A NEW CHAPTER
Saint Rose’s Karen Haag transitions from women’s basketball coach to Associate Athletic Director
ALBANY, NY » By no stretch of the imagination is this goodbye
aren Haag will still have an instrumental role in the athletic department for the Golden Knights in the years to come, it just won’t be as the head coach for the women’s basketball team.
After spending the last 19 years at the helm, both Haag and the recently appointed Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics, Lori Anctil, decided it was the right time to transition from coaching to an administrative position.
Haag’s official title will be Associate Athletic Director, while continuing to serve as the Senior Woman Administrator and adviser to the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
“Not too many basketball coaches maintain the level of administrative duties that I have. I’ve always had an interest in this side of athletics. When Lori Anctil came on board, she and I began working behind the scenes, knowing that I was very interested in pursuing a full-time admin role, so she went to work on the job description, addressing areas where the [athletic] department needed more hands. As we keep growing, there’s a lot of administrative work,” said Haag. “It started in the fall, right when Lori came on board
and announced last week.”
Haag’s first day with the new title was Monday.
“I’m happy that this is a position that is still very student centered, so I’ll still get to be hands-on when it comes to student-athletes, which is great,” said Haag.”I think that I will be even more of a recourse to student-athletes around those questions [of student-athlete life balance] and concerns.”
She continued, discussing what her everyday duties are going to consist of.
“A large portion of my job is going to be academic support for student-athletes and helping with retention. I have to tell you, our athletics GPA is outstanding, but we want to continue to be great academically and be even better than we al
ready are. I’ll be helping with some of the compliance responsibilities, and will be assisting in coordination with admissions, to help keep communications open and to help our coaches with recruiting, both nationally and internationally.”
The bulk of her success at the helm for the Golden Knights came between 2005 and 2012 when Haag had five 18+ win seasons and four NCAA Tournament berths. Overall, Haag guided her teams to 11 Northeast-10 Conference playoff appearance and has won 250 games in her time at Saint Rose, with 388 wins in her career as a head coach.
While Haag assumes a full time role in the Golden Knights’ administration, it now leaves a vacancy for the head coaching position for the women’s basketball program.
“I have every confidence
in Lori Anctil’s ability to find and hire the best possible person for the job. This is going to be her first big hire. I have so much confidence in her. I know she’ll really do her homework and I know she’s going to bring in somebody great,” said Haag.
John Ardizone has served as an assistant coach under Haag for the past 14 seasons and will likely get some consideration for the position, although Haag wasn’t stepping on any toes, leaving the decision completely in the hands of Anctil.
“My personal opinion is that it’s important for female student- athletes to have female role models. It doesn’t necessarily have to be as a head coach. It could be a male head coach and [female] assistant coaches. Personally, I think it’s important for our young women to have a female role model,” Haag said.
One of those student-ath
letes that Haag mentored was Zoe McDonald, who graduated as part of the Class of 2019, majoring in communications.
“What I realized, now that I’m out in the real world is that being an athlete when you’re in college is such an advantage because you have that discipline and that strict schedule that coaches set for us. Coach Haag teaches you valuable lessons, on and off the court. One of the things she’s really a stickler on is, ‘ if you’re on time, you’re late.’ That’s for anything, practice or being on the bus for away games. That has translated into my life now, to always be on time,” said McDonald.
McDonald talked about the difference between Coach Haag and what she’s like off the court.
“She’s so intense, and anyone who has played for her understands that. She does a complete 180 during
game-time because such a teddy-bear and so loving off the court. She really invests in her players, on and off the court, both mentally and physically. One thing that really stuck out to me is how much she cares about mental health. She always had an open door policy, so just being able to go into her office and being able to talk about whatever. She remembers what you tell her and she checks up on you.”
One of the parts of Haag’s job that she truly cares about is giving back to the community, especially in a meaningful way.
“I co- founded Camp Bravehearts, and it’ll be 20 years ago this year. We provide retreat programs to women who are dealing with cancer diagnosis. It’s pretty powerful stuff; we work with an all volunteer staff, of 11 and we provide four retreats a year. I just had to cancel our first re
treat of the season, because of this dang COVID virus, so that was disappointing, but it’s definitely rewarding work,” said Haag.
Each semester Saint Rose has expectations for student-athletes to participate in community service. Teams are able to pick and choose their areas of interest, with support available to help find projects.
McDonald talked about some of her memories of participating in community service while at Saint Rose.
“With October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, coach was super invested with Bravehearts then,” said McDonald. “We volunteered at the 5K that goes up through Washington Park. Coach Haagwould run it. Wewould help, baseball and softball would help and then the coaches would run. We also volunteered at Palmuri with the kids, doing fun things and playing games with them.”