Detroit Completes Women's Basketball Staff
Oct. 15, 2004
Detroit women's basketball head coach Mickey Barrett announced today the additions of Chaka Johnson, LaTonya Tate and Julie Pagel to his coaching staff for the 2004-05 campaign. Johnson and Tate have been tabbed as assistant coaches while Pagel will serve as a graduate assistant coach for the Titans.
Most recently the Director of Student-Athlete Development at UDM, Johnson has switched over to the women's basketball staff and will be instrumental in all aspects of the Titan program. Prior to his tenure at Detroit, Johnson, a native of the Motor City, worked for two seasons (2000-01) as a graduate assistant for the University of Minnesota football team under head coach Glen Mason. While at Minnesota, he completed work on his master?s degree in athletic administration in 2001. He also gained valuable coaching experience for two seasons each at Detroit Southwestern and University of Detroit Jesuit High Schools. Johnson played running back at the University of Kansas (1988-93) and earned his bachelor's degree in communications from KU in 1993.
It's good to have a young man of Chaka's quality, being from the City of Detroit he is going to be able help us a great deal in making inroads into recruiting kids from the city, Barrett expressed. He is a quality young man with high morals and standards and definitely will be able to share his upper level of playing experiences with our young ladies.
Another home-grown product of the city of Detroit is Tate, a 1988 graduate of Cass Tech High School, where she earned first team all-state accolades while finishing runner-up for Miss Basketball in the state of Michigan. She then went on to a successful playing career at the University of Iowa where she starred from 1988-1992 under Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductee C. Vivian Stringer. While in Iowa City, she was a member of Hawkeye squads that captured three Big Ten titles and made four NCAA appearances. Tate began her coaching career as a part-time assistant coach at Kansas State before moving on to stops at Syracuse, Detroit (1996-98) and Illinois-Chicago (1998-2001). At UIC, she served as the Flames' top assistant under then head coach Tim Eatman. Following her stint in Chicago, she returned to Detroit and most recently served as the Recreation Instructor at the Adam Butzel Recreation Center.
We are extremely happy to have LaTonya complete our staff, Barrett commented. She brings experience and a passion for working with young people as well as a strong knowledge of the game of basketball. As a former point guard, she will be able to mentor our players by sharing the knowledge necessary to improve their abilities and intelligence of the game.
A 2004 graduate of Michigan State, Pagel concluded her four-year Spartan career as one of only three players in school history to rank in the top 20 in career points (952) and top 10 in career rebounds (667) and steals (185). Starring at Utica High School, she earned first team All-State accolades en route to claiming a Class A State Championship in 1999 while playing with current Titan Lindsey Pasquinzo and former Detroit player Lori Wild.
We are excited to have a young woman join our staff with the passion and enthusiasm of Julie, said Barrett. She will assist the program in many areas but her primary duty will be to mentor the players as well as sharing her experience during individual meetings. Julie brings an unusual maturity for the game at such a young age. Being high school teammates with one of our current players will help Julie as well as our student-athletes in developing great relationships.
The Titans will commence their 2004-05 campaign on November 21 when the Red, White and Blue tangle with the University of Cincinnati.
