Huntington News: You just finished your fifth season here and have extended your contract until 2013. What brings you back to Northeastern and this program?
Daynia LaForce-Mann: It’s an opportunity to continue to rebuild and lay a positive foundation. This past season has had the best leadership on the team in my time at Northeastern. Without leadership, it’s hard to develop… [Senior forward] Dani Iervolino and [senior guard] Jamie Conroy really set the tone for this program. We’ll be better off in the future because of it. Lack of leadership was a big key as to why we’ve struggled in this program.

HN: You had a young team this year, with four freshmen and two sophomores. What did they bring to the team this season?
DL: The young kids proved to be invaluable for the program. They’re great students and great people. They were able to keep the team positive and willing to be led by the leaders. Sometimes when you rebuild, you bring in talented players who aren’t patient in developing into Division I student athletes. The freshmen understood what it takes to be competitive and allowed the leaders of the team to guide them. It’s beneficial for both our team and for themselves. They were allowed to develop quickly because they were playing crucial minutes on the court, which is a valuable lesson for the program and for their experiences next year.

HN: Who had the largest impact on the team this past season?
DL: I think [sophomore forward] Jewel [Tunstull] provided a dimension to the program that we didn’t have before. We’ve always had a great back-court with our guards. We’ve never developed a strong inside presence. Jewel provided that dimension to our game’s front-court presence. She’s hard to defend and has developed incredibly quickly, a surprise to many people. It comes from her pure talent, heart and determination. She relieved pressure on our guards and she’s a smart player. She knows when she gets double-teamed and she will kick it out to our guards for an open shot. We’ve never had that balance before. I think her, along with Christine Huber, will create a premier front court for us. They’re very difficult to defend and provide dynamic scoring opportunities.

HN: Three new recruits – Onia Webb, Kazzidy Stewart and Sade Iriah – are coming into the program. What are they going to add?
DL: Our motto at the beginning of the season was “good students, good people, good athletes.” These recruits continue to be an example of what we value in the program. Not only to be a good student athlete, but to be a good character. It’s that balance that we ask for from our students that we recruit. These three young ladies will provide us with depth. They will come in right away and use the skills they already possess to help us compete. This past season we lacked some depth, which didn’t allow us to compete late in the half. These new recruits will provide balance for us on the floor. They’re great people, very humble and come from great families. They’re hard working and I’m looking forward to coaching them this season.

HN: With [forward] Jewel Tunstull going into her junior year and [guard] Deanna Kerkhof into her senior year, how well will the experience contribute to those players working well together?
DL: It’s definitely a relationship that had to be developed. Passing the ball around, Jewel was able to find shooters. It’s a trust factor that had to be discovered. The guard-post relationship developed trust and gave them confidence to rely on each other for shots. This year was a year to develop the level of trust needed. With [redshirt senior guard] Kashaia Cannon coming back this season, we have a key aspect of having another shooter who can get threes for her teammates. With Christine, Jewel, Deanna and Kashaia, we will have a premier starting group.

HN: What have you and the team taken away from this past season?
DL: That we’re a force to reckon with. We’re in the right conference at the right time with the right players. We earned respect this year due to our competitiveness. We only lost games by a small amount, so it wasn’t a blowout. That earned us a lot of respect and I don’t anticipate a low preseason prediction from now on. I’m happy about the kids having had an opportunity to make a name for themselves on the court.