Cummard introduced as BYU’s head women’s basketball coach

PROVO, Utah – BYU director of athletics Tom Holmoe officially introduced Lee Cummard as the eighth head coach of the BYU women’s basketball program in a press conference at the Marriott Center Annex on Monday afternoon.

BYU director of athletics Tom Holmoe's opening statement

"We are here today to introduce our new women’s basketball coach here at BYU, Lee Cummard. When I first met Lee, he was a basketball player at BYU. It was a great time, and I got to see him as a basketball player here as a Cougar. I wondered where life would take him. He had an opportunity to play some basketball professionally – a little G-league, a little overseas – and we are very fortunate to get him back. He had experiences here with our men’s basketball team, and he had some experience with our women’s basketball team in coaching capacities. It was during that time that we could see him mature and see him grow as a coach."

"Coaching is very difficult in this day and age. There’s a lot of responsibilities. There are a lot of things that have not been seen in the past, and many of our coaches in all sports are doing things that are really outside what they were trained to do. There’s really no pathways that people have trod to get to this point. This is one of the reasons why I think Lee is the right coach at the right time for here at BYU."

"He’s tough. He has the right balance between fire and ice. He can be strong. He can be tough. He can be very competitive. He also can be compassionate. He can be understanding. He can be a listening ear, and it’s just what we need at this point in time."

"We’re super stoked to have one of our very own that’s been a champion here at BYU in the past and will be a champion here in the future." 

BYU head coach Lee Cummard's opening statement

“I couldn’t start without thanking my Heavenly Father for blessing me with this opportunity to be the steward over this program. I’m grateful for His impact and how I feel him in my life every day. My wife and kids are in Arizona on Spring Break, but I want to thank them for their support throughout this whole process. They’ve been on this journey with me quite some time and been really fortunate to be here as long as I have.”

“I came here to BYU, on May 1st, it will be 20 years. I’ve loved my time at BYU up until this point, and I know I’m going to love my time going forward. I would like to give a special thanks to President Reese and Vice President Vorkink for their support throughout this process and in my time here with them. They’ve been great to me and my family, so really grateful for them. I’d like to thank the coaches that I’ve had over the years, coaches that I played for in high school to Coach Rose, who I communicated with this morning. I am grateful for him and for him allowing me to come here as a player all those years ago. Really grateful for the coaches that I worked for at BYU. In my opinion, I worked for two of the greatest coaches at BYU, Coach Rose on the men’s side and Coach Judkins on the women’s side. I learned so much from them. Grateful for Coach Whiting and everything that I learned from her.”

“I couldn’t have done this without all the players over the years. Super grateful for them allowing me to coach them hard and be a part of their lives. That’s for the past players and the current players that we have here. Really excited for the future of the program and the players that are going to be a part of it. We have a couple of missionaries out there right now, super excited to coach them. We've got a great group of players coming back next season, and I’m really excited to coach as well as those that are to come.”

“Good things are happening. At BYU, there is a tradition of winning and there is a commitment to it. I intend to live up to that commitment and that winning tradition. As I told the players earlier today, excellence is the expectation, and that is how we do everything. It’s in our mindset. It's in our approach to things It’s in our preparation. It’s how we work. That’s the expectation, and they know that, and they are wanting that.”

“I came here 20 years ago as a kid that really didn’t know what he was getting involved in here at BYU. The way that this place has shaped my life has been tremendous. I’ve grown in every aspect of my life, that’s as a person in my spiritual walk and I’ve grown tremendously in my relationship with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want everyone to know that. I want everyone to know that’s where we’re going with this program. We want everyone that comes here to be who they are supposed to be. I know that they will improve as individuals on the court but most importantly off the court.”

Coach Cummard's Q&A Responses

On trademarks of the program under his direction

“Excellence will be the expectation. BYU is a fantastic university that has all the support in the world needed to succeed and to fly, and we intend to just do that. I addressed a little bit about the work ethic and doing it with the right people and doing it the right way. I fully intend for that to be the case. I’m solely focused on driving what this is going to look like for the group who is going to be a part of this. I’m going to be really stingy about the culture or the BYU way of doing things. The girls know that and are excited for that. I would imagine it looks a lot like how I played: scrappy, tough, work ethic's there. Tom talked about competitiveness. We’re going to have all that, and you’re going to be able to see that when we’re on the court, and a lot of three pointers.”

