Head Coach Beeman bids aloha to Rainbow Wahine basketball
Covered in lei and emotion, surrounded by a rainbow-shaped group of coworkers, players and supporters, Laura Beeman said “aloha” and “mahalo. ” After a career spanning more than 30 years — the past 14 leading the University of Hawaii women’s basketball program — Beeman announced her retirement from coaching during a news conference in UH’s Gym II. “It’s time,” said Beeman, who led the Rainbow Wahine to three NCAA Tournament appearances and nine postseason berths.
There were several factors in the decision to walk away as the program’s second-winningest coach. There was the way the sport had changed, such as the growing demands of name-image-likeness compensation for players and navigating the transfer portal. There was the calling to assist athletes of all ages dealing with mental-health concerns.
And there was the desire to spend more time with family and friends, to not miss any more weddings, family parties or her 88-year-old mother’s Thanksgiving dinners. Her decision comes three weeks after one of her best coaching jobs, resurrecting the Rainbow Wahine from an 0-5 start to the championship game of the Big West Tournament. It was in the postgame locker room, exhausted from back-to-back overtime wins and then a heartbreaking loss in the title game, during which she asked her players to treasure these moments, that this could be their final time together.
“And in the back of my head thinking, ‘me, too,” Beeman recalled. Last Friday, she received a how-are-you-doing text from athletic director Matt Elliott. Beeman responded: “Let’s talk.
” On Monday, Beeman told her partner, Carla: “I think this is the direction I need to go for a lot of different reasons. I want to leave this job loving it. And it’s been good to me.
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