Description of the following video:
[Video: Indiana University Presents appears in the lower-left corner of the screen]
[Video: Teri Moren, the women's basketball head coach, crouches on the basketball court, watching a game in progress, with a piece of paper in her hand.]
[Words appear: LIFE LESSONS]
[Words appear: I'VE LEARNED]
[Words appear: ON THE FLOOR]
Moren speaks in voiceover: Some of my life lessons that I've learned on the floor: first you have to start with leadership.
[Video: Moren appears on camera, standing on the basketball court.]
[Words appear: Teri Moren, Head coach, women's basketball]
[Words appear: 1. Be a leader]
Moren speaks: Leadership is all about action. Leadership is not about a position.
[Video: Moren talks to her team. They are huddled in a group around her, while Moren kneels in a crouching position.]
Moren speaks in voiceover: Another life lesson I've learned is about detail. If you're passionate about anything, you're very detailed-oriented.
[Video: A close-up of Moren talking to her team.]
[Words appear: 2. Be detail-oriented]
[Video: Moren appears on camera.]
Moren speaks: Another life lesson I've learned is to be ageless around these women.
[Words appear: 3. Be ageless]
[Video: Moren high-fives each of her players as they run by her single file on the basketball court.]
[Video: Moren, with her back to the camera, talks to her team huddled around her.]
Moren speaks in voiceover: Being around young people has taught me how to laugh at myself a little bit more and not take myself so seriously.
[Video: Moren appears on camera.]
Moren speaks: Another life lesson that I've learned is just about the process
[Video: Moren claps at a basketball game.]
[Words appear: 4. Understand the process]
[Video: A close-up of Moren talking to her team.]
[Video: Moren high-fives each of her players as they run by her single file on the basketball court.]
[Video: A close-up of Moren talking to her team. A framed picture of a basketball team can be seen on the wall behind her.]
Moren speaks in voiceover: I no longer get caught up in just the instant wins; it's the process of getting there and all the steps that you have to take. It's day to day, it's month to month. It doesn't happen because "we say it around here."
[Video: Moren appears on camera.]
Moren speaks: It's all those little things that we do daily that help us …
[Video: Moren high-fives a player running by her on the basketball court.]
Moren speaks in voiceover: … get to the end goal which is to have success on the floor.
[Screen changes to black]
[Words appear: INDIANA UNIVERSITY]
[Words appear: Fulfilling the promise]
[Words appear: iu.edu]
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
There is no doubt women's basketball has changed since Teri Moren, head coach of IU's women's basketball team, was a young girl challenging the guys in her neighborhood. Female athletes are faster, stronger and more athletic than ever before; they are specializing in only one sport; women can now go pro and the awareness of the game has increased.
"I think back in the day when I was playing Indiana basketball, women's basketball was irrelevant. You didn't talk about it," Moren said. "Growing up in southern Indiana, I went to a lot of games here, both men's and women's, and not in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that we would see people in the rafters of Assembly Hall watching a women's game."
But that dream came true when Moren led her team to IU's first WNIT Championship and set a new single average attendance record and single game attendance record for the sport.
"I told our team, 'pause for a second and look around,'" Moren said. "This is awesome."
As a young girl in Seymour, Indiana, Moren filled her days like many small-town kids do: She played sports.
"Growing up in a small town like Seymour, you participate in everything you can," Moren said. "I grew up in a neighborhood of all guys. We played anything that had a ball in it."
It also didn't hurt that Moren's dad was a former baseball player and avid sports fan, so Moren and her siblings got involved in a wide variety of sports: basketball, volleyball, swimming, golf and cross country. But it was basketball that lured Moren in, eventually leading her to become one of the top women's basketball coaches in the country.
Moren, head coach of the IU's women's basketball team, first hit her stride playing for the Seymour High School girls basketball team. She helped lead the team to four sectional titles, two regional championships, a semistate win and a state finals appearance.
Wanting to keep going, Moren went on to play for Purdue University under the guidance of Hall of Fame coach Lin Dunn. There she was part of three NCAA Tournament teams and helped the Boilermakers score their first Big Ten championship.
It was the encouragement of Dunn and her staff that led Moren to pursue a coaching career after college. She got her first job at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, as a coaching assistant. She began her college coaching career in 1992 at Butler University, where she served as assistant coach for six years, and then spent one year at Northwestern University.
Ready for a change, Moren took her first head coaching job at the University of Indianapolis where she spent seven years before she moved on to Georgia Tech, where she served as associate head coach for three years. Moren came back home, spending four years as head coach at Indiana State before she received a call from Fred Glass offering her the job at IU.
"For me, every move was intentional: from leaving Butler, and then Northwestern, to spread my wings, to doing my own thing as a head coach, learning, making a lot of mistakes, getting the opportunity to run my own program and then eventually taking over at IU," she said.
With 16 years of coaching under her belt, Moren's approach to coaching has also changed. Although winning is still the ultimate goal, it is the process and the journey that Moren emphasizes more now.
"When I first began coaching at UIndy as a head coach, it was all about 'How are we going to win games,' and it was so devastating when we would lose," she said. "I would think, 'Oh my gosh, I'm the worst coach ever. But now, it is about how can I get these guys to understand there is a way, there's a process to what will get us ultimately to success, and it's not going to happen just because we say we want it to happen. It's going to happen because of all of those little things we are doing in between those moments."
Moren's former coach Lin Dunn said she has seen a progression in Moren's coaching. Looking back on her career, Dunn said she is extremely proud of Moren's accomplishments and will continue to cheer for her no matter where she goes -- even if it's Purdue's rival.
"Teri is not only a great x's and o's coach and at trying to create strategy to win every game; she is also committed to the best experience for the athlete, making sure her players go to class, graduate and go out and make positive contributions to the world," Dunn said. "She empowers young women to be the best they can be, and she emphasis that women deserve equality. She is the kind of person you want to mentor your daughter."
Moren has definitely inspired Indiana native Janese Constantine, assistant coach for the women's basketball team. Constantine calls Moren's coaching style "energetic and passionate," and she said the longtime coach is always encouraging her staff and players to give it everything they've got.
"One of the biggest things I've learned from Coach Moren is she just works," Constantine said. "She puts her head down every day, and she works hard. She doesn't make excuses for herself, for the program or her team. Winning or losing, she is always ready to get back up and get better."
In her fifth year as head coach at IU, Moren is hopeful she is making an impact on all of the young women she works with. Whether it's teaching them the importance of working hard or helping them gain more confidence, Moren is committed to empowering all of the young women who look to her for guidance on and off the court.
She is also committed to being a proponent for a game she has dedicated her career to.
"As a leader of this program, if there are people who do not know about our program, then it is my job to get out there and educate them on what we are doing here and why they should come to a women's game," Moren said. "We have such a tradition on the men's side, and that's great, but we want to have our own tradition."