PORT ANGELES – Peninsula College’s Alison Crumb has been named Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year.
Crumb, a Port Angeles native, guided the Pirates to an NWAC championship in March, the first women’s basketball title in school history.
“I guess I’m just really honored to be given this award, considering how many great coaches and programs there are in the NWAC,” Crumb said.
“I have a lot of respect for those I’ve competed against over the years, and to be honored amongst that group is a pretty humbling experience.
“Some of these coaches have been successful in this league for a long time, and that is what I have strived to do here at Peninsula. I definitely think I have a ways to go, but I am still very appreciative of this award.
“Most of all I want to thank my staff, the administration, and the team. It’s a collaborative effort to be successful so I share this with them.”
Peninsula College athletic director Rick Ross said Crumb is deserving of the award.
“Ali has worked very hard for [six] years to build her program and I’m thrilled that her fellow coaches in the NWAC voted to recognize her growth and her success,” Ross said.
The Pirates went 13-1 in North Division play to capture the program’s second West Division championship in school history, the first coming in 2005 when Crumb, a Port Angeles High School graduate, started at point guard for the Pirates.
This year’s team went 23-5 overall, including four straight wins at the 2015 NWAC tournament at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.
The Pirates were ranked fourth in the Final Alaska Airlines NWAC Coaches Poll, but they upset top-ranked Umpqua in the semifinals and then defeated sixth-ranked Lane, a team that beat the Pirates twice earlier in the season, in the championship game.
“They were the Cinderella story of the tournament,” Ross said.
“They were a crowd favorite. They were the most improved team, and they were playing lights out.
“That’s a testament to the kind of players Ali and her staff recruited: players with heart, and players with vision, and players who simply worked harder and played harder than their opponents.
“It’s also a testament to the coaching job Ali, and her staff put together.”
The women’s coaching staff includes Danika (Goodwin) Johnson, another Port Angeles graduate who played for Crumb at Peninsula in 2010-11, and Mike Knowles, who retired from the women’s basketball head coaching position at Port Angeles High School following a successful career that included coaching both Crumb and Johnson.
Crumb is the fourth Peninsula head coach to win the NWAC Coach of the Year Award.
Andrew Chapman won that honor in men’s soccer in 2007, 2010 and 2012, Kanyon Anderson was named Women’s Soccer Coach of the Year in 2011 and Lance VonVogt was the Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year Award, also in 2011.