Craig Stanger is the new head coach for women’s basketball at BYU-Hawaii.<\/p>\n
He spent 17 years as a men’s coach at Western Oregon, including six as head coach, and the last two years as a college scout for National Scouting Report. Throughout it all, the BYUH program always remained a source of intrigue to him.<\/p>\n
“I’m very excited,” said Stanger. “I know (BYUH men’s coach and athletic director) Coach Wagner, and I traveled there when I was coaching men’s teams. I always thought it would be a fun place to coach. What excites me most is that there is a great opportunity there in talking with our current players and those who have signed.”<\/p>\n
BYUH finished 6-19 last season and 6-20 in 2011-12 under Hiram Akina, whose contract was not renewed. The school began offering Division II women’s basketball in 2005.<\/p>\n
“We have our work cut out for us since they only won six games each of the last two seasons,” admitted Stanger.<\/p>\n
In the men’s program, he sees a good model for his own team. “They’ve been a top team in the PacWest for a long time. Our expectations are to be in the top half of that conference as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n
Among the job perks Stanger acknowledged are BYUH’s athletic facilities, most notably, Cannon Activities Center. “BYUH has some of the better facilities in Division II, without question. Having a facility like this is an asset. We also have a completely separate auxillary gym, which is something I wasn’t familiar with.”<\/p>\n
During his time at Western Oregon, Stanger helped to land some of the best players in the school’s history. Stanger joined then-WOU coach Tom Kelly and the Wolves’ staff in 1994-95 and was the lead assistant under Tim Hills for three seasons before taking over in 2005.<\/p>\n
His collegiate career began at BYU in 1988, where he was a student manager before graduating in 1992. He also was head coach at Idaho’s Murtaugh High School for two seasons, and was Idaho State Coach of the Year in 1993-94 after leading the Red Devils to the Class A-4 title.<\/p>\n
In 1992-93, Murtaugh finished second in the state championship tourney at the small-school level. In addition to his responsibilities as head basketball coach at MHS, Stanger was athletic director. His two-season record as head coach was 41-12.<\/p>\n
Stanger had no trouble selling his family on making the move from Oregon. He and wife Tiffini will be moving to the North Shore in mid-August. “I told them, it rains a lot here and it rains a lot there, but the difference is that there it is 75 and rainy instead of being rainy and 55 (as in Oregon).”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Craig Stanger is the new head coach for women’s basketball at BYU-Hawaii. He spent 17 years as a men’s coach..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windward","category-windward-oahu-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n