The top Oklahoma coaching candidates after Sherri Coale announces retirement

Sherri Coale took over the Oklahoma women's basketball program in 1996, just six years after it was discontinued because the Sooner administration at the time thought no one would care. Following a nationwide outcry, including at the Women's Final Four that season, the decision in March 1990 was quickly reversed.When Coale was hired at age 31 from a successful career at Norman High School, there were naysayers who felt it was another sign the Sooners weren't serious enough about women's basketball. But Coale -- an Oklahoma native -- turned out to be the right person at the right time, and after a 5-22 opening season, turned the Sooners into a national power remarkably quickly.Coale's first year as a college coach was also the first season of the Big 12, and she and the league grew up together."I was really lucky that the University of Oklahoma hired me right before the sport exploded," Coale said of women's basketball's increased television presence and ensuing popularity in the mid-1990s. "Had the sport [already] exploded, I'm not sure I would have had this opportunity. But I got in right under the gate."