April 11, 2011

Joanne Boyle was officially introduced as the University of Virginia's next head women's basketball coach on Monday afternoon. She takes over for Debbie Ryan, who resigned on March 12, and Boyle becomes just the fourth head coach in program history.

The search officially concludes 27 days after Ryan's resignation. Boyle is excited to get started and knew this was the perfect fit for her, but has a great deal of respect for her predecessor.

"No one can replace Hall of Fame coach and Virginia icon Debbie Ryan," said Boyle during her introductory news conference on Monday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena. "For the past 34 years, UVa's women's basketball teams have been nationally competitive because Debbie instilled her own selflessness and unfailing commitment to UVa, her student-athletes and fans. I'm proud to acknowledge Coach Ryan is my mentor, inspiration and dear friend."

The new head coach also reached out to her new fan base, hoping that the Orange and Blue faithful will come out in strong showings at games.

"Our fans' commitment to our program will be vital to its continued success. My staff, student-athletes and I will earn their support, never take it for granted and match their enthusiasm and commitment for UVa."

Boyle told CBS19 prior to the news conference that talks had begun around the Final Four in Indianapolis and that she had some good conversations with Craig Littlepage and others. She was impressed on her visit and accepted the offer.

Boyle comes to Virginia from California, where she spent the last six seasons at the head of the Golden Bears. She led the Golden Bears to the NCAA Tournament in each of her first four seasons, including an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in 2009, when they beat the Cavaliers in the second round. That season, Cal climbed to as high as number three in the national rankings. 2010 saw the Bears win the WNIT and this past season they returned the WNIT, reaching the second round. Boyle was 137-64 in her six seasons at California.

Prior to her six years in Berkeley, Boyle served as the head coach at Richmond from 2002-2005, accumulating a 67-29 record in that span and winning at least 21 games in each season. She led the Spiders to the NCAA Tournament during her final season in 2005 and has advanced to the postseason in all nine of her years of head coaching. Boyle has an overall record of 204-93 in those nine seasons.

Before beginning her head coaching career, Boyle was an assistant coach at her alma mater of Duke for nine seasons. She experienced great success with the Blue Devils, helping guide them to eight postseason appearances, including Final Four appearances in 1999 and 2002. During her playing years at Duke from 1981-1985, Boyle was a four year letterwinner and ended her playing career second in school history in both scoring and assists. After getting her master's degree at North Carolina in 1989, Boyle played professionally for three seasons in Luxembourg and Germany.

Boyle will replace Ryan, who accumulated 739 career victories at the head of the Virginia program, leading the Cavaliers for 34 seasons. This past year, Virginia finished 19-16, advancing to the quarterfinals of the WNIT.

Click on the above video link to view our one-on-one interview with new head coach Joanne Boyle.