http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/wnba/monarchs/2007-07-04-FocusWNBAmonarchscoach_N.htm
Part 1
Sacramento's Boucek succeeds in style
By, Oscar Dixon, USA TODAY
More than a few eyebrows were raised when in November the Sacramento Monarchs handed the coaching reigns of one of the original WNBA franchises to 33-year-old Jenny Boucek.
But Boucek — the first to be a player, assistant coach and head coach in the league — is making believers of the naysayers.
"She is still relatively young and I knew she would be coaching players who were going to be older than her," ESPN analyst Doris Burke says. "You're also replacing a successful person and taking over a team that has achieved at a really high level. That said, I was thrilled she got the chance."
The transition has been so seamless that Boucek has earned the right to coach the West in the July 15 All-Star Game. The Monarchs, in the WNBA Finals the last two years and winning it all in 2005, are first in the West.
"I'm enjoying the ride," says Boucek (pronounced Boo-sec). "I'm loving every day of what I do. I have no aspirations except to enjoy every step of it. The highs and the lows, the challenges, the hardships … and the successes."
One experience that has helped is the time during the 2005-06 NBA season that Boucek was a scout for the Seattle SuperSonics.
"That was a huge blessing because … they've never had a woman do advance scouting," says Boucek, who was an assistant with the WNBA's Seattle Storm. "Advance scouting in the NBA is about as good as it gets to learn.
"Advanced scouting is strictly Xs and Os. You are just studying NBA teams at the most minute level of what they do scientifically. It's a huge learning experience. You're seeing arguably some of the best coaches in the world."
Boucek, in her own right, is in a position unlike any WNBA colleague:
•She is younger than her star player, center-forward Yolanda Griffith, the 37-year-old face of the franchise.
•She played against starting point guard Ticha Penicheiro, 32, when Penicheiro was a junior at Old Dominion University and Boucek a senior at the University of Virginia.
•She and forward DeMya Walker, 29, sidelined by a season-ending knee injury, were UVA teammates.
Boucek has been in the WNBA eight years, seven as a coach. She played for Cleveland and was an assistant coach for Washington, Miami and Seattle.
"This is nothing new for me," Boucek says of coaching older players. "I've been the coach for people who have been older than me — a lot of players I played with, a lot of players I played against. So you learn to lead in a different way. … When I was playing I was the leader on the team, and my job now is what I love to do, help players."
Boucek says she has leaned on her three captains, Griffith, Penicheiro and guard Kara Lawson, 26: "They don't need me a whole lot. … They can just about coach themselves."
Sacramento's early success doesn't surprise Griffith, an eight-year WNBA veteran, who says Boucek's age gets too much attention.
"It doesn't matter how old you are, as long as you understand and know the game — and she knows the game," says Griffith, the 1999 league MVP and 2005 Finals MVP.
Monarchs general manager John Whisenant, who hired Boucek after he stepped down as head coach last season, agrees with Griffith.
"I had observed Jenny … since the middle of '03 through last year," Whisenant says. "As I would see her around and I became more familiar with her, I recognized that No. 1, she is really smart, No. 2 she has played the game … and worked her way up the ladder with some good coaches.
"She is a good learner, an A student, daughter of a doctor, granddaughter of two doctors. And she has spent a lot of her intellect analyzing the game."
