Sierra Women's B-Ball Coach on Kevin Ramirez

These women are like night and Day
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, March 10, 2005
Sacramento Bee

Roz Goldenberg is a lot of things in a game-day suit and pumps, and it's never friendly.
Fiery, feisty, ferocious with a bark that would make even the meanest mongrel flee are more apt descriptions for the Sierra College women's basketball coach.

She admits to all of it, but there's a Christina Day factor in the works now. Goldenberg's star pupil has chipped away at that Bobby Knight exterior and exposed Roz the Ruler into something of a postgame Roz the Cuddly Bear of late, though the coach might look over her shoulder to see if anyone is watching.


Goldenberg, about as personable as a sweaty wet sock on game day, even allowed some tears following a playoff win the other night. And upon realizing her Wolverines had advanced to the State Community College Basketball Championships - the two-year college version of the Elite 8 - that starts Friday in San Diego, Goldenberg allowed even more affection.
There were hugs to be had.

"I'm not a huggy kind of coach, but I can't help but relent to Christina Day," Goldenberg said.

Day would be Sierra's sophomore forward from Colfax High School. She is as spiritual and sassy and silly as she is basketball-skilled.

It's not a normal day if Day isn't up to her old tricks: impersonations or getting her coach to laugh. Day has provided comedic relief for a team that needed to have its collective funny bone tickled after a 7-5 start.

Goldenberg, one of the most decorated coaches in the state during her 14-year Sierra run with 330 wins and a 1998-99 state championship, needed something to grin about after a trying winter away from the gym.

Goldenberg and a host of Sierra coaches, faculty and students are still numbed by the news of their popular president, Kevin Ramirez, and the firestorm that swept the Rocklin campus. Ramirez, a regular for all Sierra athletic events, came to a controversial agreement about his retirement with the district board of trustees, though Sierra coaches wonder if he wasn't forced out the door.

"Day has really turned it around for me," Goldenberg admitted. "She's rejuvenated me. I got a little stale coming to work this season, walking through those doors, thinking, 'Well, here's work.' The whole Kevin thing, we're still sad about it.

"The negative things that were going on, the atmosphere, it wasn't any fun. I felt distracted. I felt that I wasn't giving it 100 percent. I wondered if I even wanted to do this anymore.

"But then there was Day. She raised me up, picked me up, got me to love this again."

But it wasn't always this way.

When Goldenberg would venture to Colfax to check out this 5-foot-11 wonder in high school, Day initially wanted to run. She had heard about Goldenberg's reputation and iron fist, not always a good fit for such a free spirit.

"At first, I was so intimidated by her, completely afraid of her," Day said. "I wasn't myself. Then I came out of my shell."

Now she keeps on her coach like a pest, teasing her mentor that it's too early in the day for the game suit, wondering what sort of pedigree she really has.

"I give it to Coach all the time," Day said. "I tease her. I've never seen her shoot a ball, never seen game film. 'What you got, Coach?' I love her. Under her hard front, deep down, she's a softy. I try to bring that out of her.

"And she's been great for me. She's impacted my life. She's made me a better player because she wants to be a better coach."

Goldenberg said she has been moved by the genuine humanness of Day. When she was 10 years old, a beam fell on Day's left foot. She lost three toes, but she never lost her balance. She marched forward, head held high, and shares her story when asked.

At a Sierra summer camp, Day told her tale with all the seriousness of a woman who knows what it's like to deal with adversity. Then she yanked off her shoe and sock to the glee of a room full of 8-year-old gawkers who had never seen such a site.

"Telling my story, that might help a kid who has something different about them," Day said.

Goldenberg said she got emotional after her club downed San Jose City College on Saturday, the same team that clobbered the Wolverines by 24 points earlier this season, because it dawned on her that this was indeed a special group.

Sierra (22-7) has won 15 of 16 since the slow start behind guards Rebekah Calvert and Phieban Mulatu, forwards Kobea Tudsbury, Kelly Mezger, Nicole Scott, and of course, Day, the leading scorer.

Goldenberg said the capper was seeing Ramirez after the game, the man who hired her to be coach in 1991, the man who let her vent over the years about Title IX issues, the man who supported her when she accepted the Sierra men's basketball post 10 years ago and still supported her when she abruptly stepped down after being harassed on campus by one of the men's assistant coaches.

Now, more than ever, there are tears and hugs and too much Day to comprehend. When earlier this season Goldenberg wondered if she wanted to coach another hour, she now has extended that timetable another three years, at least.

Now when she barks at Day during a practice or a game - and it will happen because a coach can't change all her colors - she'll finish by snapping, "All right? All right!" Then she'll smile.

"I'm getting to her," Day said.