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Wise choice brings UF years of success

Florida has become a perennial contender under coach Mary Wise.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 12, 2002

GAINESVILLE -- When the most important phone call of her professional life came, Mary Wise was almost too busy to accept it.

Wise was home alone with her 2-year-old son, Matthew, and was giving him a bath when the phone rang. It was Ann-Marie Rogers, Florida's associate athletic director for women's sports, who wanted to talk about the Gators' volleyball opening -- the one Wise had coveted from afar as an assistant coach at Kentucky.

"I asked her if she could just hold on for a second, and I got him out of the bathtub, put a towel around him, put him on the couch, put in a Disney videotape and walked around the living room, trying to stay far enough where she didn't have to listen to The Little Mermaid while she was asking me questions," Wise said. "The fact that I didn't put a diaper on him I paid for later, but at least I got an interview out of it."

So did several other coaches. And it was one of those other candidates the players preferred.

"We had the team interview each one of the candidates that came in, and they wanted one of the men that we had interviewed," Rogers said Wednesday. "I didn't hire him, I hired Mary. The next semester, all the team said to me 'You were right.' "

Rogers never had a doubt.

In 12 seasons Wise has a 393-41 record, and she is the winningest active coach in Division I since 1991. When Wise arrived, the Gators had not won an SEC championship and had been to the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament once. Under Wise, Florida has been to the NCAA Tournament 12 consecutive times, been to five national semifinals and won Wise has coached 12 All-Americans, eight SEC Players of the Year and has been named national Coach of the Year twice. This season, Aury Cruz is the SEC Player of the Year and a candidate for national Player of the Year.

"It's phenomenal," Rogers said. "It's continued success year after year. The other SEC coaches sometimes think we're going to be down the next year because we've lost so many people, but she's reloaded for the next year."

Wise won't take full credit; she attributes some to good fortune. It was former player Steffi Legall who introduced Wise to Gudi Staub, Florida's first All-American in 1991. It was the luck of a UF professor bringing his niece, Turkish high school player Aycan Gokberk, to see Wise during Wise's first summer on the job. Gokberk became Florida's second All-American.

The Gators went 35-5 in Wise's first season, and more All-Americans followed.

A national championship is the one thing that has eluded Wise and the Gators. On Friday, Florida will be one of four hosts of the NCAA Sweet 16. Two wins and UF advances to its sixth final four.

"We feel like we have a chance to win the title because she has given us great confidence," Cruz said. "We feel like if we keep improving on the court, we can give her that ring. It's going to be a pretty big thing for us, but she doesn't make us feel like it's the only thing that matters."

Perhaps because deep inside Wise knows it isn't.

"The question was asked once, would you give up all the success for a national championship?," she said. "That's a harder question to answer than it should be. When you think of all the success we've had, all the teams, to give it up for one? That's hard."

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