Khalilah Mitchell introduced as ninth head coach of Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine basketball

HONOLULU – On a day that she would field questions about her first collegiate head coaching job, Khalilah Mitchell first presented the local media with an inquiry of her own.

“How do people hold their excitement?”

She followed up quickly with her own answer.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to try.”

Introduced on Wednesday as the ninth head coach in University of Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine basketball program history, Mitchell allowed her elation to burst through momentarily before she went into her opening statements.

“I’m so excited,” she smiled.

University of Hawai’i athletics director Matt Elliott echoed the sentiment.

“This is a celebratory day for UH basketball, for UH athletics, and for the entire state,” said Elliott after officially announcing his second head coaching hire since taking over last June.

Elliott discussed the school’s desire for the hire when they began the search process, pointing to hopes of finding a high integrity, high character person for the head coaching role. He mentioned needing a coach who “believes deeply in the student athlete experience” and “believes deeply in [Hawai’i]” while still maintaining a dedication to excellence in competition.

Mitchell’s preparation, vision for the program and longstanding ties in the community helped propel her over a pool of candidates that featured sitting D1 head coaches, P4 coaches and generated “tremendous” outside interest, according to Elliott.

Over the next 20 minutes, the new leader of the UH women’s basketball program showed the exact poise, personality and passion that led that national search directly back into the gyms in Mānoa for the successor of legendary leader Laura Beeman.

Mitchell spent seven years on the Hawai’i staff under Beeman, helping lead the program to four postseason appearances (two NCAA tournament, two WBIT) along with three regular season Big West titles. The Rainbow Wahine have won more than 60% of their games with Mitchell on staff and the veteran assistant coach helped pilot four consecutive 20-win seasons heading into the Mountain West.

Composed, Mitchell expressed gratitude for the opportunity to lead the program into a new era in a new conference while acknowledging a desire to continue building atop the foundation that came before her in the head chair.

“[Coach Beeman] built something real here,” Mitchell said. “She set a standard of excellence, of care, and commitment to this program and to this community, and that I have tremendous respect for. I do not take this seat lightly because of what she poured into it.”

A basketball lifer, Mitchell is accustomed to success after spending five seasons at LSU and helping the Tigers to five different Final Four appearances from 2004 to 2008. The 5-foot-11 guard tore her ACL after appearing in four games in her freshman campaign and returned to play in 22 games the following season for the Tigers as a redshirt freshman.

She eventually worked her way back into being a solid rotational piece for an LSU program that had four different head coaches in her five years. Mitchell was teammates with eight different WNBA draft picks during her playing career with the Tigers, including women’s basketball legends Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles.

Mitchell pointed to her time as a student-athlete as a key reason that she entered the college coaching ranks, alluding to her desire to improve the lives of young women alongside their basketball skills.

“I know what it feels like to compete at this level,” Mitchell said. “The weight of it, the pressure of it, but also the profound joy in it. I wanted to become not just someone who teaches the game, but someone who understands what Division I athletics mean, addressing the emotional [and] psychological demands of competition.”

Despite the change at the top, Mitchell emphasized consistency – on and off the floor – for the program that has all but owned the Big West over the previous half decade.

“This program is built the Wahine way,” Mitchell stated. “We show up, we speak up, we lift up. We show up to practice, to class, to your teammates, to yourself and to this community … The success of one of us is the success of all of us. That is the Wahine way.”

New Hawai’i HC Khalilah Mitchell speaks with attendees of her introductory press conference. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

Mitchell discussed a vision of the Rainbow Wahine having a relentless, up-tempo, free flowing style of play as the program shifts conferences into the Mountain West. She also pressed on the importance of continuing keeping selfless personalities at the forefront of the program.

“We will keep what got us here,” Mitchell confirmed. “The culture of hard work, the expectation of excellence, the pride in representing this university and the state. Those things do not change.”

While there was a tone of continuing what Beeman built over the previous 14 years, Mitchell was also clear that she understood the change that the program was making by moving into a league with an even higher level of competition and new challenges that would be presented along with it.

“We will elevate our preparation, elevate our recruiting, elevate our game,” she included.

With players from last year’s team inside the Ed Wong Memorial Room at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center for the official announcement of the new head coaching role, Mitchell took time to directly state how she would remain a resource for them.

During her seven campaigns in an assistant role for Hawai’i, Mitchell developed a reputation for being a coach that players could confide in and look to both on and off the court. She made sure to emphasize that she would not change that same open-door policy that has become the norm inside the Rainbow Wahine offices.

“That piece of it will never go away,” reaffirmed Mitchell for the players. “They better always be in my office [if they need]. But that’s again, a testament to Coach B. They were always in Coach Beeman’s office … Just the safety that she gave them and presented them is something that I absolutely want to continue and carry on.”

She also has been credited as a key to the development of some of Hawai’i’s best talent over her tenure, including conference Player of the Year winners Amy Atwell and Lily Wahinekapu.

Recent alumni were loud with their support for “Coach K” taking over the throne of Rainbow Wahine basketball and fans sent similar praise for the hire. Other members of Beeman’s staff were visible on social media and in person praising the hire and sending their congratulations.

Mitchell half-joked that the attendance of the players from last year signaled their intention to continue into battle with her but also noted the continued theme of continuity she desired for the roster.

With regards to her staff, Mitchell was candid about her focus being on going about securing the job and needing to shift gears to settle what her assistant coaching group would look like.

“That’s definitely a priority of mine,” Mitchell said in regard to having continuity between the previous staff and her own. “I’ve been honestly focused so much on [the interview process] so that’s definitely going to be in the 30-day plan to make sure we have the right people here, for sure.”

The rest of the press conference continued the positive, calm and confident vibes, even getting Mitchell a chance to playfully remind the student-athletes in attendance of their inability to guard her despite her trading her days in a jersey for a whistle and clipboard.

The passing of the baton from Beeman to Mitchell became official on Wednesday.

It’s a new era in the islands.