The Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team has hit another milestone under longtime head coach Cheri Harrer; The team is on a 22-game winning streak as Harrer has eclipsed 700 wins.
Ideastream Public Media's sports commentator Terry Pluto shared some more stats:
“(Harrer’s) record is 710- 246," Pluto said. "In those 35 years, she's made the NCAA tournament 19 times. Before she arrived at Baldwin Wallace, the program was on very wobbly legs. It never had a winning season. I mean, she built the whole thing from the bottom up.”
Harrer had an unusual path to coaching at BW. She grew up on a sprawling farm in Bucyrus, Ohio.
“They didn't even have girls’ basketball in school and she used to shoot (on) a hoop nailed to the barn door,” Pluto said. “She kind of talked her way in to be able to at least practice with the boys in junior high there and then she made (University of Findlay) as a walk-on basketball player and earned her career.”
Pluto said at age 25, Harrer applied to be the women’s basketball coach at Baldwin Wallace via an ad she saw in Education Magazine.
“She got hired there 35 years ago, she's still there and literally lives next door to the campus," Pluto said.
Baldwin Wallace competes in Division III, with no athletic scholarships or big name, image and likeness deals for players.
“They don't have to roll their eyes and cross their fingers like they're telling lies when they call them student athletes,” Pluto said. “The team GPA is 3.8. and they're taking real courses. For example, their leading scorer is a lady named Caely Ressler (who has a) 3.99 (GPA) in engineering.”
Pluto said the team also shares the court.
“If you are a player who likes big stats and wants to be like the next Caitlin Clark or whatever, Baldwin Wallace may not be your program because this is true team basketball," Pluto said. "Their leading scorer is Caely Ressler who averages 11 points per game and they have like nine players between five points and 11 points per game.”
Harrer also likes to give all players a chance to participate. She has a roster this season of 24 women.
“There must be something magical in the program there to keep the kids involved," Pluto said. "If they come out and they want to go to practice and do the work, she'll keep them and she even sets up a lot of inter squad scrimmages so the kids could least play each other and some kind of game-like situations. This is where I think some of the secret sauce of that program is, is the ability that coaches and leading players have to be able to make the other players feel a part of what's going on."
Harrer also teaches coaching classes at BW five days a week and Pluto said when it comes to her players, she takes a unique approach.
“She uses a book that I love very much called The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman," Pluto said. "That's been used a lot also in the corporate world where you figure out the love language, it's like, what are the things that are important to you. You know, (is) praise important to you or is quality time? So, they run a lot of these like little seminars during the season about, you know, personal development...She views it as a calling and a ministry as well as coaching.”
Pluto said after 35 years, Harrer has no plans to step down anytime soon.
“I just think she's such a unique story and it's right in our backyard and meanwhile, 22 (wins) in a row," Pluto said. "All the years she's coached, (she’s) never had a 22 game winning streak before.”
