I have a tendency to be in the presence of successful girls’ and women’s basketball programs. Katrina Hannaford led the Old Abes to state during my freshman year at Memorial. The Luther College women’s team was always near the top of the Iowa Conference during my four years at Luther. Just in time for my return to Eau Claire, Tonja Englund took over the already top-notch UW-Eau Claire women’s basketball squad, continuing a tradition of quality established under previous coaches like Lisa Stone.

If there is one certainty in WIAC women’s basketball, it is the presence of the Blugolds near the top of the standings. In nine seasons, Englund’s Blugolds have posted multiple WIAC season and tournament championships, player honors totaling in double-digits, and undefeated conference seasons, plus an NCAA Division III Final Four appearance to boot. The folks are watching, considering UW-Eau Claire’s ranking near the top of Division III women’s basketball attendance.

The proceeding paragraph may have largely answered the question as to why Tonja Englund has become one of the top women’s coaches in the state – or nationwide, for that matter. What statistics do not tell is insight. Insight I gleaned from a recent interview conducted with the coach for my Sportsvue radio show. The answers reveal Englund’s impact on her players ... or should I say, her students.

One prominent anecdote involved her team’s emotional state upon the Blugolds’ upset road win in February over South Dakota, the day after a critical loss to UW-River Falls. It was a trip that ended with the players singing in the bus on the way home, and proved to be a memorable trip in total:

“For me, looking back on it, that probably was one of the best moments I’ve ever been a part of as a coach, because I saw a team in 24 hours go from lowest of low to highest of high, and that’s what sports does: it teaches life lessons. And for the players, they bounce back from something that ultimately was really tough and came together as a group and had a really, really special opportunity.

“2009-10 will be a season of youth for the Blugolds. You know why many are not concerned that the season will be a rebuilding year? This approach explains why: There will never be a year where I say ‘Well, we’re young and it’s going to take us a while to get back there.’ That’s not how we operate. I’ve already met with all those players and said, ‘We’re young, and that can be a blessing, because we’ll be a different team and let’s take that and let’s run with it.’ But we’re going to have the same expectations next year that we’ve had every year in the program.”

Center Hannah Mesick was along for the interview; Mesick’s presence is part of Englund’spreparation for these players to be ready for the real world: I look at someone like Hannah who was, when she came in as a freshman, not used to speaking publicly. Now we do so much community service and have so much opportunity to be on TV and radio, it’s a special experience for the players. And I look at when they graduate and they go out and apply for jobs, or they have to speak publicly, it’s this that gets them ready.

And the sort of leadership that is built as part of a team on the court is paid forward in many of Englund’s players continuing their basketball careers in coaching:

“We’ve had a long line of players that have come back ... and are now coaching out in the community. And that’s that torch that you want to pass. I want to have as many strong female role models that came through the game, get back out there and coach and give back, at every level, whether it’s the youth level, the middle school level, the high school level, the college level.”

Now you know the reason Tonja Englund sustains the Blugold women at a high level of excellence today and for the future. Not only for the future of the program, but for the future of their lives.