Bio: Krista Kirkland Gerlich

[Harry]

Krista Gerlich has played a major role in continuing West Texas A&M's tradition of excellence in women's basketball. Entering her sixth season at the helm of the Lady Buff program, Gerlich has compiled an overall record of 129-30 in just five seasons. She became the fastest coach in WTAMU history to record both 100 and 125 wins.

Despite a season chalked full of injuries, Gerlich still guided the Lady Buffs to a 17-11 overall record in 2010-11 and finished second in the Lone Star Conference South Divsion with a 10-4 mark. The Lady Buffs earned the south division's No. 2 seed in the LSC Championship Tournament, but were downed by eventual LSC Champions, Texas Women's in the first round of the tournament. She played a key role in a pair of Lady Buffs collecting post-season hardware that season, as Jamie Simmons was named the south division's Player of the Year and Aly Sherman was named the division's Defensive Player of the Year.

The 2009-10 season saw the Lady Buffs record a 30-4 overall record, the first time since 1994 for a team to reach 30 wins in a season.They earned a third-consecutive Lone Star Conference title, 11th in school history, and finished third in the NCAA South Central Regional tournament. Joni Unruh and Simmons were selected as WBCA All-America honorable mentions and the team dominated conference awards as Unruh was named LSC South Player of the Year, Simmons was LSC Newcomer of the Year, and Gerlich was named LSC South Coach of the Year.

The Lady Buffs thrived under Gerlich in the 2008-09 season as the team recorded a 28-6 season record. The postseason saw WT earn their fourth-consecutive LSC South Division title and their second-consecutive LSC Tournament Championship. The Lady Buffs found themselves hosting their fifth-consecutive NCAA South Central Regional tournament appearance, beating Central Oklahoma in the finals for the team's first NCAA Elite Eight berth in 11 seasons. Despite a career-ending knee injury, Emily Brister represented the team well once again in postseason honors, earning WBCA/State Farm first team All-America selection for the first team in her career, along with countless other accolades.

2007-08 saw the Gerlich-coached Lady Buffs record a 26-5 season record, capture a third-consecutive LSC South Division title, earn the LSC Tournament Championship and make a fourth-consecutive NCAA South Central Regional appearance. Individually, the Lady Buffs were well-represented in post-season honors, with Emily Brister earning Daktronics all-Region Player of the Year, as well as Daktronics all-America, LSC South Division Player of the Year, LSC Tournament MVP, LSC Female Athlete of the Year as well as earning the inaugural Fred Jacoby Academic Athlete of the Year award. Courtney Lee was selected as the LSC South Division Defensive Player of the Year.

Dedicated to the classroom as well as the basketball court, Gerlich's 2007-08 team was recognized by the WBCA with Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll recognition, ranking fifth among all Division II programs with a 3.55 grade point average.

Gerlich took over the WT program just prior to the start of the 2006-2007 season and immediately made an impact. In just her first season as a head coach at the collegiate level, she led the Lady Buffs to an overall record of 28-5 and a perfect 14-0 record in LSC league play and was named Coach of the Year in the LSC South Division.

In addition to the team's accomplishments, the Lady Buffs earned numerous individual awards: six LSC South Awards - including the South Division Player of the Year - six LSC academic awards, the All-Region Player of the Year award, the All-LSC Female Athlete of the Year award, an Honorable Mention All-America (by the WBCA) honoree, and one first team All-America honoree by Daktronics, as voted on by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The Lady Buffs were recognized for their efforts in the classroom, as well. Two garnered Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholar accolades and the team was ranked 18th nationally in the 2006-2007 WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for Division II with a collective GPA of 3.355.

Prior to joining West Texas A&M, Gerlich spent three seasons with another highly successful West Texas women's basketball program, serving as an assistant to Hall of Fame coach Marsha Sharp at Texas Tech. During her time in Lubbock, Gerlich helped guide the Lady Raiders to two NCAA tournament appearances, including a 24-8 overall record, a 12-4 Big 12 mark and a spot in the Sweet 16 during the 2004-2005 campaign.

