After suffering the loss of 4-star recruit AJ Marotte to Oregon State, apparently payback is an assistant coach.
Today’s announcement that Tina Langley hired Katie Faulkner, a valuable assistant from the OSU program, surely caused deep reverberations for the Huskies’ PAC-12 rival to the south.
"The University of Washington is an outstanding institution, and I look forward to serving our student-athletes in not only their basketball career, but in life beyond." – @coachKTB #GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/2lpxJmrAsi
— Washington Women’s Basketball (@UW_WBB) April 24, 2021
And if you don’t think it’s that deep, then you don’t understand PAC-12 women’s basketball is not a hobby, it’s war.
Katie Faulkner served as assistant coach to OSU’s Scott Rueck for five seasons, since the summer of 2016.
During her time in Corvallis, Faulkner is credited with being instrumental in the “development of Oregon State’s bigs” (in her official bio).
More importantly, Katie Faulkner is considered an excellent recruiter.
Faulkner played a part in bringing five-star Pasco, Washington product Talia Van Olhoeffen to the current Beavers roster; as well as the past recruitment of Mikayla Pivec to Corvallis — the former two-time All-PAC-12 guard from Lynwood, Washington
Since Faulkner will serve as the UW Huskies Recruiting Coordinator under Langley, in addition to her assistant coach duties, this is where she must make significant headway for a Washington program that has been operating with a talent deficit for the past four seasons.
Tina Langley has already made considerable headway in securing four of the five 2021 recruits that initially committed to former head coach Jody Wynn; i.e, early enrollee Jess Finney (an Arizona product); Avery Van Sickle (Colorado product);Marisa Davis (Arizona); and Australian product, Olivia Pollerd.
Katie Faulkner’s familiarity with recruiting PAC-12 athletes from a national and international recruiting scope, including the Pacific Northwest and Washington State, will enable Coach Langley to expand upon the progress made with Washington’s 2021 recruiting class.
In the past, Faulkner gave some insights into her recruiting efforts for Oregon State, which should be reassuring to Huskies WBB fans:
“I spend a lot of my time recruiting. There’s really never a day I don’t go without recruiting. I love connecting with kids and speaking life into their process and coaching them through their college decision. So yes, I’ve been on many a plane throughout my days. Been to Europe and Australia finding kids that fit us.”