Women’s basketball head coach, Jonathon Tsipis, has made a positive impact on the team since joining WCU in April.
The WCU Athletic Department and WCU Board of Trustees announced the new head coach role on April 5. Tsipis becomes the 14th different women’s basketball head coach in Western Carolina history.
Tsipis is enjoying getting to know the team and preparing for a successful season.
“We want to be ready for the first game and the first Southern Conference game, but I am really excited about the potential of the team,” Tsipis said.
Alex Gary, Director of Athletics, says a successful season for the women’s basketball team is to see a team who works together on and off the court.
“Having a team that is having fun and looks like they are better connected then they ever have been before,” Gary said. “It’s not a number of wins, it’s not coming in a certain place, you just want to see a shift in the connectiveness of the team, which includes players and coaches.”
The athletic department at WCU has allowed Tsipis to make himself feel at home in Cullowhee.
“It has been a really smooth transition,” Tsipis said. “It’s been great, I have gotten to see a lot of Catamount sporting events, everybody has been very welcoming.”
Since arriving, Coach Tsipis has made an impactful first impression on the players of the women’s basketball team.
Nicole Azar, redshirt sophomore gaurd for WCU, has gotten to know Coach Tsipis since he has arrived in Cullowhee.
“Right off the bat I thought he had great enthusiasm and passion for the game,” Azar said. “He shows he cares a lot about the team as people and students, not just athletes.”
The connection Tsipis builds with his players is also an important aspect of Alex Gary’s decision to choose Coach Tsipis for the role.
“He has a great relationship with student-athletes. He works hard and he works them hard but has a lot of respect for them as well,” Gary said.
Alex Gary says Tsipis’s ability to turn a program around is what was eye-opening for the WCU Athletics Department. Last year, the Catamounts posted a 6-24 season record and only one conference win. This was a fall off from their 2022/23 season where they posted a 9-21 record with two conference wins.
“We just haven’t had good records over the past more than five years,” Gary said.
After his role as head coach for George Washington, Tsipis has proven he can transform a basketball program and win conference titles.
Before being appointed head coach at the George Washington, the Revolutionaries had a losing record. The year before Tsipis was hired, the Revolutionaries recorded a 11-18 season, ending the season with a 6-game losing streak.
Tsipis turned the program around, eventually winning the Atlantic 10 regular season and conference tournament championship in his last two years in the role. He also led the team to the NCAA Championships in these seasons, the first time in eight years.
“One of the things that impressed me the most and separated him from every other coach his ability to come in and show that he can turn a program around,” said Gary.
The success achieved at George Washington was what made Tsipis stand out from the other coaches for Alex Gary.
“George Washington had won single digit games, just like we have, in the three years before he got there,” Gary said. “He went 78-22 (in his last three years at George Washington). No other coach we interviewed showed the ability to do that.”
The process to choose a coach that fit the WCU women’s basketball program the best was precise.
“We interviewed 10 different coaches, we interviewed a lot,” Gary said.
Growing up around basketball
Tsipis’s passion for coaching was driven by his family. He is the youngest of five children, with basketball being a common interest shared throughout the family.
Tsipis was always around basketball, developing a passion for the game from a young age.
“I don’t ever remember having a baby-sitter when I was a kid, I just was always at somebody’s game, somebody’s practice,” Tsipis said.
The passion for coaching basketball also developed for Tsipis early. This was influenced by his older brother, who started coaching in high school, and his dad, who was a referee.
Tsipis started coaching basketball as a freshman in college, as he studied at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“I wasn’t good enough to play at a major college,” Tsipis said. “I was just trying to find another avenue because I enjoyed the game so much.”
Transitioning to women’s hoops
Tsipis’s college coaching career began in 1996 when he was appointed as the men’s assistant coach at Cornell.
After his roles as men’s assistant coach at Le Moyne and Elon, Tsipis changed his coaching career to the women’s side of college basketball.
Tsipis made this transition as an opportunity to advance his coaching career.
“It was an opportunity to coach some of the best women’s players in college basketball,” Tsipis said. “I felt much more connected coaching women’s basketball than I did on the men’s side.”
This connection with women’s basketball also was influenced by Tsipis’s family.
“This grew further once my wife had our first child, which was a little girl.”
He became the women’s associate coach for Notre Dame in 2003. Tsipis experienced success with the Fighting Irish, with the team claiming the runner-up position at the NCAA championships in his last two years in the role.
This experience cemented his passion for coaching in the women’s side of college basketball.
“I knew after my first year that I would stay on the women’s side because I just felt much more intractable,” Tsipis said.
This success led to Tsipis receiving his first head coach role. He led George Washington’s women’s basketball team from 2012 to 2016.
For Tsipis, he believes his role as assistant coach at Notre Dame allowed him to achieve this success at George Washington.
“I was really well-prepared by being at Notre Dame,” Tsipis said. “All of those responsibilities from recruiting, scouting, player development, scheduling, you name it, she (Coach McGraw, head coach of Notre Dame) gave to me.”
Tsipis also faced challenges at George Washington when beginning his role as head coach.
“The one thing I don’t think anyone is ready for when they go from being an assistant coach to a head coach is that every decision ends up sitting on you, even the ones you don’t make that your staff makes.”
Making an impact
Tsipis has made an impact on a lot of the people he has worked with.
Megan Nipe, who played for Coach Tsipis at George Washington for two years, values the lessons that Tsipis granted her.
“A lot of what I learned from him on the court, particularly with leadership, translated off the court,” Nipe said in an email. “I grew in my confidence as a person and I know the opportunity I had to play and grow under Coach Tsipis helped set me up for a career outside of basketball.”
Nipe has now since graduated from George Washington.
Tsipis is preparing the team for the season, teaching them his style of play.
“I’m really excited to play for him this year in his first season at WCU,” Azar said. “I think we have a really good group and can do something special this year under his lead.”
This type of offense is similar to Megan Nipe’s experience with Coach Tsipis at George Washington.
“We ran offensive sets that moved the ball a lot but also had a lot of off-the-ball movement to get players open,” Nipe said. “We got really good at setting solid screens, making the extra pass, and reading the defense to get the right shot at the right time.”
Tsipis and his team kick off the season on Nov. 4 against Warren Wilson in Cullowhee.
