Goodenough reflects on 10 years as ACU women's basketball coach

Sunday marked ten years since Julie Goodenough was announced as the Abilene Christian University women's basketball head coach.

KTXS sports reporter Owen Simpson sat down with Goodenough to look back at her decade at ACU, and what's to come.

Below is a transcript of the interview which aired on KTXS.

Owen Simpson: It's crazy it's already talking about a decade at ACU. How has it been being the head coach at ACU for ten years now?

Julie Goodenough: I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be the ACU women's basketball coach. That has never changed over these ten years. I tell people that ask about my experience that every year is better than the year before. It keeps getting better. There's exciting things that happen on campus. We're about to open a new facility, so it's a fantastic job. I'm just very grateful to have been here for ten years.

Owen Simpson: A lot of change, but there's also been a lot of change when it comes to the ACU men's basketball team. Head coach Brette Tanner had this to say about coach Goodenough, and the impact she's made on him in his first season.

Brette Tanner: Julie's been great to me great. Especially early in the process when I was trying to figure some things out. She's been a big supporter. She was the first one to see when I got off the bus when we came back from the [Texas] A&M game. It was a heart-wrenching loss and I hadn't won a game yet. she was one of the first to text me after UTA. it's a special relationship between the two programs. a lot of the programs are kind of sperate. here we are two programs that work together. We share a facility and work really well together. It's an unbelievable working relationship. Probably the best working relationship that I've had anywhere I've been between the men's and women's staffs.

Owen Simpson: Always great to have a good relationship with fellow coaches at the university. What has that relationship meant to you?

Julie Goodenough: We've been really close with our men's program since I've been here. I was so excited for coach Tanner to get the opportunity to be the head coach. He's phenomenal to work with. They are very supportive of what we do. When they win, we all celebrate together. It is like a big family. t's been awesome to see what he's been able to do this season. We're proud of him and his program. We do have a good working relationship, and it does mean a lot. I've been in situations where that relationship was not great at other schools. To echo what he said, we do really work well together, and that's not really common at the D-1 level.

Owen Simpson: What do you plan on doing as the head coach at ACU. Do you want to bring in more transfers or more talent coming out of high school?

Julie Goodenough: Definitely the transfer portal has changed recruiting. I believe that I will always want a strong freshman class every year. We're always going to have a strong freshman class. You want to build your program around those foundations of classes of seasons, but you know every spring you will have the opportunity to go into the portal and find the experienced players. i think that's something that staffs across America will always know, like at the end of the season we need one or two players. There will be some veteran or experienced players in the portal, more experienced than adding high school players, but we will always try to find a good foundation with high school players year after year.

Owen Simpson: We've talked about this so much, but I feel like we still need to talk about this: returning to Moody Coliseum for next season. What does it mean for you and the team to finally get back to really what home is?

Julie Goodenough: Great things happen every year for us at ACU and this might be the biggest one of all. The renovation of Moody and just all the new spaces that men's and women's basketball and volleyball will have will change the trajectory because we're going to have all the stuff now that recruits are looking for and it will eliminate a lot of excuses. We're going to have constant access to Moody for our players to be in there to get extra shots: a video room, a weight room, a practice facility. It will change the trajectory of our program and the ability to recruit higher athletes that are visiting other schools, or competing against other schools that have the nice longue or the nice player spaces. We're so excited about it. I'm so excited for ACU in general, and you know just how much the regular student is in Moody Coliseum for a lot of different campus activities. This is something that will be an awesome place for everyone in the ACU community to enjoy.

Owen Simpson: A last question for you, coach. I have to apologize on behalf of Evan Nemec. He forgot to ask a question following the end of postseason play in the WAC, ask about a certain furry friend, Sullivan. How's Sullivan doing?

Julie: Sully is great. Thank you for asking. I know Evan is a huge fan of Sully so it kind of hurt my feelings he didn't ask about, no I'm just kidding. Sully is glad that I'm back in town for a while. WAC travel has taken me away probably more than any other season, so Sully and I are spending some special time together now that the season is over.