UNLV coaches press forward amid athletic director’s departure

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Former UNLV diversion manager Desiree Reed-Francois made a detour Monday earlier departing for Missouri, stopping astatine Rebel Park to bid farewell to Rebels shot players and coaches aft practice.

“I woudn’t expect thing less. She’s been archetypal people since we archetypal met and talked erstwhile I was astatine Oregon,” said second-year shot manager Marcus Arroyo, whom Reed-Francois hired successful December of 2019. “That’s the mode you get down. That’s the that mode I’m wired, she’s wired. We were raised that way, and that’s the mode you spell astir your business.”

The Rebels are going astir their concern sans Reed-Francois, who connected Sunday was announced as the caller diversion manager astatine Missouri. Terms of her caller declaration volition beryllium approved Tuesday by the school’s Board of Curators. She made $420,000 annually astatine UNLV and volition apt treble her wage successful the SEC — wherever diversion directors astatine the conference’s nationalist universities made an mean of $955,020 past year.

UNLV officials person not yet acknowledged Reed-Francois’ departure oregon announced a program to find her successor, but a idiosyncratic with adjacent ties to the NCAA expects the schoolhouse to determination quickly.

“Just due to the fact that of the clip of year,” the idiosyncratic said. “These kinds of things don’t thin to hap successful the archetypal portion of August, from an diversion standpoint. … Kids are each getting backmost with regards to teams getting backmost to campus.”

Arroyo was among the archetypal successful UNLV’s diversion section to publically code Reed-Francois’ departure, calling it “bittersweet” connected Monday during his property league aft practice. He said her imaginativeness for the programme was among the superior reasons helium accepted the shot coaching presumption with the Rebels.

“The SEC is getting a large one,” Arroyo said, explaining that the quality of his occupation does not change. “You person a batch of radical travel and go. Coaches, diversion directors and trainers. … For our each time routine…we’re retired present designing this and going astir our enactment each day. This is what we do. We’ve got a occupation to do.”

Rebels women’s hoops manager Lindy La Rocque said Monday that Reed-Francois was a “huge reason” wherefore she near arsenic an adjunct astatine Stanford. That said, La Rocque understands wherefore Reed-Francois is moving.

“You’ve got to benignant of bash what’s champion for you, truthful I admit that,” said La Rocque, who was hired successful March of 2020 and coached the Lady Rebels past play to a second-place decorativeness successful the Mountain West. “She’s going to beryllium a lifelong friend…for giving maine my archetypal caput coaching occupation and trusting and empowering maine to pb young women.”

Like Arroyo, La Rocque said her occupation doesn’t alteration without Reed-Francois’ leadership. Though she is anxious to find retired who her caller brag is going to be.

“She’s got immoderate truly large things started and volition permission a lasting impact,” La Rocque said. “We’re excited to fig retired who we tin enactment successful complaint to support our momentum going.”

Contact newsman Sam Gordon astatine sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon connected Twitter.

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