Baker University Women’s Basketball is undergoing changes in coaching staff after their head and assistant coach resigned on Feb. 24.
Torie Murillo has been acting head coach for the women’s basketball team for the past four years. According to Baker Athletics, in her first year coaching, Murillo guided the team to the most wins the program had seen since the 2018-19 season – earning 14 victories and four all-conference selections. The team has also been. under the direction of Richard Ebel since his hire in 2019.
Ebel stepped into the head coaching position for Baker Women’s Basketball in 2022 after the previous head coach was relieved of his duties. Previously coaching at nearby Eudora High School, he was named All-Area Coach by the Lawrence Journal-World in 2019. Ebel was later removed in the middle of the 2019 women’s season due to “‘philosophical differences’ between him and administration” of Eudora High, according to the Lawrence Journal World’s story in December of 2019.
After Murillo’s departure, Ebel has taken over as interim head coach until a new head coach is selected. Athletic Director Susan Decker said that the department will begin looking for a new coach immediately, “We will get someone hired as soon as possible after doing a thorough search.” Decker stated.
Interview processes for potential new coaches will be conducted over zoom, with only a select few being invited to campus later in the interview process.
Decker said that this is a good time of year to look for a new coach, as this season has officially ended. There are currently no practices or other team events happening.
“I plan to have someone in place so that none of these functions will not be affected” Decker said. She said the timeline is flexible, but said that she “hopes to have someone onboard sometime in April or May.”
As the program looks for a new leader, players are hopeful for what the next season might bring. Junior Rhianna Blanchard, the team’s 2-3 zone guard, has a positive outlook on the future of women’s basketball at Baker. Blanchard said that she’s optimistic about the change in leadership.
“I think it will be a slight challenge, but also good because we will have a new perspective that can hopefully be advantageous,” Blanchard said. Along with being advantageous, she said she’s looking for “energy, positivity, and authenticity” out of the program’s new leader and that while she felt there were some improvements in some aspects, their season did not end as well as it had in past years.
For the future, Blanchard said that there are some changes she hopes to see: “more support from different sports coming to events.” She credits this area’s improvement to the Association of Student Athletes (ASA) – a group of student athletes from various sports who meet to discuss the welfare of their teams, and what other teams can do to better support one another. Moving into next season, Blanchard said that she hopes to grow her relationship with her team and new coach, saying that she’d “love to see more camaraderie on and off the court consistently.”
