Jennifer Gross and Joe Teramoto’s home is buzzing. Teramoto is whipping up some teriyaki barbecue hen and beef for his or her UC Davis ladies’s basketball staff.
Their youngsters, Josh (13) and Amelia (9), hop from participant to participant, chatting with every one, watching no matter sport is on the tv and immersing themselves within the staff.
“That’s our children’ favourite night time,” Gross mentioned.
However the children are extra absorbed in this system than simply these dinners that occur periodically. Gross simply concluded her thirteenth season as the pinnacle coach of the Aggies, and her husband, Teramoto, has been her on her workers each step of the best way and at present serves as affiliate head coach.
“We actually tried to construct a household environment,” Gross mentioned. “It type of begins with us. Our youngsters are concerned in this system. Our workers is like our household. So, in that sense, it actually enhances our program.”
The calls for of teaching, nonetheless, supplied a novel problem for the duo.
“We all the time should be in the identical place on the identical time,” Gross mentioned. “It’s getting a bit simpler with the youngsters getting a bit older, however particularly when the youngsters have been youthful, we have been all the time having to seek out assist.”
That must be in the identical place on the identical time served as a catalyst for Gross and Teramoto to grow to be extra than simply colleagues.
The 2 first grew to become acquainted with one another whereas serving as assistant coaches alongside each other on Sandy Simpson’s workers.
They each grew to become Aggie assistant coaches within the mid-2000s as this system was transitioning to Division I. Throughout that point, they poured numerous hours into this system to hit the bottom working towards the excessive stage of competitors. From recruiting gamers worthy of taking part in on the DI stage to studying a model new convention, Gross and Teramoto surrounded their lives with the UC Davis program.
However their lives grew to become much more intertwined after they developed emotions for one another.
“We simply ended up spending a lot time collectively whereas we have been in workplace that issues simply form of went from there,” Teramoto mentioned.
As soon as they began relationship, all of it appeared to click on, and the couple married in 2010.
“It’s humorous as a result of normally you begin relationship somebody, you’re form of slowly studying about them as you undergo your dates,” Gross mentioned. “However for us, we knew one another so properly, and we realized we had a lot in widespread and shared numerous the identical values, it type of naturally simply form of progressed for us.”
As their relationship developed, so did this system. Beneath Gross, the Aggies have made the postseason 5 occasions, together with qualifying for 2 of the final 5 NCAA Tournaments. They’ve reached the WNIT 3 times.
Gross has 237 wins and sits 14 wins behind Simpson for essentially the most in program historical past. However her stamp on this system stretches a long time. She performed at UC Davis within the 90s and is program chief for wins as a participant (101).
“Joe can’t take credit score for the participant wins, however he can undoubtedly take numerous the credit score for the teaching wins,” Gross mentioned. “He was part of each a type of too… That’s the one factor that I actually respect, too, about Joe is he doesn’t want the highlight or the eye. As the pinnacle coach, once we win, I get the reward and the data and all that. However there’s no method that we’ve got the success that we’ve had with out him. He brings a lot to this system, simply basketball data, serving to our gamers develop.”
As Gross enters yr No. 14, she is going to match Simpson because the longest-tenured coach with this system. They’re two of the 4 coaches who’ve coached a number of seasons over the 4 a long time of Aggie basketball.
For Simpson and fellow former coaches Pam Gill-Fisher (12 seasons) and Jorja Hoehn (9 seasons), UC Davis was their last cease earlier than hanging up the whistle for retirement. All of them stay within the space and share within the present iterations of the staff.
“It’s fairly uncommon, I believe, the place you’ll have a program the place the 4 of the coaches from the final 40 years can be in the identical city, sitting round a desk discussing what else must occur for this program to maintain being profitable,” Teramoto mentioned. “It’s totally different at UC Davis than anyplace else.”