By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Leading up to an Elite Eight matchup with Grand Valley State in March 2022, a video feature about Candi Whitaker went viral on the Missouri Western athletics' Twitter page.
It was a six-minute feature, spotlighting Whitaker's unique and at times challenging journey in coaching.
Whitaker was fired as the head coach of her alma mater, Texas Tech, on New Year's Day 2018 while eight weeks pregnant. She told Griffon Sports Insider about that experience in 2022, recalling, "I was still searching my soul. Do I want to jump back into this profession?"
"Ultimately, I didn't know if I wanted to coach again," she said, recalling getting offered Missouri Western in 2019.
"So, I felt like until I coach again, I won't know if I want to coach again. So, I took the job."
The athletic director who gave her the chance, Josh Looney, left Missouri Western in August 2021 to take the A.D. role at Division I North Alabama.
Whitaker, who has 11 years of experience as a Division I head coach, is joining Looney there. The Lions hired Whitaker Monday to become their next head women's basketball coach after Missy Tiber's contract was not renewed after 11 seasons.
North Alabama women's basketball finished with a 12-18 mark this past season.
It wasn't the deciding factor, but it put Whitaker at ease, knowing she'd get to work for Looney - the one who reignited her love of coaching.
"There's less curiosity," Whitaker said in a sit-down interview with KFEQ Radio on Tuesday. "When you work for someone you don't know, you don't exactly know how that might go. So, that clearly played a role in me feeling comfortable at North Alabama and taking this opportunity."
Whitaker goes to a North Alabama program that made the switch from DII to DI in 2018. UNA is a member of the ASUN Conference. The school is located in Florence, Alabama - a small, but growing city located in a quad cities area known as the Shoals in the northwest part of the state.
Whitaker went to visit the campus last week - several days after Missouri Western's loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Minnesota State on March 15.
Whitaker said Monday that two questions had to be answered before she accepted the job - can she win there, and is it the right move for her husband, Matt, and their sons, Weston, Will, and Callahan?
Whitaker believes North Alabama met that criteria and then some.
"I think Josh (Looney) has made a tremendous impact in a short amount of time," Whitaker said. "The campus is booming, which is a great sign in these times where a lot of universities are struggling. Everything is pointing to growth and ability there to do something special."
Whitaker says she'll head back to Florence as soon as next week. Her introductory press conference will be scheduled in the coming days.
As Whitaker reflects on five largely successful years at Missouri Western, she wants Griffon fans to know her and her family's gratitude for their time in St. Joseph.
"I first want people to know how grateful we are for our time here and the opportunity," she said.
Whitaker went 100-47 in five years with the Griffons, leading the team to 21 wins or more in four out of her five seasons. Western won a minimum 24 games in each of the last three years under her leadership.
She led the Griffons to a Central Region championship and Elite Eight berth in 2022, and then an outright MIAA regular season title in 2024.
The MIAA title was enough to earn Whitaker the Coach of the Year nod from the conference this past season as well.
The wins and the trophies are nice, but Whitaker hopes Griffon fans and onlookers also remember how her teams were able to be so successful.
"I think our teams have played really great basketball," she said. "I've been a fan of watching them play, how they share the ball, how they pass the ball and just how they played the game."
"That was always a big focus for us. We wanted to play a great and upbeat style - a style that people would appreciate. I think we did that and we won doing it."
Full interview
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