Today, Washington Mystics General Manager and Head Coach Mike Thibault announced that he re-hired Marianne Stanley as assistant coach for the 2013 season.
Stanley has been with the Mystics since 2010 where she was an assistant on Julie Plank's staff (2010) and on Trudi Lacey's staff (2011-2012). In addition, she was the Mystics head coach in 2002-2003 where she advanced the team to its first, and so far only Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 2002.
She also has been known as a well acclaimed college head coach, where she coached at Old Dominion, UPenn, Southern Cal, Stanford (in 1995 during Tara Vanderveer's sabbatical to focus on the Olympic team for the 1996 Atlanta games), and UC Berkeley. At Old Dominion, she led the Monarchs to four national championships, including the 1978 NWIT championship, the 1979 and 1980 AIAW national titles, and the 1985 NCAA title.
Some folks may question why Stanley was re-hired to this team, considering that she was part of the Mystics' last two seasons where they only won a combined 11 games and the team clearly wants to move on from the 2011 and 2012 seasons. However, at the same time, she is considered to be one of the better assistants in the WNBA generally speaking, and players on the Mystics last year did give her high reviews.
We'll see how things continue to pan out this offseason as the Mystics look to rebuild their squad from last year.