Coaching means more than just basketball to Saluki women’s basketball coach Cindy Scott.

Basketball is such a minor part it’s unbelievable, Scott said. People don’t understand that about coaching. It’s such a minor part,

Scott, who is entering her 19th season as head coach at SIUC, has led the Salukis to 14 consecutive winning seasons. She is ranked 34th in victories and 48th in winning percentage nationally among active women’s coaches in NCAA Division I. Scott was inducted into the Saluki Sports Hall of Fame in fall 1994.

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As a coach, Scott said she feels a responsibility to reach her players both on and off the basketball court. In addition to teaching the fundamentals of basketball, she said she tries to help her team develop as people.

Coaching is not x’s and o’s and sitting on the sideline 30 times a year, she said, Coaching is creating an environment where your players can flourish and grow as people, students and athletes.

Scott said she considers her squad her family and takes pride in watching them succeed in basketball and in life.

It’s my kids, my family, she said. That’s who they are to me. Just watching them grow and go out in the world and be something that maybe they wouldn’t quite have been able to be if they hadn’t been a part of our program and gotten an education.

I’m the nerd mom, Scott said. Nerd has to go in front of that word. They all think I’m a nerd. But I’m a proud nerd.

Bridgett Bond-Williams, an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin who played under Scott from 1984-88, said she credits Scott with helping her become who she is today. Bond-Williams, a native of St. Louis, Mo., was spotted by Scott at a camp in South Bend, Ind., and decided to attend SIUC to play basketball and get an education. From there, Scott treated her as one of the family, Bond-Williams said.

When I came to SIU, if she could have adopted me as her daughter, she would have, she said. She’s been really good to me. I can’t put it into words. She still does mean a whole lot to me now, and I contribute a lot of my success to her.

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Scott also carries her coaching to the national level. She has been a member of the Women’s Basketball Association for ten years, and was a recent president of the organization. Her work in the association enables Scott to contribute to decisions made by the NCAA Committee pertaining to women’s basketball.

I think we’re a voice for the coaches across the country to the NCAA, she said.

Scott has also been on the USA Basketball Staff Selection Committee for three years. The committee is responsible for the selection of every coaching staff for the USA Basketball program, including the coach of the 1996 USA Olympic Women’s Basketball team, Tara VanDerveer. Her position has earned her respect from coaches across the country.

It’s interesting, because every coach in the country has to be nice to you because they want to be on it, Scott said laughing.

Her seat on the NCAA Midwest Regional Advisory Committee requires a lot of effort, but the results are worth the time involved, Scott said.

Each committee member has to collect the records of every team in our region and kind of stay up to date with what’s going on with the teams in our region, she said. Then, we rank them periodically throughout the course of the season and then we give our recommendation to the NCAA Selection Committee for teams to be selected. That allows teams from our region into the NCAA tournament.

Scott said her participation in these organizations has enhanced SIUC s program on many levels, especially in recruiting new players.

Number one, I think our program is nationally known and nationally recognized, she said. We try to sell to anybody that we bring into our program that we’re very much in tune with what’s going on at the national level in the sport. There are not many opportunities out there for women’s basketball that we don’t know about.

Scott hopes to combine her involvement on the national level with coaching and her squad’s wealth of talent to win the conference title and reach the NCAA tournament.

Every year, I hope any year I coach, that we can set a goal for winning the conference championship and going to the NCAA, she said. Anything less, we’re not going to be happy.

The Salukis will take some bruises early on the way to achieving their goal, Scott said.

We have a lot of talent on this team, she said. I think we have a lot of good experienced players. We also have some question marks to answer inside, with some inexperience, but if we can just hang in there and get through some early season bumps.

I mean, we’re going to take some lumps early on, she said. It’s just going to take time for our big kids inside to develop. We’re depending on very, very young kids inside.

Scott said that she has a great deal of confidence in her players, despite their inexperience and looks for them to be tough inside.

I feel one of our greatest strengths is going to be our ability to score inside the paint, with Theia Hudson, Christel Jefferson, Tiffany Spencer, she said. We are really going to run a lot of half-court stuff this year to get inside.

Scott said she did not have set expectations for her players, but for the team as a whole.

The biggest thing I ask of my kids is to work hard and do well, she said. Good things will happen if you continue to work hard.