GREEN BAY, Wis. — In front of friends, family, and current and former players on Wednesday, Kevin Borseth made the announcement that this past season was his last.
“To wake up tomorrow and think I’m not the head coach,” said Borseth. “It’s going to hurt.”
Borseth coached the Phoenix for a combined 21 years, with nearly 40 in the profession. During that time, he earned over 800 wins and qualified for 13 NCAA tournament appearances at Green Bay.
One of his most cherished memories with the Phoenix was winning their first game in the tournament back in 2003.
“That was probably the biggest turning point for our program to win a game in the national tournament,” said Borseth. “That was it was a pretty cool moment.”
The two reasons Borseth gave for deciding to step down were because of his age and recruiting. He wants to be able to give Green Bay the best opportunity moving forward and explained how that recruiting process was going.
“So the biggest question is: ‘How long is coach going to be there?’ So, we go out in the world, we look and the assistant comes in and says, ‘Look this player really likes us but doesn't know how long you're going to be here.’ So, she's hesitant to commit because they don't want to go to a school and all of a sudden the coach is gone. They start all over again. That's a hard thing.”
Players showed up on Wednesday in support of who they affectionately call ‘Grandpa Kev.’ They said coach Borseth’s impact transcended the court. UWGB junior forward, Jasmine Kondrakiewicz, said coach Borseth believed in her by giving her the only scholarship offer she received out of high school.
“To see him go was really hard, but I couldn't be more grateful for the four years that I've had,” said Jasmine Kondrakiewicz. “Not everyone gets to play for a Hall of Fame coach. So, that experience alone has been so empowering.”
The fact that he and his team made it back to the NCAA tournament made the decision easier, but it was still tough for the legendary coach.
“I'm going to miss everyday getting up and coming to school and coming to the gym,” said Borseth. “That's what I'm going to miss. And I miss the players, the prep work, the games, all that.”
Borseth will join the Titletown tradition of having his name forever etched in a street sign with the name: ‘Kevin Borseth Way.’ He made it clear he will still be around and cheer the program he helped build from the stands.