Retirement? Where?
Legendary UConn women’s basketball head coach, Geno Auriemma, has no plans of retiring any time soon. This past Monday, the university’s athletic director, David Benedict, announced that Auriemma signed a five-year contract extension!
Totaling a whopping $18.7M, Auriemma’s base salary is broken down to $400,000 a year with an additional $2.94 million for speaking, consulting, and media obligations—this increases by $200,000 each season as well.
“I still find it hard to believe that I’ve been at UConn for over half my life. I feel like there’s so much more that can be done, and will be done, and I’m excited to be the one to do it with my staff and my team. I’m probably as excited about these next few years as I’ve ever been over the last 40.” – Geno Auriemma
Growing up in Connecticut, and raised on UConn basketball, Geno’s impact on the state and women’s basketball has always been seen and felt. And anybody who follows the game of basketball and is truly a fan of the game recognizes Auriemma’s greatness.
“Geno has been such a mainstay at UConn that it’s impossible to overstate his lasting positive influence on our student-athletes, the women’s basketball program and Connecticut as a whole.” – Radenka Maria, UConn President
This upcoming season will mark Auriemma’s 40th season at the helm of the program. His ELEVEN national champions are most of any Division I basketball coach – men’s or women’s – and he’ll become the all-time wins leader. Earlier this offseason, the USBWA named its National Coach of the Year award after Auriemma. He’s earned that honor six times.
Despite also turning 70 this month, the coach doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon.
“Everyone else wanted [me] to retire and I wasn’t quite ready to do that,” Auriemma said at the Coaches Road Show. “Obviously there’s an end to this but in the meantime, you keep feeling like ‘I want to be around this kid for a couple of years’ and I know that’s going to go away — just not right now.”