On selling points to emphasize in the recruiting process

“I don’t think the message changes much in the recruiting process. It’s a great university with great people surrounding you the entire time you’re going to be here. You’re going to evolve as a person and as a player, and I promise you, you’ll become a better shooter. In it, just focusing more on the college experience and how we’re going to add value to your life and build you up as a person and on the court. I’m not naive. Winning is a big part of a great college experience. As a player here, and I loved my experience at BYU and wouldn’t change it for anything, I know a lot of that had to do with us winning games and cutting down nets. That’s part of the whole player experience, and I want to focus on that with the players. The whole complete player experience is what we’ll build from.”

On what has kept him at BYU for so long

“I'm ingrained in this place. My kids are ingrained in this place. We've been here for so long...I literally have BYU pumping through my veins. That doesn't mean there haven't been other opportunities. At the time, some of them got explored and most of them were easily pushed to the side. I've had a lot of people in my corner for a long time here at BYU, and they've been really supportive as far as keeping me moving forward. It's a challenging profession. There's quite a bit of change and times get hard, but that's the fun part. I think back to when I came back in 2016 with Coach Rose and just the journey from then until now, and from May 1, 2005, to now, the journey has been such a blast. I really feel like, for some reason, I'm supposed to be at BYU, and I'm not mad about that. This is, like I said, an unbelievable place, and the people that want to be here and dive into this place headfirst, amazing things happen to them.”

On building up fan base for the program

“I think that we’ve got to put a better product on the floor. I think people want to see one score. I think people want to see fight and toughness. We play in the best conference in the country as it pertains to women's basketball. You're seeing the sport being elevated across the country. The girls on our team currently have stories to tell, and if we win, that all becomes visible, and I think it just generates a lot more eyes to it. We go to some of these Midwest schools in the league, and they have great fan bases. I mean, they're there early, and they cheer loud. We'll get out and we'll do the leg work. It won't be for a lack of work, but I think as we put an exciting product on the court, people will want to get behind that. One of the things we discuss as a staff is just doing more that binds us to the community, whatever that looks like. As these young athletes, these young women, get in front of people and they connect, it’s easy to get behind them. It’s tremendous and they’ll come out for it.”

On utilizing NIL to build up the team

“There's no doubt about it. The portal went live Tuesday for women's basketball, and as we navigate that, it's very clear who's chasing money and who's not in those conversations. The administration has been really supportive in that area, and we're grateful for that. We've approached it more focused on people who want to be here and be a part of something bigger than themselves, and knowing we want everybody to feel valued and appreciated in the financial aspect of that. The administration has been great and super supportive in regards to that.”

On experience working with three different staffs at BYU and what differences he brings

“I've learned so much from Dave [Rose], Coach Judkins and Amber [Whiting] in this process. They all had very unique approaches to it, either on the court or with the players. As a player for Coach Rose, I never thought he really spent a whole lot of time sitting around thinking about the players, and all he wanted to do was just make us work really hard. Then I came and joined his staff, and I was amazed at how much time he spent on the players, thinking about them, trying to reach them and elevate them. One thing that I learned from him as a player, he had us believing, being in a guy's locker room where they all think they're the best player on the planet, more than we even thought we could do, and that's probably my biggest thing. He cared about the players, and really emphasized a belief that I still feel to this day.”

“For Judkins, the way he connected in his own way with the players was super impressive. He’s got that little Juddy smile on his dimple, and even connect in his own way, I think that that was pretty impressive and just his knowledge of the game, X's and O's. I learned a ton from him in my time with him.”

“Coach Whiting and the fight that she brought every day, and the diligence and how she approached things was pretty impressive. I'll take that from her, and I really love the Whitings, and I'm grateful for her allowing me to be at BYU with her. I told the team when the change first happened of how much she cared for them, and where we should all be grateful for her because we're all here because of her. Her diligence, I'll take from her.”

“I think for me, none of those guys played here, right? I really feel like that's a competitive advantage for me, having the whole BYU experience. I might die on that hill, but I want people to want to represent the BYU that goes on the front of the jersey and be less concerned about the name on the back of the jersey. That’s how I’ll be the most different.”

On what he wants to be the identity of the team

“I want people to really enjoy watching the group play...I want people to walk away from that thinking that they played really hard, they played the right way and they shared it with each other. There's a genuineness about how they interacted with each other and cheered each other on when somebody made a great play. I think everything else kind of takes care of itself.”

On addressing the core group of players moving forward

“You guys are here for a reason. You guys fit BYU, and are tremendous talents, as people and as basketball players. We’ve got a lot of good momentum going and a lot of good things ahead of us. I know that if we work hard and do it together, the sky’s the limit.”