Valley named Women's Basketball assistant coach
AUSTIN, Texas -- Gale Valley, an 18-year veteran on the Duke University coaching staff, has been named Longhorns assistant women's basketball coach, as announced by Texas women's basketball head coach Gail Goestenkors on Monday. Valley, a highly-regarded recruiter and floor coach, was on Goestenkors staff at Duke during Goestenkors' 15 years at the helm of the Blue Devil program prior to Goestenkors taking over the UT coaching reigns in early April. Her appointment at Texas is effective immediately. Valley is the first assistant coach to be named to Goestenkors' staff at UT. In her first nine years at Duke, Valley coached the guards and then moved to coach the post players the next five years. In 2002-03, she moved back to working with the guards. "I'm extremely pleased that Gale Valley will be joining me at Texas," noted Goestenkors in announcing the appointment. "She is an excellent recruiter and has tremendous knowledge of the game. Gale has worked alongside me for many years, and we have a great understanding of each other and a trusted friendship. She will be integral in helping rebuild the great tradition of Texas Basketball and helping bring us to national prominence." Valley was instrumental in helping Duke gain 13 consecutive NCAA Championship bids from 1995-2007, which included four NCAA Women's Final Four appearances since 1999. Twice, Duke advanced to the NCAA championship game (in 1999 and 2006) while 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. With Goestenkors and Valley, Duke had produced national top-seven recruiting classes each year from 1999 through this year. Duke's recruiting class for 2007-08 is 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 were which ranked No. 1 nationally, and the 2005-06 class which was ranked second by both the All-Star Girls Report and Blue Star Report recruiting services. This past year, 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 ACC team and only the 14th in NCAA history to finish the regular season undefeated. The Blue Devils also were 14-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play -- undefeated in league play for the third time in school history. Valley was influential in guiding the careers of several successful Blue Devils over the years. She coached All-ACC point guard Kira Orr to Duke's all-time assist record in 1997; 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; over the past few years, she worked extensively with All-America forwards Iciss Tillis and Monique Curry along with two standout guards - Alana Beard and Lindsey Harding - who went on to National Player of the Year accolades. A native of Lapeer, Michigan, Valley is a 1981 graduate Michigan State University where 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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