BOWLING GREEN — For Bowling Green State University women's basketball coach Fred Chmiel, Tuesday night's game against No. 1 South Carolina was like a family reunion in front of 4,195 of his closest friends.
The former South Carolina assistant coach welcomed his friend and mentor Dawn Staley and many Gamecocks players he helped recruit to a raucous Stroh Center for a contest that saw the largest crowd ever at the arena for a Bowling Green women's basketball game.
He knew firsthand how hard this test would be for his team and after a 93-62 defeat remained positive about the impact the game would have on his program and the fans in attendance.
“It's like seeing relatives that you haven't seen in years,” Chmiel said. “It's a little bittersweet because you used to see them every single day. But it's about your journey and it's about coming to the great state of Ohio and about the experience for me of becoming a head coach and moving into that next seat. I'm still growing, but it all started with coach Staley who gave me a shot in Division I women's basketball.”
Staley and Chmiel immediately embraced when they saw each other on the court in pregame.
“It's great to see Fred,” Staley said. “Fred is a great guy. He's a smart coach, disciplined, high-energy, and he's going to do really well here. It's a community that will embrace him and he's going to embrace the community as he probably already has. I know this program is used to winning, and so is he. It's a great combination, and I'm super happy for him. I wanted him to have his own program and to make an impact on young people like he made an impact on me because a lot of people don't know that he coached me in the WNBA.”
If Tuesday night was any indication, the Bowling Green community has already taken a liking to this team. With the top team in the country in town, the crowd at the Stroh Center was the second-largest to witness a Bowling Green home women's basketball game behind only the 1993 NCAA tournament game against the University of Florida that was played at Anderson Arena (4,408 fans).
“It's big for women's basketball, and it's big for the Stroh,” Bowling Green senior Morgan Sharps said. “We had a great crowd out there, and I think that only makes people want to watch women's basketball and our team even more.”
Chmiel hopes the home fans came away impressed with the tenacity and fight of his team against an opponent that overwhelmed them at times with their size advantage at every position on the court and their overall athleticism.
“This was a great platform for women's basketball, and I'm sure whoever watched this game appreciated both teams,” Chmiel said. “If you're a fan and you see how hard those young women work, you appreciate that. That's a commodity that you get a great feeling from. I do think we are building a fan base and extending that a little bit. I think people appreciate how hard we play and our character. They are not talking trash, and they are not taking cheap shots. They just play hard, and that's something that people can get behind no matter what.”
Staley said the crowd at the Stroh Center is smaller than her team is used to seeing for home games at Colonial Life Arena, which can seat up to 18,000 fans, but it was a charged environment with different challenges that will only help the Gamecocks improve.
“I know this place is electric, and I'm happy to see the community support this team,” Staley said. “I know some of it was due to us coming here, but I've been here before, as well. It's a loud place to play. It's a place that is super supportive, and if you continue to pour into the team the team will definitely bring more championships like they have.”
The atmosphere stayed consistent throughout the whole game, even as Bowling Green fell behind by as many as 40 points in the fourth quarter.
“I want to thank our incredible fan base, and even when we are down 30 points this fan base kept on cheering and they were still engaged and they saw it all the way through to the end,” Chmiel said. “They are basketball savants. They know what good basketball looks like. They know what great effort looks like. I just think our kids bring that out of the fan base. It's hard not to cheer for someone who is diving on the floor who is 5-foot-6 against 6-foot-7. That's easy to cheer for. It's easy to get behind.”
First Published December 20, 2023, 4:46 a.m.
