After a COVID-shortened debut, Barry women’s basketball coach eager for a full season
Kristina Baugh is fortunate.
Besides coaching the Barry women’s basketball team, she recently bought a house in Hollywood, which feels like paradise to her.
“I can’t believe people wake up to sunshine every day,” said Baugh, who was raised in Boston. “This is a special place.”
Baugh, 36, was referring to South Florida, but she could have also been talking about the Barry campus in Miami Shores and the school’s basketball program.
The Buccaneers went 5-6 in Baugh’s first season with the team in 2020-2021. It was a season shortened substantially by COVID cancellations, but the Bucs should be much better in Baugh’s second year.
All five Barry starters return, including four fifth-year seniors: 5-9 point guard Harriet Swindells, a fierce competitor who made first-team All-Sunshine State Conference; 5-10 wing Johanna Kampp; and 6-foot forwards Emma Hergot and Nerea Baena.
In addition, the Bucs return 5-6 junior shooting guard Chiara Fusari, who made second-team all-league due to her terrific midrange shooting.
Baugh, just the sixth head coach in Barry women’s basketball history, has known she wanted to be in this profession since she was in the seventh grade.
A 5-foot-7 point guard in her playing days, Baugh competed in the Big East Conference for the Providence Friars. She was a four-year starter and a two-year captain at the school made famous by basketball coaches such as Lenny Wilkens, John Thompson, Billy Donovan and Rick Pitino. NBA broadcaster Doris Burke is also a Providence College graduate.
Baugh went on to earn a master’s degree in educational leadership from Central Connecticut State.
For the five years prior to arriving at Barry, Baugh coached a Division III program, the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Baugh’s .640 winning percentage at UMass-Boston is the best in program history. She led her team to their first two 20-win seasons and their first ever Little East conference tournament championship.
Now Baugh is moving from Division III, which offers no scholarships, to Division II Barry, which offers scholarships.
A key reason Baugh made the move, she said, was the Barry players.
“When I met with them via Zoom, what they said they need is who I am as a coach,” Baugh said. “They want to be pushed. They want to be held accountable. They want transparency, and they want to win.
“I heard that, and I knew this was my next challenge. The kids here are hungry. They beat me to the gym every day.”
Baugh, who majored in history at Providence, said she’s a “world traveler and a world learner,” and that has been helpful at Barry. Her Bucs roster has two players from England and one each from Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Norway.
The Bucs are hoping it’s a winning mix.
“We have great diversity,” Baugh said. “We start and end every practice with the word ‘champions’.”
THIS AND THAT
▪ Coach LeAnn Freeland-Curry has 185 wins and counting (in nine seasons) at Nova Southeastern University, where she’s already atop the program’s victories list.
The Sharks, who didn’t play in 2020-2021 due to COVID, have been picked to finish fifth in the Sunshine State Conference this season. Just two players return from NSU’s most recent season (2019-2020).
NSU’s key returner is 5-9 senior guard Hailey Conley, who was second on the team in scoring (13.0) and rebounds (6.4). She also led the team with 67 assists. Two key incoming transfers are senior guard McKenna Peters (Youngstown) and 6-4 junior forward A’Lexus Bryant (Savannah State).
▪ Susan Summons, 63, has retired after 35 years coaching Miami Dade College. Her replacement is Erica Redman, who was Summons’ top assistant coach for all 35 of those years. Redman also played for Summons at Boston’s Roxbury Community College. Redman then completed her playing career as a two-year starter at Florida A&M.
▪ St. Thomas, led by fifth-year coach Candace Walker, has been picked to finish second in the NAIA’s Sun Conference. Last season, the Bobcats finished 19-5, losing in the conference’s title game. This season’s top players are guards Patricia Martinez-Sanz and Kasey Gagan and forward Gianni Domond.
▪ Florida Memorial, led by eighth-year coach Gregory Stanback, has been picked to finish fourth in the NAIA’s Sun Conference. The Lions, 10-11 last season, have added 5-9 senior forward Monique Esbrand, a transfer from Miami (Ohio). Key returners are Chantel Barnett, Aliyah-Deen Ahmad and Keaynna Tolbert.