PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Head coach C. Vivian Stringer has finalized changes and additions to the Rutgers women's basketball coaching and support staff ahead of the 2019-20 season.
Tim Eatman has been promoted to Associate Head Coach, Michelle Edwards returns to the role of Assistant Coach, Betsy Yonkman takes over as the Director of Program Administration, Operations and Scouting, Brian Shank moves into the role of Director of Video/Assistant Director of Basketball Operations, Will Abrams has been promoted to Director of Player Development, and Geoffrey Lanier has been hired as Recruiting Coordinator.
Nadine Domond enters her fourth season on the Rutgers sidelines as an assistant coach.
Eatman, a veteran coach and renowned recruiter with over 20 years of experience, enters his fifth season on the Rutgers women's basketball staff. Notably, Eatman joins Carlene Mitchell and Jolette Law as associate head coaches under Coach Stringer.
During the 2018-19 season, Eatman stepped into the role of acting head coach for the final six games of the year helping the Scarlet Knights to their highest ever Big Ten finish (third), as well as its first-ever Big Ten Tournament semifinal appearance. Under his guidance, Rutgers returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2019.
Eatman has had prior head coaching experience at University of Illinois at Chicago and his alma mater, Talladega College, and prior to arriving "On The Banks" served as the recruiting coordinator at Rhode Island. He was reunited with Coach C. Vivian Stringer at Rutgers, having served with the hall of fame coach during her final season at Iowa in 1994-95, putting together the nation's top ranked recruiting class.
Over the course of his career, Eatman has played a major role in bringing in 11 top 30 recruiting classes and was recognized by Lindy's Magazine as the nation's top recruiter while he was at Iowa in 1994. Additionally, six of his former players have gone on to play at the next level in the WNBA and 13 have joined the coaching ranks.
Edwards, a Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, national player of the year, international all-star and WNBA franchise player, will return to the Scarlet Knight sidelines in a coaching capacity in her 17th season with the program. Joining Stringer's staff in 2003 as coordinator of operations, Edwards spent the 2004-05 season as an assistant coach, before moving into an operations role. More recently, Edwards was elevated to Assistant Athletic Director for Women's Basketball Operations in 2018.
Edwards played for Stringer at the University of Iowa from 1984-88 helping to pilot the Hawkeyes to back-to-back regional final appearances in 1987 and 1988 and a No. 1 national ranking. "Ice", as she was nicknamed for her ability to hit clutch shots, was named Big Ten Player of the Year, a Kodak, Naismith and USBWA All-American and the Champion National Player of the Year as a senior. Additionally, she was selected as one of Iowa's "Top 50 Athletes of the Century" and the Big Ten Conference Athlete of the Decade in 1989. Edwards was the first female Hawkeye to have her jersey retired and was inducted into the Iowa Hall of Fame in 2000. Her named is still found in the Hawkeye record books with 1,821 points (sixth), 431 assists (third) and 235 steals (fourth).
Internationally, Edwards won a bronze medal at the 1991 Pan-American Games under Stringer's tutelage and played professionally in Italy from 1988-97. While overseas, she earned three Italian League All-Star Game MVP awards.
Returning stateside when the WNBA was formed, Edwards was the second allocation from the original group of 16 "franchise" players and played a total of five seasons (1997-2001) for the Cleveland Rockers and Seattle Storm.
Edwards graduated from Iowa with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts in 1989 and earned her master's degree in Labor Studies from Rutgers in 2016. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee in 2014.
Yonkman enters her 19th season and ninth straight as a member of Rutgers women's basketball staff. Previously she served an assistant coach from 1995 -2001, which included the Scarlet Knights' first Final Four appearance, and has been the assistant to the head coach since 2007. Yonkman also held an interim role as assistant coach in 2015 as RU played in its first season in the Big Ten and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to returning to Rutgers, Yonkman was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of San Francisco and was the associate head coach at Missouri for four seasons. In addition to coaching four future WNBA draft choices, she helped lead the Tigers to three consecutive postseason appearances, capped by an NCAA berth in 2004.
Yonkman first arrived at Rutgers in Stringer's first season "On the Banks" in 1995. She held the roles of assistant coach and recruiting coordinator with RU compiling a 124-64 record during her tenure. The Scarlet Knights advanced to four consecutive NCAA berths, including the Sweet Sixteen in 1998, Elite Eight in 1999 and the Final Four in 2000.
Yonkman began her coaching career at Eastern Michigan and her alma mater Central Michigan.
A four-year letterwinner at CMU, Yonkman was a team captain and led the Chippewas to a pair of MAC Championships (1984, 1985), MAC Tournament titles and NCAA berths (1983, 1984). She was a two-time All-Mid-American Conference First Team selection and one of only three players in CMU history to earn all-league honors more than once. Yonkman was inducted into the Central Michigan Athletic Hall of Fame and was selected as one of the Top-35 athletes ever to compete - in all sports - played in Rose Arena at CMU.
A 1986 graduate of Central Michigan with a degree in education, Yonkman received a masters from Eastern Michigan in 1990.and MBA from Rutgers in 2016.
Shank begins his fourth season with Rutgers and expands his service in video, operations, recruiting and scouting within the program's administration.
Outside his duties with the Scarlet Knights, Shank most recently worked with USA Basketball in May 2019 with the U19 and Pan American women's national team tryouts. He previously spent a week with USA Basketball at its Colorado Springs Training Center for the U23 National Team tryouts and training camp in 2017.
Lanier, a women's basketball coaching veteran, has spent time as an assistant and recruiting coordinator with teams in the Big Ten, Atlantic Coast and Mid-American Conferences.
Lanier joins the Scarlet Knights after spending the 2018-19 campaign as an assistant coach at Penn State where he directed all domestic and international recruiting efforts in addition to developing the Lady Lions combo guards and wings. His efforts helped Penn State land the No. 18 recruiting class in the nation as ranked by ESPNW HoopGurlz during the November 2018 signing period.
Abrams enters his second full season at Rutgers having originally joined the staff as a recruiting assistant in January 2017 with responsibilities for organizing all aspects of recruiting, including official and unofficial visits.
Prior to arriving at RU, Abrams spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Felician University's men's basketball program and two years as an assistant coach with the men's team at his alma mater Utica College. While at Utica he assisted with the team's day-to-day operations, scouting, recruiting, as well a game day and practice preparation. Abrams was responsible for recruiting the Empire 8's Defensive Player of the Year and three of his Pioneer recruits landed in the all-time record book.
As a student-athlete at Utica, Abrams was a two-year captain and competed in 95 games averaging 12.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists as a senior. He finished his career with 681 points and 270 rebounds ranking eighth all-time in Pioneer history in 3-point field goals made.
