(Editor's note: University of Montana news release)
MISSOULA — Lindsay Woolley, who led Montana Western to an NAIA national championship in 2019 and spent last season as an assistant at Utah State, has joined the Lady Griz coaching staff.
Woolley, a 1998 graduate of Big Sky High in Missoula, is entering his 21st season as a collegiate coach. He spent eight years at Miles Community College, 11 at Montana Western and last year on coach Kayla Ard’s staff at Utah State.
“Nobody in here has won a national championship except for this guy,” said Lady Griz head coach Brian Holsinger about his collective staff. “He found a way to win a national championship at the NAIA level, and there is a lot to be said for that. His success is undeniable. I have a ton of respect for him.
“Getting to know him as a person, he has a really good demeanor. He has a great basketball mind and is low-key in a way that fits really well with our staff. There is a calmness about him that is very valuable.”
In four years as the head women’s coach at Miles CC, Woolley compiled a record 87-37 with a pair of Mon-Dak Conference championships. His teams went 215-129 at Montana Western.
One game that doesn’t show up on Woolley’s record is an exhibition game the Lady Bulldogs played at Oregon State early in the 2020-21 season, the final season Holsinger was on the Beaver bench before being hired by Montana.
Oregon State had won at least 23 games each of the previous seven seasons, but on that day the Beavers only led Montana Western by four at the half, 32-28.
“I never wanted to play him because the stuff he ran was hard to guard,” said Holsinger. “They were undersized but spread us out. You just respect people who can coach the game and put kids in position to be successful no matter what the situation is.”
A handful of seasons later they reunite, this time on the Montana bench, the fourth-year coach of the Lady Griz and an assistant who grew up in Missoula at a time when Robin Selvig’s program was the biggest thing going.
“One of the things I wanted with this hire was someone who understood how important the Lady Griz name and legacy are to the community and to the state,” said Holsinger. “He understands that and is excited to be a part of that.
“He had other job offers but he turned them down to come here because he loves this place. He’s a Missoula guy.”
Woolley was born in London, Ontario, but moved to Missoula at the age of 2 when his dad, an orthopedic surgeon, was hired to work at the old Western Montana Clinic.
By the time Woolley was in high school, he was frequently bumping into Lady Griz royalty. Marti Leibenguth was the school’s freshman boys and varsity girls coach, and she would bring current and former Lady Griz around in the offseason for open gym.
The year that Woolley graduated from Big Sky High, in 1998, Selvig and the Lady Griz were making the NCAA tournament for the 10th time in 11 years.
“Growing up and seeing everything Rob did, it’s part of what I’ve known for a long time,” said Woolley.
He competed in basketball and golf at Montana Tech, spending three and a half years at the school before realizing that the summer basketball camps he worked brought him a lot more happiness than the engineering track he was on.
After his second year at Tech, he spent the summer helping to lay out what would become The Golf Club at Black Rock on Lake Coeur d’Alene.
“I was shooting slopes and grades for the course they were building, working 50 hours a week. I thought, this isn’t what I want to do. I’d rather coach,” he said. “I decided I didn’t want to be an engineer anymore.”
After transferring to Montana and earning his mathematics and secondary education degree in 2004, he was set to begin student-teaching under Leibenguth when the coach at Miles CC who had recruited him reached out with an offer: $2,000, a dorm room, a meal plan. And the start of his coaching journey.
“So I loaded everything in my Subaru and headed to Miles City,” Woolley said.
He would spend eight years in eastern Montana, working, at various times, with both the men’s and women’s programs and doing what he had to do to get by.
“There was a time when I was the head women’s coach, the men’s and women’s golf coach, I was bartending at the golf course and I was working for the (Miles CC Foundation) so I could make enough money to live,” he said.
“You learn how to balance things, how to be organized so you can get through your day and accomplish what you need to accomplish.”
Like his new boss at Montana, Woolley is a relationship guy, and the two-and-out nature of junior college basketball left him wanting more.
“In junior college, about the time you get to know your kids, they were leaving you and going somewhere else,” he said. “Being around kids four or five years was really appealing to me. As was being back in western Montana.”
He was hired by Montana Western prior to the 2012-13 season. After his third year, he faced a critical juncture in his career, the Lady Bulldogs coming off a 10-win season, finishing last in the Frontier Conference at 2-12.
Right before Christmas that season, Western lost 55-20 to Campbellsville, the Kentucky school that would go on to a national runner-up finish.
“I think we had eight points at halftime. I told our team, this is what a good team looks like. That’s how far we have to go. We needed to go a long way just to be competitive against teams like that,” he said.
“After that third year, we had to change the way we did things. I thought, if I can’t figure this out, I’m going to get a normal job. Make money, have weekends off, have a normal life, so to speak.”
His fourth team at Western, in 2015-16, finished four games under .500 and went 3-15 in league, but it was young and ignited something in Woolley.
“I really enjoyed that next year,” he said.
That team would set the program on a course toward a national championship in 2019.
“Winning a national championship never crossed my mind. It was getting to the national tournament and competing for conference championships. That was my goal," he said. “We had the right kids and they worked their tails off and made some sacrifices, and we kept adding the right pieces.”
Western had an 11-win improvement the following season, in 2016-17, going 24-9 and falling 81-79 to Oklahoma City in the round of 16 in the NAIA national tournament. No team would play Oklahoma City closer than seven points over its final three games on its way to the national championship.
“I thought, we’re close. We’re trending in the right direction,” Woolley said.
The next year, 27 wins and a 61-50 loss to national champion Freed-Hardeman in the semifinals, a game the Lady Bulldogs trailed by 16 three minutes into the second quarter.
“Our kids were nervous and they were too good," Woolley said.
With all five starters back, Western would open the 2018-19 season 20-1 and take a 25-4 record into the NAIA national tournament in Billings.
“When we came back for practice (after the Frontier Conference tournament), it was different than previous years. They were locked in. It was almost like I didn’t have to be there,” Woolley said. “They were determined. They took it and ran.”
Three wins in four days led to a rematch with Freed-Hardeman in the semifinals.
Two 3-pointers gave Freed-Hardeman a 60-54 lead with 40 seconds left in regulation, but armed with all his timeouts, Woolley led Western to a foul-and-score comeback. The Lady Bulldogs tied it with a 3-pointer at the end of regulation, then scored the first five points of overtime to pull away.
Playing in front of a heavily pro-Western crowd in Billings, the Lady Bulldogs raced out to a 47-29 halftime lead over Oklahoma City in the championship game the next night and never looked back, winning 75-59. Woolley was voted the NAIA national coach of the year.
After a 28-6 season, his 11th at the school, in 2022-23 that ended in the national quarterfinals, Woolley accepted an assistant position at Utah State.
“As a family, we were ready to try something new,” Woolley said of his wife, Megan, and son, Avery. “I wanted something different, a different challenge, and I was OK being an assistant coach. I jumped at it and took a leap of faith.”
After the 2023-24 season, he was looking for something new just as Holsinger was searching for an assistant. It was a perfect match and a return home for Montana’s newest assistant coach.
“I have a lot of connections to this program that make me awfully proud and excited to be here,” he said. “I wouldn’t have expected that this is how it would end up, but it’s pretty cool to be here.”
