Same office, new title for Delanian

The Rainbow Wahine basketball team’s coaching shuffle wasn’t limited to departures and arrivals.

Among the assistant coaches, Alex Delanian’s office was the only one that went undisturbed this summer. Even so, he returns for his third season on the staff with a new title.

Now UH’s associate head coach, Delanian takes on some of the duties previously handled by Mary Wooley over the past four seasons. With Wooley moving on to Loyola Maryland, Delanian is looking forward to adding to his to-do list.

“I’ve always wanted to do more for Coach (Laura) Beeman and for the program, so this is an opportunity to tackle more responsibilities,” Delanian said.

Along with continuing to assist with scouting and recruiting, Delanian said his role will include “more of the on-court responsibilities that Coach Wooley used to have that I’ll help take over and at least assist in. We’re still balancing some of those things out with new faces on the staff. It’s just a lot more game-planning, Xs and Os kind of stuff.”

Delanian joined the program in 2013 as Director of Operations and was given in his first collegiate coaching job the following season and has focused on working with the post players in his two years on the staff.

“Among the great things working for Coach Beeman is her willingness and her excitement to share responsibilities and tasks with assistant coaches,” Delanian said. “She’s not the type of boss or leader to say, ‘I’m doing it my way, you guys follow.’ She likes to distribute, she likes to hear voices from top assistants on down. … So when I got my first coaching job I was able to learn a lot under her and it really accelerated my growth.”

Delanian had a bit more more to juggle this summer with a shorthanded staff that was rounded out with the recent additions of assistants Calamity McEntire and Brad Langston.

With individual workouts under way, he praised the players’ work ethic as the coaches set about teaching the system to a group heavy on newcomers.

“Not that we hit a rest button because we’ve established so much culture and expectations for the program in general,” he said, “but it was definitely a back-to-basics approach through summer workouts because with so many new faces, just to establish the things that define our program, like defense first. Teaching our defense and teaching what we do and what’s made us successful.”

While acknowledging the challenges that await a relatively young group, Delanian said the teaching process is “why we work in this field. To be able to teach and help grow young women to do great things.”

“The youth … can be quickly overcome. It’s a factor but with a hard-working group, the youth goes away much quicker. You grow up in a hurry.”

The Rainbow Wahine officially start practice on Oct. 3 and open the season Nov. 11 at USC, Delanian’s alma mater.