MORGANTOWN — It started with names on a sheet of paper found mainly in WVU athletic director Shane Lyons’ pocket.
With a name like Dawn Plitzuweit — pronounced PLITTS-zoo-white — it sort of stands out on any list.
“I will admit, it took me a long time to learn how to say her last name,” Lyons said during Plitzuweit’s introduction as the school’s women’s basketball coach. “Don’t ask me to spell it all the time, still working on that.”
After a dominating six seasons at South Dakota, where she won 82% of the time and winning a Division II national championship at Grand Valley (Mich.) State in 2006, Plitzuweit took over her first Power Five Conference program as a head coach Tuesday.
As Lyons tells the story, Plitzuweit’s name kept rising to the top of that list as he continued to do his homework on potential candidates.
“The first thing we looked for was fit,” Lyons said. “Is this person going to fit here? It goes back to her representative contacted us. She wanted to be here. It wasn’t like I had to go recruit her. That first phone call, I could tell by the energy that she was going to connect with the people of West Virginia.”
Plitzuweit will have to make many connections as the Mountaineers head coach, some sooner than later.
WVU’s roster is down to just seven returning players — women’s teams have 15 scholarships to work with — after junior forward Esmery Martinez announced Tuesday she was entering the transfer portal, the fourth player to do so since former head coach Mike Carey retired last month.
Martinez was an all-Big 12 player, who averaged 11.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game this season. In her three seasons, she scored 878 points and grabbed 785 rebounds.
So, making connections with the returning players and with new recruits is the first step.
“There is a process in getting to know our players and developing a relationship,” Plitzuweit said. “We want to be authentic, and that takes some time. In meeting with them so far, they seem very eager to get started and we’re very excited to get on a basketball court and spend some time together.”
The bigger picture for Plitzuweit is developing a program that draws more interest from the community, as well as WVU students.
In the last eight seasons, WVU’s average home attendance ranked in the bottom half of the Big 12 and was generally either eighth or ninth in the league during that time.
The Mountaineers averaged 1,617 fans per home game last season, which was ninth among Big 12 teams.
“It starts with our students and they can helps us build, and it’s exciting to have them in the stands and create an energy that only college kids can,” Plitzuweit said. “I also think there are great opportunities with the die-hard women’s basketball fans. It’s important for us to connect with them and to assist them, rather that’s in community service events or rather that is in getting them to know our young ladies.
“At the same time, there is a group of young girls in our community that we’ve done some different things at different universities and mentored some of those girls in some of the programs that we’ve had. It’s not just one face of fan. It’s reaching out to different groups and trying to grow this collectively.”
It will take time, Plitzuweit admits.
“It comes down to every moment matters,” she said. “It takes a little bit of time. Certainly we are willing to invest in and help grow. Our players are, too. It’s certainly not something that’s done right away. It takes time.”
There is a sense of different energy that comes from Plitzuweit, which she shed some insight on that with her daily practice routine.
“We’ll be playing music during practice,” she said. “The coaches may be the ones doing the dancing, although the players may have to help us out.”
In the end, whatever jolt Plitzuweit brings to the WVU program will still be judged on wins and losses.
The Mountaineers appeared in 11 NCAA tournaments under Carey and won the 2014 Big 12 tournament with an upset of second-ranked Baylor in the finals.
That, too, is something Plitzuweit has accomplished. South Dakota took down Baylor in the second round of the NCAA tournament this season on its way to the Sweet 16 as a No. 10 seed.
“Now the questions becomes how do we take this great foundation and build upon it?” Plitzuweit said. “It all comes down to people. We are on a mission to surround ourselves with high-energy individuals, who are going to focus on the details on a daily basis.
“Our goal is quite simple. We aim to do the little things well, both individually and collectively.”
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