Coach Faith Mimnaugh ends 25-year run leading Cal Poly women’s basketball
Cal Poly’s longtime women’s basketball coach Faith Mimnaugh is retiring after a quarter century on the job.
Mimnaugh, the winningest coach in Cal Poly women’s basketball history, announced her retirement Wednesday after 25 seasons leading the Mustangs, according to a university news release.
Mimnaugh, 59, is a two-time Big West Coach of the Year and led Cal Poly to back-to-back Big West regular season championships in 2011 and 2012.
She guided Cal Poly to a Big West Tournament title in 2013 to take the program to its first NCAA Tournament.
Hired in 1997, she ends her Cal Poly coaching career with 338 wins, the most in program history and second most in Big West history, according to Cal Poly officials.
“It has been a labor of love,” Mimnaugh said. “I absolutely love the university and women that I’ve been able to work with shoulder to shoulder with both the staff and players. It’s really a remarkable place, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity and the people that were willing to take a chance you we were not in a winning program. Every recruit has to see the vision that you’re trying to create and believe in it and work their tails off to accomplish it.”
Mimnaugh added: “I’ve been so fortunate that I’ve had so many athletes and parents of athletes that see what we’re doing and how we’re trying to do it the right way and have been so supportive.”
A national search for her successor will begin immediately. Mimnaugh earned a salary of about $173,000 in 2020, according to a Tribune salary database based on records requests.
On Tuesday, the Mustangs fell 70-64 to Cal State Fullerton in a first-round Big West Tournament game Tuesday, ending the season with a 3-22 record (2-13 Big West).
The Mustangs have faced a challenging past couple of years with COVID-19 disruptions through 2020-21 and the loss of two of their key players this season in Abbey Ellis, who transferred to Purdue to start her junior season, and Sierra Campisano, who graduated.
In 2020-21, Campisano led Cal Poly with 15.8 points per game and 8.7 rebounds and Ellis averaged 15.3 points, shooting 36.2% from behind the arc, as the Mustangs finished 13-11 (8-8). Maddie Vick was Cal Poly’s leading scorer this year, averaging 10.2 points per game.
“COVID has impacted us, both the day-to-day operations and also recruiting,” Mimnaugh said. “There was a year and a half that we couldn’t go out at all. And the poor kids, they had seasons canceled, summers canceled.”
Mimnaugh said she contemplated another year at Cal Poly, but “I just felt like it was time to get some new perspective.”
“It’s obviously difficult because the relationships are the most important thing to me, so leaving behind all the kids that I love and staff and the community, it’s hard, but I feel like it’s time,” Mimnaugh said.
Impacting lives
Mimnaugh’s career will be marked by the impact she’s made on the lives of student-athletes, Director of Athletics Don Oberhelman said in the release.
“Hundreds of young women have come through this basketball program in her 25 years as our head coach, and she has made a huge difference in the lives of each and every one of them,” Oberhelman said. “Simply, Faith Mimnaugh makes great Mustangs.”
Oberhelman added: “Faith has been an amazing servant to this university and her student-athletes. Her impact will be felt for a very long time.”
Several players went on to successful pro basketball careers overseas after playing under Mimnaugh.
“She also had had three players who were named Big West Player of the Year, including current Cal Poly assistant coach Kristina Santiago twice (she also earned AP All-American honorable mention),” the release noted. “In addition, under Mimnaugh, Mustang players won the Big West Best Hustle Award nine times and one Best Sixth Player award.”
Santiago was fifth in the country in scoring at 23.4 points per game while becoming Cal Poly’s all-time leading scorer (1,953) and rebounder (851).
Of Cal Poly’s “top-10 leading career scorers of all time, Mimnaugh coached seven of them and 21 of the top 30,” according to Cal Poly.
In 2012, Jonae Ervin became the NCAA record-holder by leading the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio, at 2.67.
Mimnaugh took her teams to three WNIT tournament appearances.
“Off the court, Mimnaugh’s players earned All-Academic honors from the conference 66 times, while Cal Poly women’s basketball achieved 100 percent graduation rates in both 2017 and 2018,” the news release noted.
A basketball life
Mimnaugh said that though recruiting often takes place at spring and summer competitions, it also took her on the road some days during the season, where she had to travel four hours north or south after a morning practice in SLO.
“There have been plenty of times when I practice in the morning, leave practice, drive for four hours, watch the game, get back in my car, drive back, sleep on the road in my car at night and get back on the road,” Mimnaugh said. “I have not done that in the last couple of years due to COVID impacts.”
It was always nice when she was able to recruit local players, such as Santiago, who attended Santa Maria’s Righetti High, and Hannah Gilbert, a Morro Bay High grad, who were joys to coach, Mimnaugh said.
The 2013 Big West tournament title remains a fond memory, and she recalled a surreal experience as the clock wound down.
“The Big West championship to get to the NCAA tournament was just a dream come true,” Mimnaugh said. “And as the game was winding down, and it actually became reality, because there it was touch and go there (due to an injury to starting point guard Kayla Griffin early in the game), I visualized all the athletes that had come before this group that had sacrificed and put so much time into building the program. I could just see them visually jumping up and down.”
As for her strategy as a coach, Mimnaugh said “she’s more a teacher than a screamer.”
“If it took that tack to try to wake them up, that usually backfired on me,” Mimnaugh said. “With my championship-caliber teams, I never yelled at them, but I pushed them physically. I wanted to make sure that they were ready to go and they could handle it.”
Looking back
Prior to Cal Poly, Mimnaugh served in assistant coaching roles at University of Evansville and North Carolina State.
Mimnaugh played at Loyola Chicago from 1981-85 and still is the Ramblers’ career assists leader with 1,000, Cal Poly officials said.
She also holds Loyola records for most single-season assists (316), single-season assists average (11.6), and career assists average (9.01).
Mimnaugh was inducted into the Loyola Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2007.
Mimnaugh credited past Cal Poly athletic directors John McCutcheon “for believing in me” and Alison Cone “for helping improve our budget,” and Oberhelman “for being the best boss” along with former President Warren Baker and current President Jeffrey Armstrong for their leadership.
Mimnaugh plans to travel, illustrate a story in coordination with her twin sister who’s a writer, and enjoy life in retirement, which she said is “open-ended.”
“I have so much gratitude for the entire community,” she said in a statement. “Thank you so much for the opportunity to lead with love.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Coach Faith Mimnaugh ends 25-year run leading Cal Poly women’s basketball."
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