SAN MATEO, Calif. — Kari Gallup Huxford has given a new meaning to the basketball phrase of "transition game," successfully transitioning from a former standout player on the BYU women's team to successful first-year boys high school coach in California.
She didn't apply for the position in the first place, but Huxford became only the second woman in California history to take over a boys high school varsity program when she accepted the head coaching position at Aragon High in San Mateo last summer.
In her first season, she inherited a program that finished a lackluster 12-14 the previous year and led the Aragon High Dons to a 23-9 record and a trip to Northern California's Sweet 16.
"I applied to the school district and obviously put all my basketball stuff on my resume, thinking that if there was an opening on the women's side, then, 'Hey, I'll take it,' " said Huxford.
That resume "stuff" for the 5-foot-10 guard included averaging 12.7 points a season — 17.4 as a senior — during her four-year storied Cougar career during the late 1990s. The name "Kari Gallup" stood atop BYU's career-record lists for 3-pointers (204) and free-throw percentage (.831) and single-game marks for 3s (8) until topped recently by All-American Erin Thorn.
About a month after Huxford applied to be a math teacher in the San Mateo district, the boys coach at Aragon quit. Huxford had no idea about the sudden vacancy until athletic director Steve Sell called her into his office.
"He had me come on in and talk to him about it, and that same day he hired me," Huxford said. "So it was kind of all at once."
Said Sell: "It was kind of a no-brainer. I lost zero sleep over the decision. It took me a minute after meeting her to know that she was perfect for the job."
Huxford was reluctant at first to take the position, fearful people wouldn't respect a woman coaching in the men's game.
"There was a member of the staff that thought it was a mistake and that the kids wouldn't respect her," Sell said. "Knowing our kids, I knew it wasn't an issue."
Even so, the athletic director opted to be creative in his approach to introducing Huxford to the Dons.
"When he introduced the concept to us, he didn't just come out and say, 'Your new coach is so-and-so and she is a woman,' " said Aragon sophomore Sean Mosman. "He wrote her credentials on our blackboard . . . then asked us how we felt about the new coach."
Mosman said all the players were excited to have a coach with so many credentials take over the program.
Teammates agreed.
"We were really surprised at first, but I think we were more anxious to see what she would be like," said guard Grant Thorn. "We were excited to see her strategies and her schemes of the game and how she coached."
The 27-year-old Huxford admitted being a little nervous going in as a relatively young, certainly inexperienced coach. But her father, Allen Gallup, knew the confidence he had helped instill in her at a young age would kick in and help calm her nerves.
"I think we have lived basketball forever," said Gallup of his children. "They've spent a lot of time in the gym."
And Gallup ought to know, coaching the boys varsity squad at a small Canadian high school and allowing his daughter Kari to frequently attend practice and even play in tournaments with his boys team.
As a rookie coach, she inherited a squad that didn't have a player taller than 6-foot-2 on its roster. In fact, it took an opposing team with 12 of the 14 players taller than Aragon's biggest player to finally knock the Dons out of the playoffs.
"Honestly, I thought we were going to have a rough season," she said. "I knew they were quick and they liked to run, so I thought, 'Well, it will be a fun year.' "
She took that attitude and translated it to coaching on the court. The players caught her enthusiasm, which created an atmosphere of "win or die."
"One of the remarkable things about how well the team did this year is that there are really no stars on the team," said Matt Mosman, Sean's father. "Because she is a shooter herself, she is very good technically about shooting, and she is also really good at instilling confidence and telling guys, 'Hey, fire away.'"
Huxford now looks back and smiles at the initial attention given her new position at Aragon High, with some wondering if a step up to the Division 1A level might be in the future. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind.
"I just laugh at how much of a big deal they (the media) make out of it," she said. "To me, I am just doing what I love — I am coaching basketball. To everybody else looking in, I can see how other people could make a big deal about it."