Just over a month after the greatest season in school history, the women’s basketball team lost their coach.

Cal State East Bay Head Coach Suzy Barcomb chose to go to her hometown area after she accepted an offer from Seattle University to become their new head coach. This comes on the heels of the first ever California Collegiate Athletic Association Conference Championship and NCAA West Regionals appearance for the Pioneers, who finished the season 27-5 overall and 18-2 in conference, also school bests.

“Over the last six years at East Bay I have gained additional knowledge in building a program from the ground up, creating a championship culture and mindset and more importantly challenged myself to grow as a person, coach and mentor,” Barcomb said.
The young women I have had the opportunity to coach at East Bay have been wonderful and the love that I have for them is immense.

The move up to Division I competition will be a challenge for Barcomb who coached in Division III and II previously. The Seattle Redhawks are part of the Western Athletic Conference, which also has New Mexico State, UT Rio Grande Valley, Grand Canyon, Utah Valley, CSU Bakersfield, Missouri-Kansas City and Chicago State. New Mexico won the conference last season and finished 26-5 overall.

Barcomb finished her career at CSUEB 95-80 overall and 71-59 in CCAA games in her six seasons at the helm since she came from Puget Sound, also in Washington. Barcomb is a native to the Pacific Northwest and also played as a walk-on for one season at the University of Washington.

“Walking around the Seattle University’s campus, I just really felt like I was home again,” Barcomb said.

This comes at a rough time for the East Bay roster who lost six seniors, including the school’s all-time leading scorer Tori Breshers. Barcomb will have her hands full with Seattle who finished 9-21 overall and 3-1 in conference games last year. Seattle will return 11 players with only three listed on last season’s squad as seniors. However, the Redhawks also lost Taelor Ross, their leading scorer, to graduation. Seattle only has one returning player who averaged at least 10 points per game last season, freshman guard Tal Shar.