Before each game at Young, former Sky guard Linnae Harper recalls getting personalized notes from coach Corry Irvin. A quote and a goal for that night’s game would be on the card. That small gesture had an indelible impact.
The goal would be some rebound, assist or point total.
“She took the time to write a personalized letter to each player, and that was needed,” Harper told the Sun-Times. “It was very motivating.”
Chicago State announced April 10 that Irvin would take over a program in disarray. The Cougars were 1-26 last season and have had one winning season since 2009-10. The program’s record since the 1986-87 season is 227-832.
Righting the ship
Stability has eluded Chicago State since it parted ways with longtime coach Angela Jackson after the 2017-18 season. Jackson had a 132-311 record in 15 seasons. The Cougars have had three coaches since Jackson, and each lasted only two seasons.
The hire brings Irvin back to Chicago, where she was an assistant at DePaul and spent 18 years as a coach at Young. She had a 449-77 record at Young before departing for coaching stints at Saint Xavier University, Illinois and Mississippi State. She helped Mississippi State return to the NCAA Tournament during the 2022-23 season after a three-year absence.
She learned what it took to build and maintain a winning program and was ready to return to Chicago.
During her various stops, the lessons she learned as a coach at Young and as an assistant at DePaul stuck with her.
“She related well with the athletes and was a great teacher,” DePaul coach Doug Bruno told the Sun-Times. “This is a relationship business. You have to make sure you interact well with the student-athletes, and she did those things well.”
Under Bruno, Irvin led the program’s recruiting efforts. The teaching component was instilled in Irvin since her days as a high school player at Larkin. Irvin said she had many teachers who had an immense impact on her because of the time they invested in her, and she originally was going to go into teaching after graduating from Fresno State.
Coaching melded her love of basketball and passion for teaching. Her time at DePaul allowed her to develop as a coach and learn how to create those genuine connections with people.
“Having that opportunity to learn under someone who has so many different skill sets like [Bruno] helped shape my coaching career,” Irvin told the Sun-Times.
Building the right team
Recruiting is more than identifying talent. It’s about recognizing players’ gifts, gauging their fit in a program and selling them on why your program is the best fit. Irvin was critical in Mississippi State signing the 16th-ranked recruiting class in 2023, the second-best class in program history.
So much has changed since Irvin started recruiting at DePaul in 1999. More regulations limit how many times coaches can see players, but connecting with them is still paramount.
Harper remembers meeting Irvin in elementary school at the behest of one of her mentors, E.C. Hill, an alumnus of Young and a former WNBA player. That initial interaction didn’t persuade Harper to enroll at Young, but she’s glad she did.
“It was probably the best decision I ever made,” Harper said.
During her four-year career at Young, Harper went 115-12. She said Irvin knew how to develop close relationships with everyone on the team, regardless of playing time.
Irvin got the buy-in from her team by genuinely caring for the players, which made tasks such as running a mile at 5 a.m. or running the stairs seem harmless.
During Harper’s four years, the school didn’t have a dedicated weight room, just some dumbbells, a few barbells and a bench, but she made do. Irvin was consistent and held players accountable, hallmarks of any good program.
“It wasn’t just basketball,” Harper said. “She made sure we were always educated outside of school. She taught us how to be young women and became an additional bonus mom for me.”
Facing the future
As Irvin embarks on a new challenge at Chicago State, she will need to fuse the lessons she learned during her time in Chicago. As she has settled into her role, Irvin has been analyzing what worked and didn’t work at previous jobs. Establishing standards is one of her main priorities, she said.
Irvin was announced as coach during the NCAA’s transfer portal, giving athletes a 44-day window to leave their programs.
That proved problematic for a program returning only five players from last season’s team, but it was also an opportunity. The transfer portal is a double-edged sword: Teams lose players but can also flip a roster just as quickly. Irvin is calling on the relationships she has cultivated over the years.
“If it weren’t for a lot of the relationships that I built over the years, I’m not even sure that you would have a roster,” Irvin said. “That’s been the biggest part for me right now.”
In the press release announcing Irvin’s hire, Dr. Monique Carroll, vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics at Chicago State, said: “Her extensive experience in Division I basketball coupled with her ties to the city of Chicago make her the ideal candidate to lead our women’s basketball program to new heights.’'
That’s where her love of teaching, relatability and Chicago roots meld together. Irvin said it’s important that her program still recruits high school players as some schools prioritize the transfer portal.
“There aren’t a lot of schools that are still recruiting high school players, to be perfectly honest,” Irvin said. “Being a former high school coach, naturally, I think there’s always going to be a piece of me that wants to recruit high school players because that’s where I spent a lot of my career.’’
Irvin already has extended offers to many players within the Chicago area. Her name and reputation precede her in the area. She’s optimistic about the direction Carroll is taking the program and the support the team is receiving as it transitions to the Northeastern Conference after being independent from 2022 to ’24.
But there’s more work to be done, more prospects to recruit and more obstacles along the way.
Turning a woebegone program into a winner won’t happen overnight, but Irvin is ready to embrace that challenge.
“She is Chicago,” Harper said.
“There’s no better way than to have her at Chicago State, creating a new legacy within the city.”
