Coaches Take On Their Dream Jobs

Mark Trakh and Julie Rousseau don’t know each other, but their professional careers have converged.

Trakh grew up in Wanque, N.J., where he played basketball and baseball before heading west to attend Long Beach State. He planned on an academic life, but while teaching at Brea Olinda High in 1983 he was asked to coach the girls’ basketball team. He hasn’t stopped coaching since.

Rousseau grew up in Inglewood, played basketball at Dorsey and later at UC Irvine before transferring to Cal State Los Angeles. She also planned a teaching career but got the coaching bug after taking over the girls’ program at Los Angeles Washington in 1992.

Now, the coaches say they have their dream jobs.

Trakh, 48, who coached at Pepperdine after leaving Brea Olinda in 1993, was hired by USC in April to replace Chris Gobrecht.

Rousseau, 39, who briefly coached the Sparks in the WNBA and who has been an assistant at Stanford the last four years, has taken over the program Trakh left at Pepperdine.

“It was real hard to leave Pepperdine because we were going to have a real good team this year,” Trakh said.

Rousseau said the job “spoke to my spirit.... It is a Christian school, and I am comfortable in my skin of being a Christian and professing that. It was also intriguing in that L.A., it’s back home and a familiar setting for me.”

Trakh and Rousseau arrive at their new stations driven by different engines.

After guiding Washington to the L.A. City championship in 1996, Rousseau took an assistant position with the Sparks during the WNBA’s inaugural season in 1997. She was made interim head coach midway through that season, succeeding Linda Sharp. She was hired as head coach in 1998, but after a 7-13 start Rousseau was replaced by Orlando Woolridge.

Stanford came calling in 2000. And Cardinal Coach Tara VanDerveer had bigger plans for Rousseau than just advance scouting and breaking down game video.

“She said, ‘Listen, we have a position available. But I want you to know I’m offering you this position to groom you to be a head coach,’ ” Rousseau said. “At the end of every season we would have evaluations. She would always pose the question, ‘Are you ready if someone called today?’ I think I always said yes, but I don’t think until this final year did I really believe I was prepared.”

VanDerveer said she brought Rousseau to Stanford on the advice of another of her assistants, Amy Tucker.

“I hired her because of the person she is, extremely loyal and who establishes great rapport with the players,” VanDerveer said. “She cares about them, not just their games but on and off the court. She has great people skills.

“l learned Julie is extremely competitive and is a very hard worker, has a great teaching background and is a student of the game. That was a perfect fit for me and Stanford.”

Rousseau is the first female African American head coach hired by Pepperdine. But Athletic Director John Watson said neither her race nor gender was a factor in his decision, although her gender didn’t hurt.

“With Julie, I did not feel like we’re rolling the dice,” Watson said. “I believe in that women’s athletics, if you find a woman with talent and experience, that person ought to be given an opportunity. The male candidates I interviewed I did not feel were more prepared than Julie and she was best prepared for Pepperdine. Her ethnicity or gender was not a factor, but it’s important for young women to have a great role model.”

USC, in making its decision, turned to a man who has a sterling record as a women’s head coach.

At Brea Olinda, Trakh’s teams won 354 games, four state championships, six Southern Section championships and 11 Orange League titles. At Pepperdine, he recorded six 20-win seasons, won four of the last six West Coast Conference championships, and went to either the NCAA or WNIT postseason tournaments the last six seasons.

But Trakh also has an internal clock that chimes if he feels he has been somewhere too long.

“I was at Brea for 13 years and felt it was time for a change. I was at Pepperdine for 11 years and felt the time for a change,” Trakh said. “A little fear might be good for you. I’m coming into this job with my eyes wide open.”

Where as his predecessor, Gobrecht, was known for her relentless intensity, Trakh brings a lighter touch. During his first few practices at USC, he constantly cajoled his players, who include only one junior and two seniors.

He will pull aside a player now and then to make a point, but he lets his assistants do much of the instruction.

“He likes the players to hear different voices so they don’t get tired of his,” said assistant Derek Wynn, whose wife, Jody, is also a USC assistant. “We’re blessed to work with someone who wants us to get experience, not just be bobbleheads on the sidelines.”

Although each signed a multiyear contract, Trakh and Rousseau acknowledge a pressure beyond wins and losses.

USC is planning to open a new arena in 2006, and Athletic Director Mike Garrett wants the women’s and men’s teams to fill seats by being competitive and entertaining. And for all of its recent success, Pepperdine would like to win a postseason game.

“I realize it’s going to be very difficult in the Pac-10. It wasn’t easy at Pepperdine; in fact it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Trakh said. “And this is going to be even harder. But [USC] is giving us the resources to get it done. So we have to give 100%, concentrate on the process of getting better, and see what happens.”

Said Rousseau: “[Pepperdine] has never won an NCAA game. And for me, after being at Stanford and learning how to prepare, practice and compete -- all of those elements -- I thought it would be a dream job to take this program to the next level.”