Feren confident Hiram improved

HIRAM -- After coaching the Hiram College women's basketball team for the past five seasons, including the last three as head coach, Don Feren of Canfield is looking for another job.
Feren, a Youngstown State graduate who previously coached boys and girls basketball as well as football at South Range High, recently resigned as the Hiram coach after compiling a 22-54 record for three seasons, including 6-32 in the North Coast Athletic Conference.
But despite the losing record, Feren said he was not being forced out of his job, but just wanted to try some new coaching opportunities, perhaps even outside of basketball.
And in fact, he believes that he made significant strides in advancing the women's team forward toward becoming a success.
"I want to look for other opportunities," said Feren. "It was a great experience. I loved it there but it is a long way from [Canfield] and I want to find something closer to home."
Feren, whose Terriers won six games (6-19) this season and eight each of the previous two years (8-17 and 8-18), definitely wants to continue coaching.
Open to opportunities
"I'd like to get back into coaching if I can find something I'm looking and I am really going to be open and see what's out there, and if anyone is interested, I'd like to talk to them," said Feren, who also will be leaving his other Hiram jobs as co-director of intramurals and as an instructor in the college exercise and sport science program.
"It could even be football because when I was at South Range I coached football for 28 years," Feren said. "It could be on the high school or college level."
Feren said that his "biggest challenge" coaching at Hiram was recruiting top basketball players who also were top students, because the academic standards are very high at Hiram, and the better NCAA Division III student-athletes tend to gravitate to winning programs.
"The biggest challenge is to get people there," Feren said. "It is a really highly-rated academic school. The people really like it there, but you are competing against other NCAA Division III programs that are well-established, and when you have been successful in the past it's not as hard to get players."
Strategy for success
Feren said he believes that Hiram's fortunes could be turned around over time by building success incrementally year-by-year, until the team eventually reaches a point of quality that makes it attractive to top players and students alike.
He contends he was heading in that direction.
"I felt my biggest achievement was making them competitive," Feren said. "When I first got the job, they would be down 20 or 30 [points] at halftime. There was a negative attitude.
"We had eight wins the [previous] two seasons, and qualified for the NCAC tournament in 2005-06. It was the first time that Hiram ever qualified for the NCAA tournament."
And regarding this season's 6-19 record, including 1-15 in the NCAC, "We had 10 losses this year [that] were by 10 points or less.
"I made them competitive and showed them the way to be more competitive. We were getting there. We weren't far away. We just needed a little more time."
Strong area flavor on team
Feren's team this season had a strong Youngstown area flavor with five players on the roster, including seniors Abbey Gorby (East Palestine) and Allison Davis (Boardman), who both were starters.
The others were sophomore Stephanie Zunic (Canfield) and freshmen Samantha DiCello (East Palestine) and Brittany Palmer (Girard).
In addition, Feren's assistant was Ann Marie Martin of Youngstown, who was in her second year.
Martin, also a YSU graduate and former Penguins' player who teaches at Austintown Fitch High, coached the Niles High team before coming to Hiram. Before that, she served as assistant coach at Fitch High and YSU.
Gorby, a 5-foot-8 guard, led Hiram in free throw percentage (89.5 on 34-for-38) ahead of DiCello (88.9 on 16-for-18), while Gorby ranked No. 2 in scoring (7.5) and No. 3 in rebounding (4.0) and assists (1.6).
Zunic, a 5-7 guard, was second in assists (2.0) and fourth in scoring (5.8) and steals (26), while Davis, a 5-7 guard, was sixth in scoring (3.2) and DiCello seventh (2.7). Palmer averaged 1.0 points.
DiCello, Zunic and Davis were 1-2-3 in 3-point shooting percentage with 34.6 (9-for-26), 33.3 (26-for-78) and 30.6 (15-for-49).
The Terriers were led this season by Cassie Bedard, a 5-11 senior forward from Waterloo High, who topped the NCAC in scoring (17.6) and was named to the All-NCAC second team for the second year in a row. Bedard ended her Hiram career ranked No. 3 in scoring with 1,465 points.
kovach@vindy.com