Full Great Women Great Danes Interview Transcript
UAlbany's Great Women Great Danes is a series that will be published during Women's History Month. The series will feature Great Danes, past and present, and celebrate the women of UAlbany.
Q: How long have you all been working together?
Colleen Mullen: We’ve been working together for six years. This is our sixth season [together]. I worked previously with Megan [Methven] at Army West Point as assistant coaches for two years before I brought her on as the associate head coach [here]. Catherine [Cassidy] and [Yvonne] “Hawk” [Hawkins] joined shortly thereafter. Colleen [Corcoran], “C2”, is in her second stint at the University at Albany after holding the position of graduate assistant for two seasons while we won our championship, which was really cool. Now, [she’s] back as our director of operations. And, Emily [Bramanti]; this is her first year after graduating and having a terrific career at Stonehill. She’s joined our team for the first year as the Video Coordinator/Director of Recruiting.
Megan Methven: And Gina [Castelli] has been here for three years … so she just finished her third season.
Q: Colleen – You already touched on this a little bit. Outside of you and Megan [Methven], have any of you crossed paths before?
Mullen: There was a lot of crossover because Megan played at Stonehill, Catherine worked at Stonehill, and they worked together at Stonehill. So, they were previously assistant coaches together and, then, Emily Bramanti graduated from Stonehill, so Coach Trisha Brown, (the Stonehill head coach) has trained a lot of my staff well. And, Colleen worked for Gina. Hawk and I go way back - never on the staff together but …
Yvonne Hawkins: But [we have] the Boston connection and know the same people.
Q: So, it seems, Colleen and Megan are the most connected of the two having worked on a staff right before coming here to UAlbany together. When you [Colleen] were hired as the head coach, was Megan your first call?
Mullen: Yes, she was. And I had to convince her to take the position because she was also offered the associate head coaching position at Army because I was leaving that position. Having worked with her and living with her for two years, we developed a really great professional connection. I had a lot of trust in her knowledge and her commitment and investment. I knew that she was a lot different from me and had a lot of skillsets that I lacked and I thought that I could learn a lot from her, that she would be somebody that could make me stronger and help me in the areas that I wasn’t as strong at. So, she decided, it was like LeBron’s decision. *Mullen and Methven smile* Then she finally she decided; it was very exciting. After that Yvonne came on board and Catherine shortly after.
Q: Megan, can you bring me through the decision of choosing to come here to UAlbany?
Methven: I think for me the hardest part of it was that I had known Army and obviously, [would be] taking a leap of faith to come to UAlbany. The reason I chose [UAlbany] was because I believed in Colleen so much. I really believed in what she was going to do here and the success she would have taking over a program where we have lost so much. I really believed that she would get the program back to a championship level and I came because I wanted to be a part of that.
Q: I think it’s really cool what you all did. [My first year in 2021-22], you kept talking about a four-year plan. Like, you came here and you had four years planned … you knew it wasn’t going to happen right away and you had a four-year plane. I think that [plan] coming together in four years is kind of like absolute perfection … I just wanted to let you know that I thought it was really cool.
Mullen: Thank you! It was very cool.
Q: The other connection - Coach Hawk, you said you [and Colleen] go way back. We have talked about this a little bit before … You originally worked here when the university was division III and when they transitioned from DIII to DI. Why did you come back when Coach Mullen was hired?
Hawkins: I had this little voice on the phone that said, “Hawk, I think I’m getting the UAlbany job. Would you come with me if I get it?” I had just interviewed at another place and was offered that job, as well … and I told her right away on the phone, absolutely, because just like Megan, I believed Colleen Mullen can get the job done here. She’s a fun person, she’s a good person … I knew her because when I worked at Boston College, my former boss recruited Colleen - I’m kind of dating myself here *laughs* - and some of her friends. I actually coached one of her really good friends at Boston College. So, being able to hear about Colleen Mullen from this young lady … as soon as she called, I was like “absolutely.” I called the other place and told them I was taking another job.
Q: Catherine, we’ve heard from Megan and heard from Coach Hawk. Can you tell us a bit about how you came here to UAlbany?
Catherine Cassidy: I don’t even remember it, honestly. It happened so quickly. Knowing Meg and keeping connected with her … when her and Colleen were coming here and she was like, “would you be interested in interviewing and getting to know Colleen?” Then after I met Colleen, I thought “I hope I get that.” She’s definitely someone I wanted work for. It was a no-brainer for me to work for someone who’s a mother and could do both. I think that was really important for me to see.
