When the Rainbow Wahine basketball team returns to the court, a young group of post players will be led by a new voice on the Hawaii coaching staff.
Sybil Dosty, a center at Tennessee and Arizona State during her playing career, will take a leading role in rebuilding the Wahine post rotation as the latest addition to head coach Laura Beeman’s staff.
Dosty spent last season as an assistant at Seattle University and previously served as a graduate assistant at Arizona State. UH announced her hiring on Thursday.
Dosty will work primarily with a post group without a returnee off of last season’s 21-11 team. Four of UH’s seven incoming freshmen will be interior players.
“She’s got a great pedigree and just very excited about what she’s going to bring to the table with her disposition and her experience,” Beeman said. “We have so many new faces coming in, she’s going to have her hands full developing those kids both on and off the court. But I have all the confidence in the world she’s going to do a great job.”
Dosty replaces Dekita Williams, who spent the past three seasons at UH. Beeman said Williams returned to the mainland “to explore new opportunities.”
“Very, very bittersweet. Absolutely love Dekita, she’s family,” Beeman said. “So it was hard to see her go, but I definitely understand why she needs to get back to the mainland.”
Beeman said Dosty will move to Hawaii in mid-June and joins associate coach Mary Wooley and assistant Alex Delanian on the coaching staff. Delanian worked with the posts the past two seasons and will shift his focus to the guards.
Dosty played two years at Tennessee under Pat Summitt before transferring to Arizona State. As a senior in the 2008-09 season, the 6-foot-3 center led the Sun Devils in shooting percentage (55.4), rebounding (6.7 per game) and blocked shots (48) while helping ASU reach the elite eight. She was named the Pac-10 women’s basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and posted a 4.05 grade-point average.
Beeman said Dosty came highly recommended by Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne and Joan Bonvicini, the longtime Arizona and Long Beach State coach who spent the past seven seasons at Seattle.
But she said the deciding vote came from the players.
“They’re my final say when it comes to recruiting and my final say when it comes to coaches,” Beeman said. “And they absolutely gave her two thumbs up across the board.”