Oklahoma State and Weiberg Get Their Woman in Hoyt

STILLWATER – Make no mistake that Oklahoma State and athletic director Chad Weiberg had the objective or hiring a woman to coach the Cowgirls basketball program. Not just a woman, but a strong woman that would be an effective leader on and off the basketball court. A woman that would reflect the values of Oklahoma State University and would be tough and feminine virtually all at the same time. This was an athletic department that prior to the hiring of Jacie Hoyt did not have a single female head coach in the 16 that are on campus. In this day and age, that is a problem. It is no longer a problem at Oklahoma State.

“I would not be standing here if I did not have coaches, particularly female coaches, who poured into and invested in me as more than a basketball player,” Hoyt said speaking into the crowd of just over 100 folks that came out in the rain for the introductory press conference at Gallagher-Iba Arena. “I wouldn’t be standing her with the faith that I have, the confidence that I have. I had women pour into me that it was okay to be feminine and wear lipstick and high heels, but also be insanely competitive.”

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Hoyt won bigger than anybody has recently at Kansas City.

Hoyt is pretty. She was as Larry Reece said rocking that orange power suit that she wore for her introduction. She thanked her husband for being supportive and pushing her, for being the best husband for a coach, a coach at the Division I college level, which isn’t easy. Sometimes her husband, Daniel Heflin, is going to operate in the shadow of the head coach. Head coaches do project shadows and do stand on not only at podiums, but when life is good, and programs are winning those podiums become pedestals.  

For Hoyt those influences she spoke of, there in none greater than her mother Shelly. At Hoxie High School in Kansas, Shelly Hoyt guided her girls to 107 wins in a row, a state record, and four straight state championships. Jacie played for her mother, grew up watching her, studying her the way a child does a successful parent. The daughter showed her own brand of toughness continuing to play the sport she loved despite four different ACL knee injuries. She played from Hoxie on through college at Wichita State. She stuck with what she had learned from mom – faith, family, toughness, and a burning desire to win and massive distaste for losing and she did it all while staying a woman.

“Mom, we’re doing it mom,” Jacie Hoyt said early in her introduction as she introduced her family and looked out at her mother. Hoyt was full out showing emotion with tears. “You started this and you’ve paved the way for me, and I would not be her with the blueprint that I have for coaching and investing in player’s lives, so thank you for that.”

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Hoyt’s stop at K-State coaching for Jeff Mittie as an assistant in the Big 12 will be handy experience.

She didn’t say it, but the next important coach influence for Hoyt, if she does spin Oklahoma State back to winning. Remember, this program was winning just a year ago with a 19-9 season and a second round NCAA Tournament loss in San Antonio, Texas to eventual national champion Stanford 73-62. That next most important coach would be Kansas State’s Jeff Mittie. Hoyt was there from 2014-17 for the turnaround in Wildcats basketball. She crossed paths with then assistant athletic director at Kansas State Chad Weiberg, who hired her for what she is now calling a “dream job” at Oklahoma State. At KSU, Hoyt learned the Big 12 and recruited some strong talent to fuel the K-State rebuild to where the Cats are still playing in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

However, today was a day to celebrate women, women in sports, and the newest Cowgirls woman head coach. Hoyt comes off five seasons as head coach at Kansas City (UMKC) where it wasn’t easy to win. Few had, and Hoyt won bigger than anybody had there with a regular season WAC Championship and two 20-win plus seasons. Introduced at OSU, she asked the audience for help, acknowledged that she can’t do it alone, but inspired that she has her plan. A plan to win and a plan to help empower her players to be he best and strongest they can be as women in a competitive world.

“They (Hoyt’s female coaches) instilled in me a confidence and a belief that I feel the need to pass onto these ladies (pointing at the Cowgirls players) … That is what you are going to get at Oklahoma State basketball, a leader that invests in people first, students second, and players third. It is without a doubt the biggest goal of mine that when a player leaves our program they have that same confidence and self-belief that I have. In fact, I want them to have more. I want them to walk out the door with (championship) rings on their fingers, diploma in hand, and a whole lot of confidence. The confidence to be a boss in whatever they do.”

Oklahoma State set out to hire a woman head coach. Based on first impression, Weiberg and another strong woman leader in OSU President Dr. Kayse Shrum, they got everything you could want and more. The best answer will come next November when the ball tips and the Cowgirls start competing. Oklahoma State basketball had a pied piper in a man, Kurt Budke, where the program won a lot and drew more fans than it ever had. Now, and from the same state I might add in Kansas, the Cowgirls may have a woman that can do the same or more.

On a rainy Monday inside Gallagher-Iba Arena it sounded like it.