While on the Tech bench, Gerlich was heavily involved in almost every aspect of the program as she instructed preseason individual workouts, coached the perimeter players, reviewed film and handled game day preparations for the Lady Raiders. Throughout the school year she also assisted in the academic progress of the Lady Raider student-athletes.

Before returning to coaching with Texas Tech during the 2003-2004 season, Gerlich took some time off to start a family; she spent the 2002-2003 year teaching math at Hereford High School, where her husband, Bryan, was the athletic director and head football coach.

After graduating from Texas Tech in 1993 with a degree in exercise and sports science, Gerlich got her first coaching job at Lockney High School as the head girls' basketball coach. From 1994-1997, she was the head girls' coach at Taft High School in San Antonio, Texas. Gerlich entered the college ranks as an assistant at the University of Texas at San Antonio from 1997-1999, where she served as the number one assistant and recruiting coordinator. Gerlich followed her position at UTSA by accepting the head coaching job at San Antonio Reagan High School from 1999-2000. In the inaugural season at Reagan, the team posted a 20-5 mark. Before her stint at Hereford, Gerlich was a math teacher at Tahoka High School from 2000-2002 where husband was the athletic director and head football coach.

Gerlich received her master's degree in educational administration in 1997 from Texas A&M-Kingsville. During a stellar playing career at Texas Tech, Gerlich played shooting guard from 1989-1993 and helped guide the squad to the 1993 National Championship while picking up All-Southwest Conference honors three times. She also was named to the 1993 SWC All-Tournament team, the 1993 West Regional All-Tournament team and the 1993 Final Four All-Tournament team. Gerlich was selected to the All-Time SWC team, while being named one of the Panhandle's Top 100 Athletes of the Century. During her senior campaign, she became Tech's all-time assist leader by finishing with 553 assists, which now ranks third all-time in program history. In 1993, she was named the NCAA Texas Woman of the Year. On Dec. 5, 1993, Gerlich's number 21 was retired and now hangs in the rafters at the United Spirit Arena, making her one of just three Lady Raiders to have her number retired.

The Spearman, Texas, native was a three time all-state selection in basketball while attending Sudan (Texas) High and Spearman High School. She was a member of the 1987 state championship basketball team at Sudan HS, where her father, Jim Kirkland, was her high school basketball coach. In 1988, she helped Spearman HS claim the cross country state championship and was a four time all-state selection in cross country. She placed third at the 1989 state track meet in the 1600 meters.

Gerlich and her husband, Bryan, who is also a Texas Tech graduate and a former linebacker on the Red Raider football team (1987-1992), have a daughter, Bryn, and a son, Brayden.

read more: http://gobuffsgo.com/coaches.aspx?rc=319&path=wbball

http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php?title=Krista_Kirkland-Gerlich

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/031408/col_257719389.shtml

[UNTLifer]

Good find.

[Harry]

Good find.

Credit to buff for that one. And I agree, she was on the last short list and has an impressive resume.

[untbowler]

that would be a great hire. West Texas has always had a great women's team, so would bring her in a heart beat. Hope AD is on the phones quickly to get someone in order to hold onto the recruits.

[greenjoe]

She sounds like a good prospect. Winning 25-26 games per season certainly says something. Does she look a bit like Tina Slinker ?

[All About UNT]

Fantastic prospect but I am not sure this will happen... DEEP TIES with West Texas

"When the University of North Texas fired women's basketball coach Tina Slinker this week, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram mentioned Gerlich among a list of potential replacements who would make sense.

Now that she's as close to settled as she's been in a while, Gerlich's not eager to jump to another job anytime soon - especially not if it involves a commute between Canyon and Denton.

"Not so much, no," she said. "We're really happy here."

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