Legendary Hawaii HC Laura Beeman steps down after 14 seasons

HONOLULU – It hurts to say goodbye.

When she first accepted the job in 2012, Laura Beeman had no idea how long she would remain in the islands.

Fast forward to 244 victories, nine postseason appearances and 14 years with the Rainbow Wahine later and University of Hawai’i women’s basketball head coach Laura Beeman revealed the answer as she announced her retirement on Monday afternoon.

“It has been the honor of my lifetime to work here,” the veteran head coach opened her comments with. “Never did I imagine that so many people would put up with me, would help shape the person that I have become today, would forgive me for not being able to pronounce the state fish, and would be here standing today to wrap your arms around me and tell me goodbye … in a thank you way.”

Coming to Hawai’i with experiences spanning from piloting a JUCO program with recruiting pitches that included “for the love of the game” to spending time on the staff for the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA, Beeman had little desire to use the Rainbow Wahine as a stepping stone for her career.

It was a dream to reach the Division I level and lead her own program.

Surrounded by the culture of the islands, she quickly realized her first coaching job at the top rank of women’s college basketball would be her last, too.

“I started drinking the Kool-Aid, flavored with Aloha, and fell in love with this place and knew that I was going to end my coaching career here,” Beeman recalled during her retirement presser.

Beeman went on to build the pillar program of success in the Big West with the Rainbow Wahine, finishing among the conference’s top four teams in 12 of the 14 seasons and winning four regular season Big West titles along with three conference tournament championships in her tenure.

She also helped lead Hawai’i to postseason play in nine different years, the second-most postseason appearances in program history behind Vince Goo’s 10. The Rainbow Wahine snapped an 18-year NCAA Tournament drought back in 2015-16, Beeman’s fourth season at the helm, and took it a step further in the 2022 return trip to the tournament by winning regular season and conference tournament championships in the same campaign for the first time ever.

Hawai’i followed the historic campaign with another NCAA Tournament appearance the next season, marking just the second time in program history that the Rainbow Wahine made the national tournament in consecutive years.

While 2025-26 presented early challenges for a youthful Rainbow Wahine squad, Beeman and her staff helped guide the group through chilly December winds and finish the season on fire as winners of 16 of their final 18 games along with another Big West Championship game appearance.

Hawai’i WBB seniors Saniyah Neverson (left), Imani Perez (middle) and Izzy Forsyth (right) pose alongside head coach Laura Beeman following a Senior Night win over CSUF. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

As the year progressed, Beeman couldn’t shake the feeling that it could be her final run as a head coach. The changes in college athletics, much like other veteran coaches across the landscape, had taken a toll on her on top of the sum of 30 years of sacrificing holidays and moments with her family.

“I want to decorate Christmas trees, I want to burn a turkey,” Beeman said while talking about her choice. “It’s just time for a different chapter for me.”

Beeman emphasized that she isn’t ill, that she hasn’t interviewed or applied for any coaching jobs on the continent and that she wasn’t running away from anything but rather towards newer desires in her life.

She wrestled back and forth with her future personally through the year but remained determined to keep distractions out for players and her staff during the season out of respect for the team’s goals.

Beeman did reveal that she hadn’t made her final decision until last week, debating until Hawai’i athletics director Matt Elliott texted asking where her mind was at heading into the weekend.

She responded with two words: “Let’s talk.”

The conversation was to ultimately let Elliott know that Beeman had decided to retire. With other passions like providing mental health resources for youth and a desire to continue working with and helping the next generation, she decided to drive off from her journey on the sidelines with nothing but positives trailing behind her.

“I want to leave this job loving it,” Beeman said of her choice to hand off the program. “It’s been good to me. I don’t want to resent it. I want to do it on my own terms, and a lot of coaches don’t get that opportunity.”

Hawaii HC Laura Beeman speaks to the media during the preseason. | Photo Credit: Ku’ulei Agbayani, HSRN

The four-time Big West Coach of the Year winner was adamant about leaving the program in a great place for the next person to come in and be successful right away as Hawai’i transitions into a new conference in the Mountain West.

“I have amazing parents, and they always taught me, if you borrow someone’s car and they give it to you with half a tank, you return it with a full tank and cleaner than you found it,” Beeman said. “I can honestly say that this program has a full tank, and it’s cleaner than I found it. These cupboards are not empty. We have a good war chest; we have a great roster. We have an amazing group of young women and the next head coach that walks in here is going to put themselves in a position of success if they buy into what Hawai’i is.”

Beeman will remain onboard to lead the program over the next few weeks as the university conducts a national search to find her successor. She expressed a hope that the department takes members of her current staff into consideration as they navigate the process, but said she ultimately trusts whatever decision athletics director Matt Elliott comes to and that she would remain a resource for her coaches even without being their direct boss anymore.

“Whatever they need for their next steps in their journey, I’m going to be there for them,” Beeman said of her coaching staff, who found out about her decision on Monday as well. “Whether it’s phone calls, letter of recommendations, taking them through mock interviews, whatever it is. Part of my job is to absolutely prepare them for their next steps and whatever they decide those steps to be, I will be along with them if they choose to have me with them.”

Despite her decision to step aside from coaching, Beeman did reveal her desire and plans to remain in Hawai’i with her partner and continue to impact the local community in whichever ways she can.

Elliott, who was extremely complimentary of the longtime head coach’s ability to connect with student-athletes on and off the court, expressed happiness and relief that she would remain in the islands and around the university as a resource going forward.

“She just brings so much,” Elliott said discussing Beeman’s understanding of the administrative side of college athletics while being a high-level coach. “I’m so glad she said [she’s] not leaving the state. She will be a really important source of wisdom and so much more as we go forward.”

Laura Beeman (right) takes questions during her retirement press conference alongside athletics director Matt Elliott (left). | Photo Credit: Ku’ulei Agbayani, HSRN

On the topic of the job itself, Elliott revealed that it was officially posted as soon as the press conference started on Monday afternoon. When asked about a potential timeline to making the hire, he pointed to UH’s protocol that all job openings must remain open for a minimum of five days while also emphasizing a desire for a quick-moving process.

“I think it’s going to be a very attractive position,” Elliott said of the job. “We will do a national search; the position is open as of today … we will let that happen over the course of the next five days and I will talk to candidates. They can be internal candidates, they can be external candidates, we will look at everybody very closely.”

“As Coach made this decision, it was like we’ve got to do this quickly,” Elliott continued while speaking about the urgency to fill the position. “We’ve got to put our student-athletes in a position to make an informed decision about their future, so we would like to immediately move into start meeting candidates within that week frame as soon as we’re done with the window closing.”

While he doesn’t want the next coach to try to be a carbon copy of Laura Beeman, the UH athletics director did mention desire for the successor to hit the same pillars of teaching, mentoring and athletic and academic successes that Beeman set up.

“Everybody’s got to do it your own way,” Elliott said of the job. “You can’t just follow somebody and try to do what they did, so really looking for somebody who loves this place, loves Hawai’i, wants to be a part of it, maybe is connected here already, that would be amazing … Bottom line is for the student-athletes to do it as quickly as we can.”