankful to Janice that she made this decision at a time that allows us ample time to do the search process in the proper way," he said. "If this came about in September, it would have been more difficult to find a [new] coach."
Following a 1-4 start to the NESCAC season last year, the team heated up down the stretch, winning three of its last four regular season conference games to clinch the seventh seed in the playoffs. Though the squad fell in the first round to Colby, it appeared Tufts would have the manpower to come back strong this year - the team had graduated only one senior, Shira Fishman.
After jumping out of the gates with a 5-2 mark to begin the 2001-2002 season, Tufts struggled from that point, culminating in a six-game NESCAC losing streak to close the season, including two close losses to Colby and Bowdoin.
"It was really frustrating this year because we knew we were capable of beating all those teams, like Bowdoin and Colby. We lost by less then three in both of those games," sophomore Maritsa Christoudias said. "And those two teams ended up at the top of NESCAC and Bowdoin was nationally ranked."
Players declined to comment on Savitz's resignation, and the former coach did not return repeated calls.
Savitz began coaching at Tufts in 1994, when she replaced interim coach Ed Leyden. Leyden had been filling in for all-time victories leader Sharon Dawley after she departed for Dartmouth. In her first season at the helm, Savitz guided the team to an ECAC New England playoff berth.
Prior to accepting the head coaching position at Tufts, she had served in the same capacity at Hamilton College from 1980-86 and at Mount Holyoke College from 1987-94. She graduated from Brockport State and earned a master's degree in physical education at Ithaca College in 1981.
Though Gehling has no replacements in mind, the search for a new coach has already begun. He said the first step is to advertise, both within the NCAA newsletter and elsewhere.
"My mind is wide open at this point," he said. " I'm hoping that we can find a lot of candidates. I feel that there are a lot of people out there who meet our qualifications."
