Nicholls State women’s basketball head coach DoBee Plaisance will play a double role within the University after being named the senior woman administrator for the Nicholls Athletics Department.

As senior woman administrator, Plaisance will hold many duties within the department. Not only will she be responsible for conducting monthly meetings with the head coaches of all the women’s sports at Nicholls, she will counsel and act as a mentor to the coaches as well. Plaisance will also be responsible for preparing the budget for the entire Athletic Department and will represent Nicholls at all conference and NCAA meetings.

According to athletic director Rob Bernardi, Plaisance was a “natural candidate” for the position.

“I think DoBee had the distinct coaching background as well as her experience dealing with student athletes,” Bernardi said. “She has good relationships with the coaches of the women’s teams as well.”

Bernardi believes Plaisance will be a good complement to the administrative staff and will give experience to the department in areas with which he is not as familiar.

“DoBee has good head coaching experience, dealing with players and some of the problems specific to women’s sports,” Bernardi said. “She also has good experience in dealing with coaches, and all of those are important qualities that a senior woman administrator should have, and they’re all, frankly, qualities that I don’t have.”

Not only does Plaisance have personal experience in the player-coach relationship side of her new position, she has administrative experience as well. Prior to Nicholls, Plaisance served as the head coach at Loyola University in New Orleans for 13 seasons, where she also held the position of assistant athletic director.

“I’ve had my fair share of administrative experience, but I did not foresee myself being a senior woman administrator at this level, hence my humility with it,” Plaisance said.

Despite her humbled approach, Plaisance feels confident that her personality will make her successful in her new position.

“I tend to be a very strong woman, and I’ve always been the type of person that when it comes to doing the right things, regardless of how unpopular it might make me, I have always been a person that can pioneer for doing the right things,” Plaisance said.  

Though she coaches one of the longest sports seasons, Plaisance vows that her duties in both positions will be fulfilled.

“I’m the type of person that whatever endeavors I take on in life, I will never make an excuse for a lack of progress of success in any endeavor,” Plaisance said. “As people, we multi-task throughout our entire lives, and I’m going to be the best women’s basketball coach, and I’m also going to be the best senior woman administrator.”

After holding the position of senior woman administrator for a week, Plaisance hasn’t wasted any time. She has already held an initial meeting with all the coaches on the women’s side of athletics and is excited for the future.

“The coaches that are here on the women’s side work with the utmost integrity,” Plaisance said. “We had an initial meeting, and it went over great, and it’s a quality group of people here that I’m working with, and I’m really looking forward to that.”

According to Plaisance, it’s the people she is able to work with that help her to attain success.

“In terms of my success as a coach, I’ve been very blessed with great players, and in lieu of that, I feel like I’m blessed with a great group of women’s coaches,” Plaisance said. “If there’s any correlation there between my success and having great players, then my success as a senior woman administrator and currently working with some great people will be just as successful.”

Plaisance said her main focus as the senior woman administrator is to ensure she is well connected with the women’s coaches and that they are heard and have a presence at the next level. As of now, Plaisance is not looking to come in and make changes right away.

“I’m still getting acclimated to the mechanics within the position,” Plaisance said. “Then, after I’ve went through the assessment process, I’ll be able to see what I can do to help enlighten women’s athletics.”

Bernadi hopes Plaisance will enhance the experience of Colonel student-athletes and better the department as a whole. As for Plaisance, she’s ready for the task.

“I’m looking forward to working with the administration here, and I really hope to be a great ambassador for our women’s programs.”