New Monmouth women's basketball coach eyes Shore path to success: 'Got to recruit our backyard'
WEST LONG BRANCH – The numbers are staggering. Last season, some 45 former Shore Conference athletes played Division 1 women’s college basketball, providing the latest affirmation that Monmouth and Ocean Counties are a recruiting hotbed for difference-makers at the next level.
A season earlier, there were five alone on the Monmouth University women’s basketball team that returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 40 years.
So on her first day on the job at OceanFirst Bank Center, new head coach Cait Wetmore said what needed to be said moments after her introductory press conference ended Thursday .
“We’ve got to recruit our backyard,” said Wetmore, the former associate head coach at Charlotte. “That’s important to me. I want to recruit my backyard first, and then we expand from that. There’s a lot of great basketball right here. And I think communities like to wrap their arms around a hometown hero. I think we can get some high-level players here.”
What no one, including former head coach Ginny Boggess, has been able to land is one of the Shore’s elite players ticketed for a high-major program. Because convincing top players to stay home and compete in front of family and friends could help the program take that next step forward, especially with several talent-laden classes coming up through the ranks locally right now.
“The basketball in New Jersey is great. There are so many high-level players here,” said Wetmore, a New Jersey native who played at Kittatinny High School in Newton. “One of my first orders of business was getting on the phone and touching base with all the high school and AAU coaches and reconnecting. There are so many great programs, down at the Shore and around the state.”
Athletic director Jennifer Sansevero’s profile for the hire had being a good human being and a proven winner topping the list. And No. 3 was being a “tireless recruiter.”
“It’s very important. We haven’t been able to get the big players,” said Sansevero, who has known Wetmore since she was an assistant coach at UNC Greensboro. “Ginny tried and was recruiting some heavily, and there are some great players that went to some high-level institutions. But Cait’s connections and her proven history at other locations, I think she can do a really good job of engaging the Shore basketball community and try to keep some of those kids here at Monmouth.”
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Women’s basketball in spotlight
Energizing the local community is particularly important at a time when the spotlight is glaring on the women’s game in the wake of the record-setting NCAA Tournament TV ratings.
“I want that to trickle down locally,” Wetmore said. “I think people are excited about women’s basketball. I think the Shore loves girls basketball, so I think this is a great opportunity to marry the two and take advantage of it on a micro level and get everybody excited.”
It’s all part of a symbiotic blueprint for success that includes solutions for the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) issues every program’s dealing with, as players seek compensation beyond scholarships.
“The NCAA just changed the rules to allow institutions to connect student-athletes with companies in the community and engage them, and Cait was already doing that in Charlotte and that was part of her candidacy and one the things that was really attractive about her,” Sansevero said. “They were engaged in a grassroots effort for Name, Image and Likeness, and that is the most wholesome part of NIL. It just fosters connections, gets student-athletes to buy in and the community to buy into our student-athletes.”
“For better or for worse that’s where we’re at. If you want to remain competitive at a mid-major level to high major level you have to have a presence in the NIL space,” Wetmore said. "That’s on my agenda."
Roster rebuild
There were at least seven current Monmouth players in attendance, including senior center Belle Kranbuhl, named to the CAA All-Defensive team, senior guard Sandrine Clesca and senior forward Taisha Exanor, sophomore forward Ella Farrelly, freshman forward Divine Dibula and sophomore guard Amiya Carroll.
And that’s likely the core group Wetmore will build around via the transfer portal and high school signees.
More: Monmouth women's basketball: Exodus underway after head coach departs
There are currently six Monmouth players in the transfer portal from a 22-win team that won a game in the WNIT, including: Senior guard Ariana Vanderhoop, a third-team All-CAA selection; senior guard Kaci Donovan, an All-CAA third teamer; senior guard Jania Hall, the CAA’s Sixth Player of the Year; freshman guard Rosalie Mercille, a sharpshooter who hit for 20 points twice; reserve guard Antonia Panayides; and freshman guard Diamond Wiggins.
“There have been a few conversations (with players in the portal), but by the time I got here some of them were further into their process, even though they hired a coach as fast as they could,” Wetmore said.
Wetmore is bringing one coach with her from Charlotte, with Aja Boyd having played at UNC Greensboro when Wetmore was a coach there. She said she has also had conversations with Anjale Barrett, who was on Boggess' staff.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: New Monmouth women's basketball coach Cait Wetmore seeks Shore talent
