You Can’t Spell Win Without Ewing
University of New England’s Women’s Basketball Coach Anthony Ewing
gives advice to his team during a game.
Photo Courtesy of University of New England
By Angelina Keizer
Anthony Ewing has been a loyal coach to the University of New England’s Women’s Basketball teams since 2007.
“I’m a Mainer, you know. All of my coaching experience prior was in Massachusetts and New Hampshire so just getting back to Maine was a big deal and I love the setting of the school, our facilities, we’re just growing.”
He credits UNE, “I feel like there is a commitment to athletics at UNE that not all schools have. And my family, raising my girls in Maine was a big factor in staying here.”
Being a father himself off the court, nothing makes him prouder than his getting to witness his kids succeed—biological or not. “This is hard what they’re doing,” said Ewing. “I have so much respect for what the kids do with balancing school and life and everything with basketball and trying to do it all successfully.”
Some of his proudest moments are simply just the positive impact he can have on his players. “The biggest thing for me is trying to be a positive influence on these young people and be a mentor or a guide or just a friend.”
Ewing encompasses the great qualities it takes to be a coach and set his kids up for success not only on the court but more importantly, in the classroom as well. Using basketball as a tool, the team’s GPA has always been over 3.2. “In 19 years it’s never been under,” he said.
“One year we were the only school in the country that was nationally ranked for basketball and nationally ranked on the team GPA list… There was only one school on both of those lists and it was us,” Ewing said proudly.
He shares that he isn’t afraid to take away playing time, “You know, it’s a privilege and I fully believe that the kids are here to get a degree.”
His 78% winning percentage was ranked 17th among active coaches in division III during the 2023-24 season and top 10 in the country amongst active coaches.
“One of the best lessons I can relay to them is the fact that I have this job that I always wanted, it was not easy,” said Ewing.
“I was an assistant coach for 11 years at the division 3 level. Most of that ends up being part time… not everybody had a full-time assistant, so I had to do whatever I had to do for jobs just to keep the dream alive, to get my own program.”
Getting to the top of the ladder wasn’t easy to achieve for Ewing—which is something he tells his players often to keep them motivated. Without hesitation he says the one thing he wants his players to learn from him is resilience.
“You have to have some resilience. So that’s one of the big lessons that I try to preach a lot,” Ewing emphasized.
Previously at Brandeis University as an associate head coach and top assistant for six seasons; he was able to direct their team to the second round of the NCAA tournament in both the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.
Even earlier than his years at Brandeis, he served as a top assistant coach at Keene State College for five years.
He touches on what the recruiting process looks like for him, “I’m looking for kids that are self-motivated, that get after it. There are ways you can do that, you try to see how they’re playing when the game is out of hand.”
Ewing further explains, “Are they still going hard? Are they still invested? Are they still really locked in on the game? When they’re on the bench, are they locked in on their teammates?”
“You want to find kids like that, that you’re not going to have to light a fire under their butt every day to get them going,” he said.
Looking back on his very first games at the Babson College Tournament, “I waited so long to get my own program.” He states, “You start and you’re sure you can do it but then you’re playing your first game and you’re like… can I do this? Is this going to work?”
“We played so hard and so well, we were in it right to the end, we scared the crap out of them. We didn’t end up winning—but I had this feeling of well, we got this,” said determined Ewing.
In 2014 Ewing was NEWBA and MWBCA coach of the year. In 2016 he was MWBCA and WBCA regional coach of the year.
After only 11 seasons the team had a 249-70 winning record. This now has led UNE to obtain a remarkable 359-128 record over the last 18 seasons.
Giving a short rundown of what practice looks like, Ewing tries to, “wrap it all up in one time block.” He keeps in mind his players are also full-time college students with various looking schedules.
“Every once and a while you get somebody who has to take a class that’s only offered at night and that’s unavoidable,” he said, talking about the conflicts he runs into during practice time.
Ewing normally holds practice around four and six, with a leg day adding about half an hour on top of the time. “I’m big on fresh legs beats dead legs, but I’m not trying to wear the kids out of practice either.”
“So, we’ll go hard, but we’re not going for three hours,” he said. “I like a good crisp two hour practice.”
His teams have had a 158-13 record in conference games over the last 10 years and 138-15 for home games. They have participated in 8 NCAA tournaments, 2 ECAC tournaments, with one ECAC championship.
Looking ahead at the new season, “I’m really excited about the kids we had back… We had a good core back and some really exciting young freshmen coming into the program.”
According to Ewing, this year’s identity are two key things, “we want to play the pace and be disruptive.”
