Online listing gives basketball team a scare

Despite a listing for a new head women's basketball coach on an internal Tufts human resources website, current coach Carla Berube will not be leaving the program, according to players on the team.

The detailed listing on the website indicates that applicants would be required to start work on August 1, 2004. In addition, the website provides a job description of the position, to "plan, recruit, organize, and coach the women's basketball team."

The listing goes on to state the required skills for being a coach at Tufts, "a bachelors degree (masters degree preferred); strong leadership skills; demonstrated expertise in basketball; demonstrated ability to effectively relate to student-athletes in a highly competitive academic environment; knowledge of NCAA and NESCAC rules and a willingness to abide by them."

Berube was unavailable for comment because she was in New Orleans to watch her alma mater, the University of Connecticut, play in the NCAA women's basketball Final Four.

But according to senior tri-captain Maritsa Christoudias and sophomore guard Julia Verplank, each of whom has been in contact with assistant coach Jackie Desmarais, Berube is not leaving. "The report is 100 percent false and Berube will be coming back in August," Christoudias said.

Members of the team heard rumors about the advertisement, but according to Christoudias, they knew it wasn't true.

"The girls called me and said 'do you know?" Christoudias said. "The rumor was that she was leaving. My first instinct was 'no she's not,' because she would have told us first and not forced us to find out this way. It just didn't make sense; it didn't fit with the kind of person that she is."

The advertisement kept the women hesitant, however, because of the amount of detail in the listing. The listing says "basketball" numerous times and lays out requirements that applicants would need to fulfill, most of which are specific to the sport, leading some to question whether it was posted in error.

According to Christoudias, Berube is working to straighten out the situation and have the ad removed from the website.

"At first, it affected us, but not really me as much because I'm graduating, but it still affected us as a team," Christoudias said. "But now that that is over and we know she will be here, we're not really worrying about it anymore."

The online listing came as a shock to the team, which has been in a rebuilding stage after the departure of former coach Janice Savitz in 2002. Berube has played a large part in the rebuilding process, and has been credited with much of the team's recent success.

"I think if anything, it showed how much we still need her here because we're not done rebuilding and she's a big part of that," Christoudias said. "When we heard of that possibly not continuing, it scared us. But now that we know that it isn't true, we're over it and were going to keep building like we were before this mistake got out."

Athletic Director Bill Gehling, Assistant AD Branwen King Smith, Desmarais, and the operators of the Human Resource Website could not be reached for comment yesterday.