Jeff Walz Helps Lead Terps
11/27/2006 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 27, 2006
By, Mariel Brady
After every game the University of Maryland women's basketball team plays, Jeff Walz goes home to the familiar smile of his daughter, Kaeley. According to the coach, regardless of whether his team wins or loses, when he opens the garage door, his little girl comes running to him. But, what the one-year-old can't be very familiar with in her young life, is the Terps' losing.
"Being a father is a wonderful, wonderful experience," the associate head coach said. "It's been absolutely the most gratifying experience I've had."
That experience, coupled with the Terps' magical run to the national championship last season, has made the past year quite exciting for Walz.
"Last season was very special. It's hard to put into words," he said. "It's an experience I'll never forget."
Walz, who learned the importance of family early in life, says that it is important to understand that your life at home is more important than your job.
"I was fortunate growing up in Northern Kentucky. I grew up in a great family," he said. "My parents were very supportive in everything we did and my grandfather was also a big part of my life."
For Walz' tight-knit family, it was a no-brainer that they would also support his natural talent for coaching, as his father, two older brothers and younger sister have also coached in some capacity.
"My brother Brian used to coach girls basketball and my brother Scott has helped out with high school football. My sister coaches a girls' high school team and my dad coached high school football for years," he said. "It's just kind of being around athletics. It's something we've always done and always been apart of, so once you can't play, the next best thing is to coach."
And coaching is something that the Kentucky native has always excelled at.
After his second year of college, Walz decided to put together an AAU team, which included his sister Jaime, who would become the 1996 National High School Player of the Year.
After coaching the AAU team for two years, Walz got an opportunity to join the coaching staff at Western Kentucky, under head coach Paul Sanderford.
Walz followed Sanderford to Nebraska two years later, and credits the legendary coach with teaching him about the game of basketball and how to watch the flow of the game and make adjustments.
Years later, Walz remembered Sanderford's teachings as he designed the play that led to Kristi Tolliver's now famous three-point shot, which sent the Terps' national title game against Duke into overtime.
"I am fortunate that Coach B gives me the opportunity to be apart of some of the decisions we make during games," he said. "From [Sanderford's] teaching and watching that Duke game as it went along, that was a play that I thought would work. We were fortunate enough that Kristi Toliver and the rest of the girls went out there and executed the play."
And at Jeff Walz' house that night, it is safe to assume that Kaeley noticed her dad's smile was a little bigger than usual.
