P.C.’s Crumb named NWAC Coach of Year
Published 4:00 am Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Winning the school’s first NWAC women’s basketball championship in school history has its privileges.
Peninsula College’s Alison Crumb, a Port Angeles native, was named Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year last week after leading the Pirates to their first championship.
“I guess I’m just really honored to be given this award considering how many great coaches and programs there are in the NWAC,” Crumb said. “I have a lot of respect for those I’ve competed against over the years and to be honored among that group is a pretty humbling experience. Some of these coaches have been successful in this league for a long time and that is what I have strived to do here at Peninsula.”
Crumb’s 2014-2015 Pirates went 13-1 in North Division play, capturing P.C.’s second West Division championship in school history, the first coming in 2005 when Crumb started at point guard for the Pirates.
Crumb’s 2014-2015 team went 23-5 overall, including four straight wins at the 2015 NWAC Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.
The Pirates were ranked No. 4 in the Final Alaska Airlines NWAC Coaches Poll, upsetting top-ranked Umpqua in the semifinals and topping No. 6-ranked Lane — a team that beat the Pirates twice earlier in the season — in the championship.
“They were the Cinderella story of the tournament,” Rick Ross, P.C. Director of Athletics, said. “They were a crowd favorite. They were the most improved team and they were playing lights out. That’s a testament to the kind of players Ali and her staff recruited, players with heart, and players with vision, and players who simply worked harder and played harder than their opponents. It’s also a testament to the coaching job Ali and her staff put together.”
The women’s coaching staff includes Danika (Goodwin) Johnson, a Port Angeles grad who played for Crumb in 2010-2011, and Mike Knowles, who retired from the women’s basketball head coaching position at Port Angeles High School following a successful career that included coaching both Crumb and Johnson.
Crumb is the fourth Peninsula head coach to win the NWAC Coach of the Year Award. Andrew Chapman won that honor in men’s soccer in 2007, 2010 and 2012, Kanyon Anderson was named women’s soccer Coach of the Year in 2011 and Lance Von Vogt was the men’s basketball Coach of the Year Award, also in 2011.
