Special Assistant Video: Gale Valley -- Why I'm a Longhorn Gale Valley, now in her fifth year at UT, came to Texas after serving on the Duke coaching staff for 18 years, the last 15 by the side of Gail Goestenkors. In September 2011, Valley was named the Texas Women's Basketball Special Assistant. In this capacity, Valley manages day-to-day program responsibilities, coordinates basketball video work and serves as the program's liaison for community relations efforts that are coordinated through UT student services and marketing. Valley initially joined the Texas staff in the spring of 2007 as Goestenkors' first hire on the Forty Acres. A highly-regarded recruiter and floor coach, Valley was an assistant coach for the Longhorns from 2007-11. Throughout her coaching career, Valley became widely known as a guard-coaching specialist. Valley coached Duke's guards during her first nine years in Durham and then moved to coach the post players the next five years. In 2002-03, she moved back to working with the guards, a role she continued with the Longhorns. Valley's work with UT's backcourt resulted in 12 All-Big 12 honors in four seasons between five players. Ashleigh Fontenette emerged as one of the top point guards in the league during the 2009-10 season when she earned honorable mention accolades after picking up All-Freshman Team honors for her efforts in 2008-09, and Chassidy Fussell was a contender for the 2011 Big 12 Freshman of the Year title. After Valley's tutelage, Brittainey Raven was selected No. 33 in the 2010 WNBA Draft by Atlanta on the heels of collecting her third-straight All-Big 12 Second Team honor. In Valley's second season at UT, Carla Cortijo and Kathleen Nash each earned league honorable mention honors, and Nash went on to pick up back-to-back honors again in 2010 and 2011. Prior to joining Goestenkors at Texas, Valley's stellar recruiting and bench coaching was instrumental in helping Duke gain 13 consecutive NCAA Championship bids from 1995-2007, a run of NCAA excellence which included four Women's Final Four appearances in 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2006. Duke advanced twice to the NCAA championship game (in 1999 and 2006), and the Blue Devils were national semifinalists in 2002 and 2003. In addition, the Duke squads made three Elite Eight showings in 1998, 2004 and 2005 and were NCAA Sweet 16 participants in 2000, 2001 and 2007. In 2007, Duke finished 32-2 and was ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press final regular season poll. Duke went 29-0 in the regular season, becoming the first Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) team, and only the 14th in NCAA history, to finish the regular season undefeated. With Goestenkors and Valley at the forefront of recruiting, Duke produced national top-seven recruiting classes each year from 1999-2007. (Duke's recruiting class for 2007-08 was ranked as the nation's third-best class according to Scout/HoopGurlz.com recruiting service.) Among the top nationally-ranked recruiting classes were Duke's 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 classes which were ranked No. 1 nationally, and the 2005-06 class (ranked second by both the All-Star Girls Report and Blue Star Report recruiting services). Valley was influential in guiding the careers of several successful Blue Devils over the years. She coached former All-ACC point guard Kira Orr to Duke's all-time assist record in 1997; and in 1998-99, she played a role in the success of 6-6 center Michele VanGorp, who went on to become Duke's first Kodak All-America selection and first WNBA Draft pick. She also worked extensively with All-America forwards Iciss Tillis and Monique Currie along with two standout guards - Alana Beard and Lindsey Harding. Beard was the 2004 State Farm Wade Trophy National Player of the Year and three time Kodak All-American (2002, 2003, 2004), while Harding went on earn numerous player of the year and All-American honors in 2007. A native of Lapeer, Michigan, Valley is a 1981 Michigan State University graduate, and she was a four-year letterwinner and two-time team captain for the Spartans. Valley graduated from MSU with a degree in physical education and a minor in biology. Prior to coming to Duke in 1989, Valley served as an assistant women's basketball coach at San Jose State University. Valley also was an assistant coach at the University of Vermont (1984-86), and earned a master's degree in physical education with an emphasis in exercise physiology while coaching at the University of Delaware from 1982-84. |
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