“I always focus on one game at a time.”
In this episode of the 35,000 Feet podcast, we talk to Bethann Shapiro Ord, who is the head coach of women’s basketball at Binghamton University located in Vestal, NY. Bethann takes time to tell us about her journey to becoming a coach, how the team’s 2019-2020 season is going, and shares some exceptional advice for prospective college athletes!
In this episode, we discuss:
How this season is going for Binghamton Basketball (0:22)
How Coach Bethann got into coaching (2:04)
Bethann’s favorite travel experiences with and without her team (3:38)
One thing that no one knows about Bethann (10:07)
Bethann’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (11:48)
Bethann’s next adventure (18:18)
Binghamton Women’s Basketball 2019-2020 Season
Shianne: So you’ve been coaching for 30 years and you're in the middle of your second season with this team. Can you kind of tell me about your current season and how it's going?
Coach Bethann Ord: Absolutely. We actually had ... This is my second year and we've had an absolute great start to our season. We made some history already and we're in the middle of it, so I'm hoping to continue that history. We started out nine and O, which was there weren't many teams undefeated in the country and as a lot of colleges do know, and I just have such a great group of young ladies and I attribute all of that to them.
I came in with a good mixture and this past year we are able to add six freshmen, which you'd think we were really young, which we are, except we have such good leadership with my older kids. And they're just really good kids that really have great chemistry, which makes my job a lot easier. They really, since I've been here of laying down a foundation of having that culture has been just tremendous. And right now we are ... We have 16 wins and we're heading to Maine if we can get out of here with this weather we had up to Maine to play them the second time around. We beat them at our place, but they're a very good team, especially at their place. So we're on our way to play them tomorrow.
How Bethann Ord Became a Basketball Coach
Shianne: So how did you get into coaching? I know you've been coaching for 30 years, so you probably have lots of experience and lots of stories. How did you get there?
Coach Bethann Ord: So I grew up in Rochester, New York, not far from here, and not far from Binghamton. Both my parents were coaches and I played division one basketball at my alma mater, at UMBC, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. And when I finished school I ended up getting my degree in psychology. I started with education and then kind of really enjoyed the psychology majors. So I just kept taking classes, ended up with psychology degree and I knew I didn't ... I was too small to go overseas and play back then, back in the day, which I would have loved to.
The opportunities the girls have now to go overseas and play and different opportunities are so much better now than they were back when I played. So I didn't want to get away from basketball, so I ended up starting to coach right out of college and that's kind of how I became a coach and was a longtime assistant in a lot of different schools all over the country. I got my masters paid for, got my undergraduate degree paid for through basketball, and I've gone ... Traveled many, many places and been to many places all over this country and even a few places outside of this country because of basketball. But basically growing up with my parents, coaching was a big part of it as well.
Coach Bethann Ord’s Favorite Travel Experiences
Shianne: So you kind of mentioned that you've been able to travel. Can you kind of talk to us about some of your favorite travel experiences?
Coach Bethann Ord: Okay. Yeah. So I would say with a team, I always like to take players somewhere they've has never been. Now we haven't ... I haven't gone on a European tour necessarily with my players here or as a head coach, but when I was ... Years ago, I was an assistant at the University of Pittsburgh and we were coaching the big east all-star tour they used to have and we, my head coach and our staff were the ... We got to take a hand-chosen all-star team from back East over to Brazil, and I would say that was really cool. Like they treated us ... Everything was first-class. We were in safe places, we got to practice for a week and then we went over there and we got to travel all over Brazil, San Paulo, we got to go into, we flew in San Paulo and then trove on a bus a couple of hours out.
So we got to see the countryside a little bit and then finished off in Rio de Janeiro, which was ... It was a beautiful country and it was very ... Back then it was very cool and they love their basketball there. So that experience is pretty awesome. With any of my current teams, again, I like to try to bring my kids somewhere that maybe they haven't been. So when I was the head coach at Weaver State in Ogden, Utah, a few of my players, a lot of my kids had never been to New York City and me being back here from New York, we were able to get a couple of games in New York. So we took them back East and get to see the city a little bit.
It was a quick trip but we did drive through Times Square and we didn't get to get out because of practice times and stuff. But we made sure we had pizza ordered and we had pizzas delivered to the bus. So it was a lot of fun and that was a memorable trip. We got to take them to the 9/11 ... Oh gosh.
Shianne: Memorial?
