Press Conference Quotes
April 19, 2005
The University of Miami held a press conference at the UM Convocation Center’s Hurricane 100 Room Tuesday to announce the hiring of Katie Meier as the head women’s basketball coach at Miami. The following are quotes from Tuesday’s press conference:
Athletic Director Paul Dee
“It is my pleasure to welcome everyone to the University of Miami to announce the new head coach of our UM women’s basketball team, Katie Meier.”
“I want everyone to know that when we decided to make a change in our basketball coaching position, we had no one person in mind. What we wanted to do was go out and find the best basketball coach in the country to come here and coach the fine group of young women we have now and the fine groups of young women we have to come in the years ahead.”
“We started soliciting names and you know you are starting to get to the right people when everyone keeps mentioning the same names. We had a wonderful list of people we were able to contact and a number of people who were interested in this job.”
“I have always thought this personally, but now I have affirmation, that this is a very desirable position – to be a head basketball coach or a head coach in any sports here at the University of Miami.”
Head Coach Katie Meier
“This is an amazing day for me and my family. This is the start of something special and I feel that very deeply. From the minute I left the meeting with the search committee, I knew that this was a perfect fit, the perfect job.”
“I want to thank the leadership. This institution has the finest leadership of any institution I have seen in the entire nation and that is what grabbed me. President Shalala to Mr. Dee to Connie Nickel and everyone I have met who has been in a leadership position has impressed me.”
“I want to make this the best university in the nation, and as I stand here today, I feel that I have accepted the best job in America.”
“I just met the players and I tried to share my vision – I’m not scared to dream big, and I let them know that. My dreams are big, and that has always been the case, but here I see that happening. But to do that, I think you have to start in the community. We have to embrace the community, and that is the first thing we are going to do.”
“We want to keep the local talent at home and I’ll make no secrets about that. That is very important to this job – we need to reflect the community.”
“I was looking for a special place, a special place that has special people. Once I found it, I got a little aggressive because I knew this was the job I wanted. I have been sprinting for it for about a week now and I feel I’m still sprinting.”
“If you look at women’s basketball, looking at the successful programs, there are difference-makers. There is always somebody, besides the coaches, besides the players; there is somebody who dreams about a successful basketball program. The difference-makers are normally the senior women’s administrators, we have a fantastic senior women’s administrator, Connie Nickel, your athletic director, and if you are fortunate you have a president who cares about the program as well and I have all three of those here.”
“The players and I talked about style of play a little bit. I think you will enjoy our style. I have a goal of generating over 90 possessions a game, very up-tempo. I told them that we need to lead the conference in steals, lead the conference in assists and most importantly, we need to lead the conference in charges taken because we are going to play our tails off. We might get out-shot and we might get out-rebounded, but we absolutely will not get out-played, out-hustled or out-worked.”
“I’ll put the pressure on myself. I like pressure; I’m not scared of pressure. We are not going to back down. I told the players `we are going to blow the ceiling off this place,’ and I truly believe that. We are ready for this and I think we are going to do something very special here.”
“We want to be the envy of every program in the nation. I want them to envy our fan support. I want our opponents to envy the potential we have in recruiting – to envy the types of recruits we are able to draw because all of the resources we have in place. When people start becoming jealous of us, we have made the big time and that’s what we are working for.”
“With the resources that we have, with the institution that we have to sell and the special people we have in place here, I truly believe this can be a national championship job. That is pressure, but I am ready.”
