Women's Basketball
Harrington becomes the 7th coach in school history
NWF State hires women's coach
By ADAM ROSENBERG
Northwest Florida Daily News 315-4484 | arosenberg@nwfdailynews.com
Exactly a month after announcing that women's basketball coach Bart Walker had resigned for family reasons, Northwest Florida State College has hired his replacement.
NWF State Athletic Director Mickey Englett announced the hiring of 46-year-old Patrick Harrington as the Raiders' new head coach after receiving more than 60 applications from around the country. Harrington spent the past three seasons as an assistant at the University of Colorado.
"We were very impressed with his passion," Englett said. "We were very impressed with his vision of how to develop and maintain a team both on and off the floor. And we were impressed with his experience and the tremendous amounts of recruiting contacts he has with Division-I programs, high school programs and AAU programs."
Harrington, who lettered in basketball at Rollins College in Winter Park, coached a boys high school team in Boston and was the head men's coach at Newbury (Mass.) College from 1996-97. Newbury, a junior college, was ranked as high as seventh in the country during his tenure.
It was while coaching there that Harrington became acquainted with NWF State (then Okaloosa-Walton).
"I was very aware of OWC and the kinds of opportunities they had down there," Harrington said. "Then when I coached at the University of New Orleans (as a men's assistant), I spent a lot of time on the I-10 corridor and got a chance to see the Raiders play. I always thought it would be a great place for me to build a program."
After his introduction to JUCO basketball, he moved to the Division-I ranks in 1997 as an assistant at the University of Texas-Pan American and moved on to the University of Southern Utah until 2001.
Harrington's first experience coaching women's basketball was with Oregon State as an assistant from 2005-07. From there, he joined the staff at Colorado. "He understands the expectations as far as being competitive on the floor, and he understands the expectations that this college has for the women's basketball players off the floor," Englett said. "He isn't shying away from competing in the Panhandle Conference, and some people do."
As a noted recruiter, Harrington is going to have his work cut out for him as he jumps into his new job. Recruiting is a constant venture, and the Raiders have had a month where they have been without a head coach.
Harrington is aware of the challenges and says he is ready to tackle them.
"The vision that coach Englett has for the program is to compete at a high level, and I share that vision," Harrington said. "We're going to recruit from coast to coast and border to border. I'm going to dive into it full speed and tap into the contacts I have."
The affable Harrington has been married to his wife Lori for 11 years, and together they have three children: Kelly (10 years old), Patrick II (8) and Katherine (6). Lori was a coach for the Columbus Quest of the now-defunct American Basketball League and has two world championship rings from the league.
"She's a better coach than me," Harrington said. "We're all very excited to come and be a part of the community in Niceville. Coming from New England, I've always wanted to move to Florida. I'm just thankful coach Englett and the administration thought enough of me to offer me the job."
