Delanian has big dreams for women’s basketball

Jeremy Nitta, Sports Associate Editor of the Kaleo Voice reports:

Laura Beeman, the head coach for the University of Hawai‘i women’s basketball team, has often stressed a need for growth and expansion as she heads into her second year at the helm of the Rainbow Wahine. To further that goal, Beeman has hired a familiar face in Alex Delanian, a former colleague from the University of Southern California, as the team’s Director of Operations.

“The best programs in the country have professionals at every level,” Beeman said. “What Alex brings is that professionalism as the Director of Operations. We can focus on basketball while he’s behind the scenes.”

“I worked with Coach Beeman for two years back at USC, and I kind of know how she likes things run,” Delanian said. “I think my job involves handling a lot of the day-to-day logistics of the program. I handle a lot of the basic things, like the team’s travels, the finances and budget and just being another person on staff. I know they had a lot going on in their first year, so to be another person coming in to be a stabilizing force, I’m familiar with almost all the assistants from some point in my time in women’s basketball. I know their personalities and what each of them wants from me.”

Beeman belives that Delanian, who spent the last three seasons as Director of Operations for USC’s women’s basketball team, can help the program in other ways as well.

“We’re hoping he can work with ticketing and get some groups into our games, but besides all that, we value his knowledge of the game,” Beeman said. “He can also help us with some of our scouting because he has a great basketball mind. So he’ll be able to help us in so many different ways that it takes so much pressure off us as a coaching staff to have to do. He knows how to do his job, but does it so well.”

While at USC, Delanian helped spearhead multiple outreach events for schools around the campus, something that Beeman has often spoken about wanting to do with the Rainbow Wahine to make the community know about the team. Delanian said he believes, though, that outreach extends beyond getting publicity.

“Some of the stuff we did at USC was to draw some attention, but a lot of it was also about them, the kids,” Delanian said. “These were kids who didn’t get to interact with a lot of people, and to have 15 college athletes come down and play with them every month really brightened up their day. I think that we are in a position of great influence, where a lot of people look up to the players on the team. To go and interact with people who admire you goes a long way.

Delanian also said he believes that in the state of Hawai‘i, there is a lot of untapped passion for UH athletics.

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