National Coaching Honor

Women’s basketball head coach Carla Berube has been selected to be an assistant coach for the 2016 USA Basketball Women’s U17 [under 17] World Championship Team Trials, which will take place May 26-30 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

At the trials, more than 150 of the country’s top women high school players will vie for 12 slots on the USA U17 team, which will compete in the FIBA Americas U17 Championship from June 22 to July 2 in Zaragoza, Spain.

USA Basketball announced the team trials coaches on May 23. Washington University head women’s basketball coach Nancy Fahey was appointed lead clinician for the team. She was the lead clinician for the 2015 USA Women’s U16 National Team Trials. Joining Berube as court coaches are Pam Crawford, head coach of women’s basketball at Clear Springs High School in Texas, and Steve Gomez, the women’s basketball coach at Lubbock Christian University, also in Texas.

The coaches are selected by the USA Basketball Women’s Developmental National Team Committee, and those named to these roles are generally regarded as the nation’s up-and-coming young coaches.

Berube, who just completed her 14th season with Tufts, joins USA Basketball after guiding the Jumbos to the 2016 NCAA Division III National Championship game, the first in the program’s 44-year history. The team lost to defending national champion Thomas More College, and finished the season with a 28-4 record.

“To be chosen as a court coach for the USA Basketball Women’s U17 World Championship Team Trials is an absolute honor,” says Berube. “I’m truly grateful … for this opportunity to coach some of the greatest young women’s basketball players in the world.

“It’s a privilege to work with USA Basketball again after donning a USA jersey 22 years ago at the U.S. Olympic Festival,” adds Berube, who was a member of the bronze medalist 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival East Team.

In the 2014-15 season, Berube coached the Jumbos to a New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) title, wins in the NCAA Regional and NCAA Sectional rounds, and a berth in the NCAA Division III Final Four. Tufts finished with a 30-3 overall record and a 10-0 conference mark.

As the 2015 U.S. Marine Corps/Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Division III National Coach of the Year, Berube received the Pat Summitt Trophy, named for the legendary coach of the Lady Vols of Tennessee. She played college ball for another legendary coach, UConn’s Geno Auriemma, who will coach the U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team in Rio de Janeiro this summer as it pursues its sixth straight Olympic gold medal.