Staten Island, NY - Heather Zurich, who recently completed her first year as an assistant women's basketball coach at Wagner College, has accepted a full-time position on the staff at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
Zurich, a Montvale, NJ native, is a 2009 graduate of Rutgers where she played an integral role as a forward in helping the Scarlet Knights to four Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eight appearances and one Final Four from 2005-2009.
At UC Santa Barbara, she will work under the tutelage of newly-named head coach Carlene Mitchell, who was an assistant coach with the Scarlet Knights throughout Zurich's collegiate career.
“It would have taken a very special situation for me to leave Wagner and joining Carlene at UC Santa Barbara is definitely a special situation,” said Zurich. “She recruited me out of high school and I always said, 'One day I'd love to work under Coach Mitchell.' Well, here's my chance.
“It's a really solid program that receives tremendous community support,” she added. “I'll miss so many things about Wagner and I really have to thank Coach Gela (Mikalauskas) for bringing me into the Wagner family last year. At the same time, I couldn't be more excited about this opportunity.”
Mitchell replaced Lindsay Gottleib at UC Santa Barbara who accepted the head coaching position at the University of California-Berkeley. The Gauchos have reached post-season play 15 of the last 16 seasons and have captured 14 Big West regular-season titles in the past 16 years. Last season, UC-Santa Barbara compiled a 19-12 record and finished tied for first in the big West Conference with a mark of 12-4.
“We are truly going to miss Heather but I know I speak for our team and the entire Wagner community in wishing her all the best,” said Mikalauskas. “She did an outstanding job for us and is a class act. This is truly a unique opportunity for Heather to coach under someone she played for in college and I know she will do a terrific job and be a real asset to the UC Santa Barbara program.”
Zurich arrived at Wagner in 2010 after playing professionally for one season in the Netherlands. At Rutgers, where she was a part of 102 victories and four consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament,
Zurich played under the direction of renowned head coach and 2009 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame recipient C. Vivian Stringer. As a sophomore in 2006-2007, her Rutgers' squad won the program's first BIG EAST Tournament Championship before advancing to the NCAA Championship Game against Tennessee.
As a senior, Zurich served as a team captain and turned in arguably her finest performance in an 80-52 upset of No. 2 seed Auburn in the NCAA's Round of 32. The Garden State native scored 12 points, on an efficient 5-of-7 shooting, while limiting SEC Player of the Year and current WNBA Player DeWanner Bonner to 17 points, on just 5-of-15 shooting.
Her success was not limited to the court as Zurich was named to the Big East Academic All Star Team as a senior and was a member of the NCAA Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
Following graduation, she played one season for the Auto-Cad Amazone in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Zurich helped Amazone to a 16-13 record and a fourth-place finish in the Dames Eredivisie in The Netherlands with a 15-11 divisional record. She finished second on the team in scoring (12.2 ppg) and rebounding (9.9 rpg) before helping the squad to a 2-3 post-season record and a position in the semi-finals, where Amazone lost to the ProBuild Lions.
At Wagner, Zurich served as a graduate assistant coach and completed two semesters towards her Master's in Business Administration.
