Woelke to Coach at Fullerton College

Debie Woelke, women’s basketball coach at UC Riverside the last seven seasons, resigned Wednesday to accept the same job at Fullerton College.

Her appointment at Fullerton won’t become official until it is approved by the North Orange County Community College Board of Trustees, which meets Tuesday.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Woelke, who played basketball, softball and field hockey for Fullerton from 1976-78. Woelke, a resident of Tustin, also coached three years of girls’ varsity basketball at Valencia High before going to UC Riverside. She was a graduate of Valencia High.

“It’s an opportunity to go back to my roots,” Woelke said. “It’s where I first became interested in coaching and I think I can be successful on that level. The Orange County area is a good base to draw from.”

Woelke, who had a record of 102-89 at UC Riverside, will replace Joni Easterly, who left after two seasons for personal reasons. Fullerton was 18-11 on the court last year but had to forfeit 13 victories because a paperwork error made a player ineligible. The Hornets finished 5-24 and 1-9 in Orange Empire Conference play.

Woelke will be one of four first-year coaches in the eight-team conference next season. She joins Eric Bangs, who took over at Irvine Valley, Matt Murphy (Golden West) and Vicki Mallett (Saddleback).