Coach Bethann Ord: Yeah. The Memorial. So we did do a day of that, which was great. Let them sightsee a little bit. But that was, I would say, pretty memorable to me as a head coach. And then my personal travel, I would say one of my absolute favorite trips, my husband and I always go to Mexico, but my 50th birthday we went to ... We went to Italy and I had never been, and that's where my grandparents are from. So it was really an awesome trip. Flying out of Salt Lake group, we went Salt Lake direct to Paris, Paris to Florence and when we started leaving, the people had called ... The plane said it was going to be canceled, your flight from Paris to Florence. But I said, "Can we get to Paris and then worry about it then?" And they said, "Yes." I'm like, "Sweet."
So I had never been to Europe, so it was awesome. We got a night in Paris, I got to go see a few things and then on to Florence and Tuscany, Venice for a couple of days, which was amazing. I so love my heritage and my people. I could live in Italy. It was so much fun. The food and the shopping and the food and the wine. It was ... Just walking around and all the museums and the statues and it was just an unbelievable trip. I highly recommend it. I still want to go back and maybe go to like Sicily and southern Italy next.
Coach Bethann Ord’s Advice to Prospective College Athletes
Shianne: If you were an athlete wanting to play collegiate sports, what would your advice be to them?
Coach Bethann Ord: First and foremost, stay ... Academics are huge. You've got to stay on top of your academics. You've got to do well. The other thing is just on and off the course. So in the classroom and on the basketball court, you've got to work really hard, and working hard doesn't mean saying it, you really have to do it. Day in and day out, I have ... My kids here, my players, they've worked really hard academically because Binghamton is one of a very, very high academic school. It's like getting into an Ivy League. But with an education from Binghamton, I mean we're like second in the Northeast and fourth in the country for highest paid salaries when you graduate from here and its academics are huge and I'm really proud of my girls here. We had a 3.45 overall and this fall, and none of them ... They're in majors that are very, very tough.
I let them ... Academics is first and foremost, right? I want to win basketball games and it's my job, but they're here to get an education. And these young ladies, I have a nursing student, I have two engineers, which is very difficult and I have all different majors. A young lady that's in the business management school here, which is extremely difficult and she actually ... Kai Moon, she's leaving. She was at one point number one in the country scoring, the leading scorer in the country. I mean that's big-time, and she had all A's, all A's in the fall.
I'm so proud of her. But my girls do a terrific job. And it is about academics too, but you've got to be able to balance. So that's what I would tell a young lady that's trying to play college collegiately. It's a lot of work, but it's definitely worth it. And the friendships and the sisterhood and the travel and the things that you get for being a college athlete as far as just so much more. When you go to school and you're on a scholarship, it's like you have instant friends because you're teammates, right?
You have an instant family basically. And that's the way I tried to really have my teams, it's very family-oriented. I tried to use that as far as a family first, just the team is family. My staff is like a family. My players are like my babies, my family. And my husband's been ... Like he loves it. He wasn't a basketball player, but he thinks he is now. He thinks he knows it, but it's a family affair and it's important. It's not just talking about it, it's really doing it. And, and it's nice because there are so many things for young ladies to get when they're athletes when they come.
Shianne: So what's your next adventure then? I know you're in the middle of your season, so with your team or with you, what's your next adventure? I know you said you guys are going to Maine.
Coach Bethann Ord: Yep. That's going to be an adventure. I always focus on one game at a time.
Shianne: I like that.
Coach Bethann Ord: So our first adventure is going to be Maine. I'm excited for it. It'll be a fun game. We're going to make sure we get maybe lobster rolls and some blueberry pie after the game. The blueberry pie will depend on the team if we win or not.
Shianne: Right.
Coach Bethann Ord: No, I'm just kidding. But so that'll be our first ... Next adventure. And then I'm not sure if my husband and I, what we're going to do this ... We always try to take a trip after the season, like in the spring I'll do the final four, which will be in New Orleans, so I'll go there. And then with him we'll, we'll either do our Mexico place, because we have a timeshare or I would love to get back to Europe.
One of my current players is also playing in Ireland and I was asked to possibly go over and do like a speaking clinic and go over to Ireland, which I've never been. So I'm like all about it. So hopefully that'll happen this summer maybe or this spring. But I'm just trying to ... And I'm recruiting some kids overseas so maybe I can go and actually see them. But I do love to travel and spend time with my husband when I can just relax. I like going to Mexico because I always say I can't use my phone, but I check my emails like at night, just to really get away from everything. But it's, it's nice just to kind of chill. Because I'm always go, go, go. So it's nice to just get a break and just relax by the pool or have fun.
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Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle