VPS takes coaching to the 'House
By Jesse Phelps

Next year's Villanova Prep basketball teams should sport a new flavor.
Tom Roanhaus, the new athletic director, is an area man who just moved back from Colorado, and he's wasting no time in hiring for the vacant positions for boys' and girls' basketball.

The boys' position, said Roanhaus, could be finalized later this week. He's been meeting with candidates and said he's very close to hiring someone "very exciting."

"We're about 90 percent there," said Roanhaus. "We have a meeting in the morning. It's going be a good story."

In the meantime, he's already hired for the girls' team and it's a name that should be familiar to county basketball fans. Nicole Greathouse led Ventura's Buena High to three CIF titles and went on to play for the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she made four trips to the NCAA tournament.

"That's a top-20 program," said Roanhaus. "I met with her on Wednesday. The headmaster had already done a preliminary interview. He said she was very impressive and she'd been a good athlete in high school and college. It was one of those situations where you just sit and listen and watch her demeanor."
Roanhaus said Greathouse was attracted to Villanova because she sees it as competitive environment, an "excellence in everything environment."

Greathouse, who spent last season coaching basketball and softball for Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara, agreed. She's impressed with both the facilities and with her girls. She says she's had one team meeting "but there were so many girls I don't know them all by name yet. When we played them (last year) I only got to see them once. But they're just very talented, especially for a small school; a lot of athletic ability. The school's amazing."

Greathouse, a postplayer in high school and college who tried out for the WNBA after graduation, never planned to coach. "I didn't think I had the patience for it," she said. But the Laguna Blanca job sparked something and now she's taking the next step. "It was something that I totally enjoyed so I just decided to keep doing it," she said. "I moved back to Ventura about a month ago. It's too far a commute to Laguna. I was talking to (softball coach) John Jenks and he told me about the opening at Villanova."

Villanova returns a fairly intact squad from last year's CIF-playoff team, including leading scorer Stephanie DeSantis and one of the county's leading rebounders in Katie Parziale.

Greathouse said not only does she look forward to working with the girls on their game, but she wants to help them move on to the next level, if at all possible. "I'm going to try very hard, I know (Parziale) is a senior - I'll try to use all my connections to get any of my girls to go on further," said Greathouse.

Meanwhile Roanhaus is ecstatic that, as he gets acclimated to his new-old surroundings, he's been able to find such great available talent to fill his coaching slots.

"It was pretty clear in ten minutes" that Greathouse was a perfect hire, Roanhaus said. "Having been out there for 19 years, if I'm stepping on campus as athletic director and this is the first interview, we've hit the bull's- eye. When you speak with her, she's a very impressive person. I hope we get bull's-eyes like this all the time."

Meanwhile, he said the boys' position should be filled by another wonderful applicant by next week. "I don't want to spill the beans too quick because it's not concrete yet," he said. "I had a preliminary interview early this week. We want somebody who can fill a teaching position. That's part of what keeps a good Catholic school going, getting a regular influx of excitement. We interviewed two kids. One that looks like he could help us in football and soccer and this other one for basketball and volleyball."

Roanhaus says that the boys' coach is someone locals know with serious basketball credentials. "It's somebody that I'm very excited about. He's a very good young teacher. He's going to be a role model."

The hiring of Greathouse and meetings with his other prospects have Roanhaus fired up about the possibilities for his teams next year. In good Catholic fashion, he gave credit where credit is due. "I've been very blessed here this week," he said.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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