Family Values, Early Coaching Lessons Greatly Influenced USF Women’s Basketball Coach Jose Fernandez
Jose Fernandez has led the University of South Florida women's basketball program to 11 seasons of ... [+]
University of South Florida AthleticsJose Fernandez does not have to look beyond a family photo to see his heroes. In fact, he can call one of them, which he frequently does. He keeps his mother, Julia, who lives in Colorado, up to date on goings in his life and his family’s life.
It was Julia’s late parents who provided her son with much inspiration. Actually, they still do. They arrived in Miami from Cuba decades ago and built new lives, as well as a heck of a sporting goods business, from the ground up.
“I think this is an unbelievable country that gives so many people opportunities if you work and take advantage of those opportunities,” said Fernandez, whose father is no longer with us. “My grandparents and my parents came here and did not have anything.”
Yet, they provided plenty.
The University of South Florida women’s basketball coach did not have much when he was starting out in the profession. What he had was his grandparents’ work ethic and his parents’ dedication, which came in handy when a young Fernandez was making the steep climb up the basketball coaching ladder.
Six years of traversing interstates and back roads to get from one basketball camp to another while tossing aside enough empty cups and pizza boxes to fill a recycle depot made for a messy travelogue.
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“I would get in the car the last week in May and I would not return to Miami until the last week in August,” said Fernandez, who crossed paths with current USF men’s basketball coach Brian Gregory at a camp at Michigan State. “I would come back and probably have four speeding tickets and not a dime in my pocket.”
While his wallet was light on greenbacks and heavy on traffic violations, Fernandez’s dedication to the sport was unwavering. How else could he have put together a career that has resulted in more than 400 wins in three decades of coaching, the last 23 at USF?
Oh, maybe it is not hard work after all. If things were so laborious, then perhaps Fernandez would be sitting back and enjoying his favorite red wine – he knows his reds – instead of preparing for the next practice, the next game.
“I am going to do this until I wake up in the morning and it becomes more of a job instead of enjoying it,” he said, while seated courtside at the Bulls’ homecourt, the Yuengling Center, following a practice last week. “Right now, after a game, I go home and have the same routine. I watch the game twice. I watch it and then I watch every possession.”
If he so desires, the 51-year-old Fernandez, husband to Tonya and father of a starting lineup of young ladies – Sydnie, Alex, Taylor, Brianna and Brooke — has many years remaining as the face of the Bulls.
He has been and continues to be a coach, teacher, mentor and friend to student-athletes who become part of a program that has flourished on and off the court since he was elevated from assistant and recruiting coordinator to the top job in November 2000. Not that Fernandez was thinking long term when he arrived at USF to join a team that had sub-.500 marks in nine of the previous 11 seasons.
“What I was thinking at the time was sign a good class, win some games, turn it around and probably move on and get another job,” said Fernandez, whose brother, Alex, founded a golf academy in Key Biscayne, Fla. “Circumstances came about that were out of my control and I found myself with a great opportunity at a Division-I program that didn’t have a lot of tradition.”
It does now. When Fernandez arrived in Tampa, the Bulls played free of charge in a recreation facility adjacent to the 10,000-seat Yuengling Center. Courtside seats? Well, maybe if the bleachers were pulled out all the way.
More than two decades later, the program boasts eight NCAA appearances, 11 seasons of 20-plus wins and 36 all-conference selections. He heads into Tuesday night’s game against visiting East Carolina needing two wins to bypass Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma (118) for most victories in American Athletic Conference play. (The Huskies left the AAC for a revamped Big East following the 2019-20 season).
Indeed, there are visual reminders of the Bulls’ success on Fernandez’s watch that hang proudly in the arena. It is what fans do not see, though, that the coach is most proud of.
“That’s the biggest thing to me,” he said, when asked about the post-graduation success former Bulls have achieved. “You know what, they came here and they appreciated how much we cared about them. I think the life lessons that we taught and the accountability and the friendships that you develop, then moving on, whether they continue to be successful as basketball players overseas or in the WNBA. I think that is the most rewarding thing. That’s what you do it for. It’s special to follow them professionally and personally.”
Courtney Williams has experienced much success as a professional basketball player in the WNBA and, more recently, with Athletes Unlimited. The second all-time leading scorer (2,304 points) in USF history cherishes the memories of not only her time playing for Fernandez, but what he means to her today, seven years after her final college game.
“The bond I have with coach Fernandez, knowing he is somebody that is always going to have my back, checking in on me and letting me know, ‘Hey, Court, whenever you can make it down (to Tampa), just give me a call. We love to hang out with you, take you out to dinner,’” she said from her home in Connecticut. “It is a great bond. That’s him. He’s always there for me.”
TAMPA, FL - South Florida Bulls head coach Jose Fernandez talks to South Florida Bulls guard Elisa ... [+]
Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesFernandez, who played high school hoops in Miami and earned a bachelor’s in physical education from FIU, got his first taste of the coaching profession as a teenage student assistant with the men’s team at Miami-Dade Community College’s (now Miami-Dade College) Kendall campus in 1989. Over the next decade Fernandez was a men’s and women’s assistant and head coach at the collegiate, high school and AAU levels. He arrived at USF after serving as a women’s assistant at Division-II Barry University in Miami Shores.
It was at Miami-Dade where a key figure entered a young Fernandez’s life. Cesar Odio was the head coach at the college, and he later brought Fernandez on board as an assistant with the men's program at Barry. Odio, who won 266 games in 17 seasons at Barry, passed away in 2016 at the way-too-young age of 58.
“I looked up to him, just the way he dealt with people and cared about people,” he said.
It is that level of care with which Fernandez has gone about his craft. It still resonates with Andrea Smith 10 years after she played her final season at USF. Smith, who played two seasons with the Bulls after transferring from a community college, recalls how Fernandez supported her when she missed the entire 2011-12 season after tearing an ACL and both meniscus.
“When I went down with the injury, I really needed somebody in my corner,” said Smith, who for the last three years has served as a police officer in her hometown of Lakeland, about 40 miles east of Tampa. “Coach was one of those people. He never once pressured me to get back on the court or told me how much the team needed me back as quickly as possible. He let me know that whenever I felt I was 100 percent and ready to go is when I would return. He made sure I did not miss rehab appointments, that I got to and from places I needed to get to. He always checked up on me.”
Sure, the game matters. It is also people like Williams and Smith, who averaged 16.4 points in her two seasons with the Bulls, that keep Fernandez going, that make each day something to cherish.
“I am still enjoying it and I am still very driven with what I am doing every day,” he said. “It’s been a great run. Hopefully, we will accomplish much more.”
Raise a glass of red to that.
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