SPASH names new girls basketball coach

Metro Wire Staff

SPASH has hired Janel McCarville as its new varsity girls basketball coach. McCarville brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the girls basketball program.

McCarville is a 2001 graduate of SPASH. She was a multi-sport athlete at SPASH, playing basketball and soccer. She led the Panthers girls basketball team to the WIAA Division 1 State Basketball Tournament in 2001 during her senior year.

During her basketball career at SPASH, she compiled an impressive set of statistics, and she is still the career leader in a variety of categories to this day.

After SPASH, McCarville moved on to the University of Minnesota to continue her basketball career for the Gophers. As a member of the Gopher women’s basketball team she became the first player in Gopher history to play in the NCAA Tournament during each of her four years. Coach McCarville started all four years during her time with the Golden Gophers.

At the finish of her career at U of M, she was in the top five of every major statistical category for the Golden Gophers’ women’s team, including points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. McCarville holds the NCAA record for most rebounds in the tournament, with 75 rebounds in five games. She also holds the NCAA record for tournament rebound average, with 15 per game.

Following her playing career at Minnesota, Janel was drafted in the first round of the 2005 WNBA(Women’s National Basketball Association) draft, first pick overall, by the Charlotte Sting and started her professional playing career. Janel won a WNBA Championship in the 2013-14 season with the Minnesota Lynx. McCarville also played professionally in the Euro League. She played on teams from Slovakia, Russia, Poland, Turkey, China, Italy and Sweden. She was a Euro League champion in 2010 with the Women’s Basketball Club Sparta&K of Russia.

McCarville lived in Sweden from 2015 through 2021, playing on the AIK Basket Solna team, for two years, and then the Alviks BK team. While playing for Alviks team, she was also the assistant coach for her women’s team and the men’s team as well as working with local youth basketball programs. In December of 2021, she became the head coach of the women’s team and continued to play on the team.

In the fall of 2022, McCarville moved back to Custer and joined the SPASH basketball coaching staff as the JV girls basketball coach.

McCarville said she was “extremely honored and excited” to take the new job.

To be part of this rich tradition and culture as a coach now is truly humbling,” she added. “I look forward to working with all the student-athletes, SPASH Coaches, teachers, administration, and community members that are all involved in making Stevens Point an incredible place to play girls basketball.”