Becky Burke to South Carolina Upstate -- Sowry's Playing Days -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Becky Burke Named Head Coach at South Carolina Upstate

The University of South Carolina Upstate (USC Upstate) named Becky Burke as the head coach for their women's basketball program yesterday.

Burke played guard for UofL from 2008-2012.  Her accomplishments include 1000+ career points, team leader in points her sophomore and senior years, and a trip to the NCAA Championship game  her freshman year.  Burke was a sharpshooter from three-point range during her time as a Cardinal.

Burke bounced around different schools for a few years after graduating from Louisville.  She was the director of operations at Cal State-Fullerton from 2013-2014.  Burke then joined Saint Joseph's College (Ind.) in 2014-2015 as an assistant coach.

Burke's first big break was helping establish the women's basketball program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and was head coach for two years, including a stellar 21-6 record in her second season.

Burke climbed the ladder further when she was named head coach at the University of Charleston (W.V.), where she spent the last two seasons.  Her success with the Eagles and guiding them to high finishes in the Mountain East Conference earned her high honors as she was named one of the 30 Under 30 coaches list for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. The Eagles had two 25-7 seasons under Burke's reign.

Burke comes into a USC Upstate team who has not seen a winning season since 2015-2016.  The
Spartans, a DI school, were 10-20 last season before COVID-19 shut down NCAA Athletics.

"I'm looking forward to building relationships with the players and bringing fresh energy and life into the program.  That's what you need when you're building, and I'm excited about watching them grow and see what they're going to do," said Burke.

We're excited to see what the former fan favorite will do in her tenure as head coach of the Spartans!


Sowry's Playing Days

For those of you who follow UofL Field Hockey on social media you may have noticed a throwback video posted yesterday.  The throwback isn't from a former UofL team, but actually of Justine Sowry during her goalkeeper days.

The footage is from the 1995 NHL Telstra Stix Series.  After doing some digging it appears the team was called the Diet Coke Adelaide Suns (now called the SA Suns).  The team hails from South Australia and competes in the Australian Hockey League (AHS).  The video comes from the national championship, where Sowry helped her team win in penalty strokes.

You can see some wicked skills by Sowry as she surrenders zero goals in four attempts in the shootout from the first half of the video as well as some other major highlights in the back half.

For myself, this was the first time I had seen footage of Sowry during her playing days.  This particular footage came when I was less than a year old.


You can check out the video by clicking here.




On a completely unrelated note I found this photo, which is one of many I took, from the NCAA Baseball Super Regionals 2019.

This was one of the celebratory shots from one year ago yesterday when the Cards advanced to Omaha.  It's a shame how COVID-19 cut so many sports seasons short.

Also a video conference is scheduled today at 2 p.m. with University of Louisville women's basketball captains Dana Evans and Kianna Smith. Paulie will participate and we'll have it for you here in the Wednesday Cardinal Couple column.


Continue to stay healthy and stay safe. Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared