Coach O’Boyle has been busy preparing for her first season leading the VCU Rams women’s basketball team. She has added 4 new members to her coaching staff, including 3 from her team at Stony Brook University.
Rob Norris joins the coaching staff as an assistant and has spent 13 years in Division I basketball. He is coming from the same role at Eastern Michigan where just like Coach O’Boyles Seawolves the Eagles produced a 10 game improvement over their prior season finishing 18-14 for 2013-14.
Prior to EMU Coach Norris spent 11 years in men’s basketball. He was associate head coach for Canisius from 2009-12 but his total tenure was 6 years from 2006-12. He was at Towson for 2 years (2004-06), director of operations for Montana (2002-03), and began as film coordinator for DePaul (2001-02). He graduated from Indiana University of PA in 1999.
Kate DeSorrento served on Coach O’Boyle’s coaching staff at SBU for 2 years as an assistant. She was the first from that staff to join O’Boyle at VCU. She also served as recruiting coordinator for the Seawolves.
Prior to Stony Brook Coach DeSorrento was the head coach at Hamilton College (2011-12) and spent 3 seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Rochester. During that time the Yellow Jackets had 3 NCAA Division III bids and made it to the national semi-finals in 2010. She received her bachelor’s degree from Union College (2006) and master’s from Rochester (2012),
Nerlande Nicolas joins the VCU WBB coaching staff as an assistant coach. Coach Nicolas was another member of the team that assisted O’Boyle at SBU during their 2013-14 success which included a 24 -9 season and post-season bid at the WNIT.
Coach Nicolas has some experience in the A10 and returns with her move to VCU. She previously worked as Director of Operations for Dayton in 2011-12 and as the video coordinator for Rhode Island in 2010-11. She began her coaching career in the ACC and spent 3 seasons with her alma mater. She obtained both her bachelor’s degree (2008) and master’s degree (2011) from Rutgers.
Stephanie Witko is reprising her role as Coach O’Boyle’s Director of Operations continuing their relationship from Stony Brook on the VCU coaching staff. Witko will manage travel for the Rams and much of the daily operations for the team.
Witko spent several years with top performing Division III teams prior to her role at SBU including 2 seasons as an assistant in Scranton under Mike Strong. She also served as an assistant at Marymount from 2008-2011, helping the Saints garner 3 consecutive NCAA Division III bids. The Saints run included the Sweet 16 in 2010. She received an undergraduate degree from Marymount in 2008 and a master’s degree from George Washington in 2010.