Q: What is it like to work together with a full group … you guys are all strong women … what is that like working together?
Methven: I think that’s something Colleen has always been passionate about - developing a staff of women because she wants our players to be able to see themselves in us. For us, we certainly have a lot of fun. We all get along really well - we raise our hand to do jobs and get the job done. I also think as a group, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We understand, at the end of the day, we want to win games, but it is about developing our players on and off the court and we all share that goal.
Q: What does it mean to you to have not only an all-female coaching staff but you also have a female trainer, a female SID, a female marketer, a female sport admin, a female strength coach … pretty much everyone who works with the team, except for one position is female … what does that mean to have your girls surrounded by that?
Colleen Corcoran: I think it’s important for them to see that and to be exposed to it. Women’s basketball - Coach Hawk says it all the time – it’s huge right now. To be living in an era where women are getting these positions … they’re getting the limelight; it’s what we deserve. I think it’s really important for our team to see that. Whether they pursue basketball or athletics beyond their college degree, to see women in positions of power like this is really important for them because they can see that they can do it too.
Q: You previously worked here as a GA, and then after a year came back … why?
Corcoran: The people! The people that I work with! That is something that’s super important. I know Coach Hawk had said it but Colleen’s values are something that align with my values too - just being around family and making the people that you work with your family, it’s super important. Meg said we don’t take ourselves too seriously, we like to have a good time … at the end of the day, it really is who you work with and it’s super important to know that you have people who support you in your corner and that they would do anything for you and that you would do anything for them
Q: Did you reach out or did they reach out?
Corcoran: Ummm, it was kind of both ways. I think Collen definitely reached out and was like “There might be some movement happening” …
Mullen: I was convincing her *smiles*
Corcoran: She did a good job of convincing me, yeah. It kind of just all fell into place perfectly and it was an easy decision for me, I was like “Why wouldn’t I come back?” It would be … I would be an idiot to not choose to come back.
Q: Emily, as the newest member of the staff, what can you tell me about your experience so far?
Emily Bramanti: It has been very fun! I have learned so much not even being here for like a full year … the amount of knowledge, not even just basketball but off the ocourt too - they’ve taught me so much. And every coach has taught me something different. I’m super grateful for that.
Q: Coach Mullen, ahead of your fourth season you hired Gina Castelli, the former Siena women’s basketball coach among many other jobs … [she is a] strong female presence within the women’s basketball community. She was hired as your executive coach. First, can you tell me what it is that she does as an executive coach?
Colleen Mullen: She is essentially a part-time assistant who focuses mostly on two areas one, on the player’s side, she focuses on our leadership development. She is our liaison between our sports psychologist, our mental performance, and just overall works a lot with our captains and our leadership. She works on how to help me and the staff, specifically me - mentoring me to develop these young women as leaders. She does a lot of research and goes through many different resources to help put that plan in place … she watches film with the players. This year, it’s been really cool that she’s actually been able to be designated as a coach on the floor so she can do some player development and, in practices, give feedback. On the coaches’ side, originally, her job has definitely evolved. With the staff, she does a lot with scouting - she watches opponent games and provides us ideas of what we should do for scouting purposes for all opponents. She evaluates our teams after games and provides me detailed feedback of things to work on and practice ideas. In the office, she is assisting in all areas that assistant coaches do - our staff meetings, our strategy meetings - that’s her main thing and, of course, in-game feedback.
How does this whole hiring happen? It goes back many years to when I was in college - she recruited me and I developed a very close relationship with her when she was recruiting me. She never offered me a scholarship, just to put that out there *said and continues in a joking, smiling manner* I was second place but that was okay because she was honest. We stayed in contact for years. [She was] somebody that I really looked up to with all of her success at Siena. When she transitioned to Le Moyne, [she was] somebody I would see on the road recruiting that would always have a level of professionalism and would put in the extra effort to talk to me, to engage me and know what was going on. When I got the job here, she reached out to me to have coffee and help me … I was trying to look for a house and she was helping me look for houses. She was in the real estate market and her wife works for a construction company - they build houses. She was helping me with the transition and then when we had coffee, she said that she eventually was going to be transitioning out of coaching but wanted to stay in the business and wanted to have more of an executive role. At the time, I was kind of looking for an executive coach - somebody that had a lot more knowledge than me, that knew a lot more than me, that I could have conversations with as a leader that you can’t always have with your other assistant coaches, somebody that you can bounce ideas off when you’re a young head coach. Having her perspective and knowledge was super valuable. So, when she decided to make the transition and retire from coaching, from being a head coach at Le Moyne the administration was great. They worked with me to kind of make this position that’s really evolved and grown over time.
