JO KADLECEK pays tribute to her friend, Cori Close, coach of last weekend’s victorious UCLA women’s basketball team in the US…

Sydney, Australia

It was a brutal Good Friday for Coach Cori Close. Her women’s basketball team was getting thrashed around in a national semi-final game, so much so that it looked more like “a rugby match”, she’d say later. Elbows flew, shoulders shoved. Baskets were denied. And my husband and I felt every bit of it as we watched the game on ESPN.

But Easter was coming.


Coach Cori Close addresses the UCLA women’s basketball team during the Easter Sunday game. PICTURE: Valerie Gin/The WEST project

Cori gathered her players at halftime, ahead by only three points, and calmly reminded them what they’d been preparing for all season. They nodded. They knew what to do, and as a result, they went on to endure the toughness of their opponents, earning their place for the championship game of what’s known in the US as the March Madness tournament. It would be an Easter Sunday match up – played before thousands of fans and television audiences – that neither Cori nor her players would ever forget.


Jo Kadlecek and Cori Close in Australia in 2016. PICTURE: Courtesy of Jo Kadlecek

 

“She and I were both coaching university teams when we met, but it was obvious she was more wired for the role than I ever would be. She knew how to ask the right questions of players, motivating them to do their best, helping them hone their skills while also caring deeply for who they were as human beings. She saw it as a calling, and always was kind but competitive, generous but humble. She wanted to learn, ever ready with notebook in hand and genuine curiosity on display. I liked her. It’s hard not to.”

We wouldn’t either. We knew only a fraction of what it took to get there but couldn’t help but cheer at the final score: University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) 79, University of South Carolina 51. From our comfy couches on the other side of the world, we were ecstatic and exhausted, as if we’d played with the team.

But that’s how Cori’s been since I met her 30 years ago: she makes people feel they actually are a part of the team. Even if they live in Australia. She wants to share her life with others so she can love theirs.

She and I were both coaching university teams when we met, but it was obvious she was more wired for the role than I ever would be. She knew how to ask the right questions of players, motivating them to do their best, helping them hone their skills while also caring deeply for who they were as human beings. She saw it as a calling, and always was kind but competitive, generous but humble. She wanted to learn, ever ready with notebook in hand and genuine curiosity on display. I liked her. It’s hard not to.

Now a veteran head coach at UCLA where she’s been for 15 years, Cori still sees her role as a calling and an opportunity to serve, wanting to help shape the hearts and character of her players as much as their athletic talents.

Which is why on 5th April 2026, that vision paid off: Cori led her team to the number one title in the nation. They’d become the new NCAA National Champions. The best of the best, winning the coveted championship trophy for the first time in UCLA women’s history.

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True, when UCLA entered the national tournament, they had already proven themselves champions with a near perfect season, winning 31 of 32 games. With over 1,500 universities and colleges across the US building competitive women’s basketball programs, Cori knew from the start that she’d need to find her own style and approach to coaching that would distinguish hers from the others. She didn’t want to be a “screaming coach” who motivated by fear, but one who worked toward elite skills with kindness, caring as much for excellence in their craft as their hearts.

Even when Cori brought her team to Australia in 2016, for instance, she told me about how important it was to care well for her players, to give them experiences they might not have otherwise. We met them on the Gold Coast to cheer them as they played against local teams. Then, true to her mission to serve, they raced off to host basketball clinics for underprivileged children. She wanted to introduce her team to other cultures, showing them life beyond Los Angeles so their dreams would grow. Even in the midst of that whirlwind trip around Australia, she managed to make time for us, so we could be a part of their team.


The scoreboard at the Easter Sunday game. PICTURE: Valerie Gin/The WEST project

It was one of many such opportunities Cori still includes to build camaraderie into the program, using travel and community service to reflect a holistic approach to building teamwork. It’s also how Cori lives her life, creating opportunities for others, a direct result of her desire to reflect what she says Jesus has done for her.

In fact, when asked by a reporter on national television how it felt to win on Easter Sunday, Close, with her mother by her side, didn’t hesitate: “It is immeasurably more than all that I could ask or imagine. It’s meaningful because of the people I’ve gotten to share it with. It’s all about the heart. It would be shallow without the amazing village and the incredible people that have poured into me my whole life.”

Those who know her even a bit recognise that it wasn’t the #1 status or trophy Cori was ultimately after for her team, though she was happy to win. Instead, she’d told her team all year that they would not be defined by a trophy but by how much they’d grown as people, how they sacrificed for each other and how they served those around them.

Countless times she’d repeat the UCLA philosophy to reporters and players alike: “Banners hang in gyms and rings collect dust but who they become and who they impact in these four years, they get to keep forever.” And in interview after interview, before and after the championship game, her players repeated how much they loved one another and played for one another, which was why they kept winning.

Such a sense of mission didn’t just form in a vacuum though. Cori had been a part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the US (which was how we met), and has long been an active member of her local church all while supporting Christ-centred ministries. She recently formed a consulting organisation called The WEST Project that she co-founded with UCLA alumna and staff chaplain Debbie Haliday. The WEST Project helps build up underprivileged communities by providing leadership training, team clinics and practical care.

“Cori focuses on coaching (the players) hearts,” Haliday said, who now serves as the executive director of the WEST project and consultant with the team. “It’s about loving athletes as people. Sometimes that results in a group that reaches their full potential in such a way that they win a National Championship, as it did this year. Most times it’s a quiet result seen by fewer people. Really, it’s about consistency to the call, the love and life shared which brings the most joy, which is why we need more coaches like Cori.”

Perhaps the greatest impact on Cori came from respected UCLA Coach John Wooden, who mentored her when she first arrived at UCLA. Coach Wooden helped her believe that she could coach in the away she felt led, without the often domineering approach other winning coaches used. “He gave me hope that you didn’t have to compromise caring about people to win at the highest level. This [Easter] championship proves that.”

And so, after the celebrations end and the trophy is in place, I know that Coach Cori Close will remain committed to that hope as she has throughout her career: to care for the hearts and lives of student athletes while pursuing excellence as players and human beings.

“I’m just so grateful. I want to enter their world and serve them and love them in a way that reflects what I’ve received from Jesus. I believe this is my ministry and what God has called me to and I’ll always be grateful for that.”