Fresh from off their most successful regular season in program history, it’s hard to remember a time when the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team struggled competing in the OUA East. That change started with the arrival of head coach Taffe Charles.
For the eight years before Charles’ arrival, the Ravens had posted just under a 40 per cent win record and had been outscored all but one of those seasons.
Charles, who was hired in May 2007, oversaw a complete overhaul of the program.
“Our whole attitude towards the program had to change,” Charles said. “We had to demand a winning attitude.”
Charles spent his entire university career playing for the Ravens, where he clocked 2,437 points in the space of five years, good enough for a third-place ranking in Carleton’s basketball history.
Charles said the Ravens team he played on wasn’t the greatest. But the experience gave him a desire to develop a successful basketball program at his alma mater.
“I honestly believe that if you’re not doing it to win the national championship, why are you doing it?” Charles said.
After a rocky first season at the helm, the Ravens posted their first winning season in eight years, and made it to the quarterfinals in the OUA playoffs. This year, the Ravens finished in first place in the OUA East and achieved a record fourth place spot in the national rankings.
“He is a Carleton alumni and had a lot of success as a student athlete so he understands what it’s like to be a student and an athlete,” Jennifer Brenning, director of recreation and athletics, said of Charles’ success.
But it nearly didn’t happen. Charles considered retiring after experiencing success with the men’s team in 2003.
“I was an assistant coach, working at a computer corporation and I was about to have a kid. It was going to be my last year,” Charles said.
Charles had applied for the position in 2003, and said he didn’t feel ready for the demands of the job. After an additional four years under the mentorship of men’s head coach Dave Smart, Charles said he decided he was ready.
Having seen Smart rebuild the men’s program and mould them into a dynamic force, Charles came in with the same plan.
“If you work hard and have a reasonable amount of skill level, or talent level or just want it more than anyone else, then you can achieve great things,” Charles said, acknowledging that success rests on the players’ shoulders.
And the players have not let him down with their performances this year. Guard Alyson Bush was named to the OUA East All-Star second team for the second year running as the Ravens made it to their first-ever OUA final.
The Ravens also recorded an impressive record of only four losses throughout the regular season.