It’s been a really amazing opportunity to have someone like Gina. Everybody loves Gina, she’s high character, she’s loyal, she’s just a really good person. She added a great chemistry to our staff. The other piece is just her knowledge and experience - 30 years plus of being a head coach. I mean, she’s been through it all and having her to support me and to guide me and to help me as another trusted person, along with my staff, has been super valuable in my development as a coach and my career here at UAlbany.
Q: Final question, what is the most important knowledge or feeling you want your student-athletes to graduate with?
Hawkins: I think to be strong independent women. There’s many opportunities out there and being a student-athlete and working for someone like Colleen, someone who instills a lot of confidence in you and what you can do - I think it’s really important to go out there and be able to go for jobs that maybe you wouldn’t think you would get before. I think she allows them to be able to have that confidence to go and do that. I think [I’d want them to be] strong women who are really proud of where they played, who they played with, who they played for, and go out there and make the world a better place.
Cassidy: I think I’d say, don’t let fear hold you back. That’s a big thing we talk about in the game, on and off the court. It relates to all areas of your life so them knowing to give it their all and it always works out.
Methven: I’d say them knowing that they’ve done really hard things and that they’ve had a great support system and learning how important that is. You can do really hard things when you’re in the right environments and supported by the right people. And, that they had a lot of success. They’ve come to a place and have won a lot of games and have developed as young women. Young women who have changed a lot and have grown a lot and know what it takes to be successful.
Mullen: They said great things … to add I guess I would say my vision is that they feel empowered and capable and confident because of all the goals that they’ve set and how they’ve strived for excellence in all areas. Really that they’ve seen strong women leaders as their coaches that truly care about them as people and want to develop them holistically. And for me, personally, as a mom, they know that they don’t have to compromise who they are or where they’re from or anything because they're a woman or a woman of color. You can still be a mother, you can still have a great job, you can still have your goals, and you can strive for that highest level possible. We always say we want them to strive to be the CEO or the chief of medicine or the highest level in their profession.
Corcoran: I’d say, just to have a lot of confidence. We really try and give … like coach said empower them in everything they do whether it’s on the court or off the court or in the classroom or whatever it may be. I would say [I’d want] for them to live their … I want them to be able to feel like they matter so much to us and like they’re so important to us and I hope we are as important to them. I hope we made an impact on them as much as they have to us. [I hope they] live their life with a ton of gratitude … I know that’s something that we try and live out through our culture. How about you? *looks at Bramanti*
Bramanti: I think, going along with what Hawk said, being a strong independent woman and being proud of how much they’ve grown over their four or five years. And going off of that [remember] the relationships that they’ve built, not only with their teammates but with the coaches because these are relationships that you are going to have for a lifetime. Being able to utilize [these relationships] as you get older, whether it’s looking for a job or anything else, I think that’s just really important.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add before we finish up?
Mullen: Yeah, I would like to add one thing – the reason why I chose to have an all-female staff. For my first coaching job, I became the Director of Basketball Operations at Northern Illinois University. [Before getting the job], I had tried to apply for coaching positions for an entire year and I couldn’t get any jobs. I tried applying for everything - to be an equipment manager, to be a marketing assistant, anything, - and then this woman hired me, [a woman] who had a lot of success at Wisconsin-Green Bay and had developed them into a mid-major powerhouse and then took over Northern Illinois program to revitalize [it]. After my first season of getting let go, we had an all-female staff, and she told me … she said that one of her biggest successes in her life went far beyond the basketball court - her passion was to lead and motivate women and to take pride and take ownership of future leaders in our coaching profession. She said that she hoped that she could pass along that baton to me in my career and if I ever have the chance to be someone that hired women and to keep women coaching women, that was something that she’d love to see. She was a mentor to me; she gave me my first job … it was unbelievable looking around and seeing an all-women staff. I came here and I had worked for a man for seven years before this job and they’re very good coaches. I had an amazing experience working for Dave Magarity and I learned a lot, but I knew that when it was my turn to make these decisions, I wanted to not only provide the opportunities for the players to have role models but also the opportunities for women and young coaches to propel their career and to keep women coaches in this profession.
Q: Thank you very much!
For more content from the Women's History Month #GreatWomenGreatDanes series, click here.
