by Tony Lane, Valley News Staff Writer , Valley News

Now Wielgus is in the midst of her 24th season at the helm of the Big Green, a tenure interrupted by a two-year stint at Fordham (1991- 93), a handful of years as coordinator or director of various basketball camps, and even a spin as a consultant at Chemical Bank in New York City (1989-91).

Wielgus' two sons, Christopher and Thomas, are now grown and off on their own, and the 55-year-old New York native is spending her 16th consecutive winter in Hanover. Her teams have won more than 70 percent of their Ivy games and earned a postseason bid (NCAA or WNIT) in each of the last four years.

The Valley News spoke with Wielgus recently to take the measure of her Dartmouth career. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation:

Valley News: How has your job changed in the most significant ways, over the course of 25-plus years?

Chris Wielgus: The most significant way is how more tolerant the institution is than it was when I started in 1976. We had African- American women on the team, and that was like a double whammy. The acceptance of women in general has been a remarkable change. With that, there was a big change in the respect that the program has. That was different.

When I started here, it was just me in the gym in the middle of the night. We (practiced) after men's varsity, men's jayvee and men's freshmen teams. I learned so much in the gym by myself. I spent a lot of time in the gym and now I'm limited in what I can do.

VN: What did you learn during your foray outside of coaching in the business world?

CW: I thought that the business world was so much easier than what I did. I was shocked that we actually got to go to lunch. I was shocked that people got done with their jobs; they went home for the weekend and came back.

There was a lot more posturing in the business world. There were little celebrities in every organization, and you had to buddy up to them to get ahead. I don't think that's too much the case here. That's one thing that's nice about Dartmouth. It's a small enough community where there's more of a sense of community.

VN: How many serious bids from other schools for their coaching vacancies have you entertained?

CW: Not really many. Maybe less than a handful. As a single mother, I couldn't go moving too much until the boys got older. There's a lot of me that wishes I had tried something different, but I also know a lot of people in the profession. I've seen what's happened to them.

I've run in circles. I started here, I left, I came back. But I got to see life through four extra eyes of my children that a lot of people don't get to see. I got to experience childhood with them, and I think I had a much more balanced life than I would have had otherwise.

VN: Have you ever thought of anything else you would have done?

CW: I taught because I was a gym rat, and that's what I knew. I wanted to have my summers off, and I wasn't very good in the classroom.

I wish, instead of a phys ed teacher, I could teach someone to read or do something real worthwhile -- make a real difference. This is all nice and everything, but if I knew more about teaching people to read, then yeah, I'd wish I'd done that.

VN: Why do you think the success here has persisted throughout these 20-plus years?

CW: I think we have something a lot of the other Ivies don't have. Women's basketball here has a culture. I didn't tell (my players) to come here. We had an expectation of hard work before it was in vogue. We were up in the morning, working out, before other teams were. That has a lot to do with it.

A lot of these kids go to Ivy schools to play Division I and do many other things besides. I tell every recruit that there are easier schools to go to in the Ivy League than here. If you want easy, don't come here. I think that's true. We work them really hard, but I don't work them so hard that they don't have a life.

We have a basketball culture within our family here that's different from other sports. When I see other sports here, I'm not absolutely sure they have the commitment. They can put up new facilities and everything, but unless there's a commitment to conditioning ... you can't go drinking and partying in season. Well, you can, but don't be upset if you don't win.

VN: Is there a player or two throughout the years that you just lost, that you failed to connect with or didn't fulfill her potential?

CW: There's a lot of them who have fallen through the cracks. The ones that fall through the cracks here are the ones who don't play. It's amazing to me.

It happens all the time. I don't know if it's the potential in basketball or the potential to be what we could have been (as a team). There are lots of things I would like to take back, because we're dealing with people and I'm learning every day.

One of my big-time players who worked really hard and graduated in the late 1990s came back ... and she said, "You never paid enough attention to me." I didn't, because she was good. She didn't do anything (wrong), she wasn't misbehaving.

That struck me now. The ones that are the pain in the neck are the ones that get the most attention. Ever since then, I make sure I speak to everyone every day.

VN: How will you know when it's time to go?

CW: When my credit card bills are paid (laughing). I am a frugal person. I just happen to be surrounded by expensive children.

I don't know. My experience has been different from many others. My children were an amazing difficult job. Thank goodness for my family and friends. But they kept me from going into the abyss of silliness that is Division I basketball. I didn't fall into that abyss because of them.

Now that they've grown up and gone, I welcome the opportunity to reinvent myself someday. But I am 55 years old, and I can stay up as late as I want. I don't have to get up at 5 in the morning for the kids. So I have more energy and I'm more excited about this job than I ever was.

Tony Lane can be reached at alane@vnews.com or (603) 727-3227.

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