Family is the No. 1 priority for Idaho women’s basketball coach Jon Newlee.
Anyone who has visited his office in the Kibbie Dome can see this, as the walls are covered in photos of past teams, as well as his daughter and her artwork.
Family is the reason he moved to Moscow, and why he loves the Palouse.
“I love the passion of the Vandal family,” Newlee said.
The Idaho head coach spent his childhood in the gym with parents who both coached collegiate sports.
“My dad was a men’s junior college basketball coach when I was growing up,” he said. “I was in the gym since I was a baby and I haven’t gotten out of it yet.”
Newlee played basketball through high school and later earned a spot on the roster at Chaffey College. He graduated with a degree in physical education from San Diego State.
Newlee said the coaching background of his parents motivated him to pursue the same career path.
“I always knew that that’s what I wanted to do,” Newlee said. “I really was inspired by my dad, coaching wise. I knew it from day one – when I was getting out of college that’s what I wanted to do.”
Newlee’s first collegiate coaching job came through his sister, who was a coach at Saint Mary’s College of California. From there, Newlee spent time coaching at Southwestern College, Texas- San Antonio, Southern Methodist and Hawaii.
Newlee met current Idaho associate head coach Christa Sanford during his time as an assistant with the Rainbow Wahine. When Newlee received the head coaching offer at Idaho State, Sanford transferred to Pocatello.
“Right after I finished playing I actually was a grad assistant for a year and then started coaching with him,” Sanford said.
The associate head coach said she feels fortunate to have been able to work with Newlee for most of her career.
“He and I have a great relationship,” she said. “I feel like I know what he wants and I’m able to back him and support him (and) help implement his plans, because I’ve worked with him for so many years.”
Newlee said his time at Southern Methodist allowed him to develop one of his famous strategies: the green light policy.
“I’m not going to take them out for taking a shot,” Newlee said. “You’ve got to have time to start getting in the flow and basketball is a game of mistakes. You’re not going to be perfect.”
Newlee said he saw how constantly benching players at Southern Methodist negatively impacted their mindset.
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,” Newlee said, pointing to a piece of paper in his office employing the quote. “That’s my philosophy. We live by that.”
After 17 years as an assistant coach, Newlee said he craved a head coach position and began sending applications across the country.
“It was kind of crazy,” he said. “I sent an application in (for Idaho State). Out of nowhere, the AD called me and said he wanted to interview me.”
Newlee was in Oregon playing at the National Invitational Tournament with Hawaii at the time of the call.
“Flew out there, (and) in two days they offered me the job,” Newlee said. “And I just took it.”
Newlee spent the next six years rebuilding the program in Pocatello.
“We were at ground zero there at Idaho State,” Newlee said.
The budding head coach earned Big Sky Coach of the Year honors, and was only the second coach at Idaho State to earn the honor. The Bengals attended the WNIT three separate years during Newlee’s time with the program, despite no previous invites.
Newlee’s daughter Bailey was two years old at the time and accompanied the team on road trips. Later, the coach received a memo from the Idaho State athletic director that his daughter would no longer be allowed to travel on any university vehicle.
“I have her for a month,” Newlee said. “I’m the dad. She has to come with me. She’s two-years-old. And they were like, ‘Nope. Not bending on that.’”
Newlee said he decided it was time to find a new job.
“I’m telling you it was like divine intervention  – fate  – however you want to put it,” Newlee said. “I put that word out and (Idaho Athletic Director) Rob (Spear) called me. He just said, ‘Hey I heard you’re looking. We have a job here would you like to come up and interview?’”
Sanford, a Pullman native, encouraged Newlee to consider the head coaching job in Moscow.
“She loves this place, loves the Palouse,” Newlee said. “I came up and just fell in love with this place.”
Newlee said Spear delivered the best news of all – his daughter would be allowed to accompany the team on trips.
“Rob said, ‘Oh yeah, your daughter can travel, we are a family-oriented department,’” Newlee said. “And I go, ‘Sold.’”
Newlee was hired as Idaho’s head coach on April 15, 2008.
The Idaho head coach said he considers himself lucky. During his transition to Moscow, he was able to persuade the majority of the Idaho State coaching staff to join him in Moscow.
When it came time to set new expectations and map out the season, Newlee’s staff followed a familiar plan.
“We used the same kind of blueprint that I used at Idaho State to kind of get this program back,” Newlee said. “I couldn’t have done any of this without my staff.”
According to the head coach, the Idaho program was “in shambles” when the staff arrived. Newlee said the rebuilding process started from the ground up.
“It started with recruiting,” he said. “Identifying some really good local kids, supplementing with some foreign kids and then just changing the culture.”
Newlee said the new coaching staff focused not only on the students’ performance on the court, but their behavior in the classroom.
“I just told them, ‘Hey these are our expectations for us and our Vandal program here,” Newlee said. “‘This is the way things are going to be and if you don’t adhere to this you will be gone.’”
Newlee said that’s the reason why his team initially consisted of six players during his first year with the program. He said he began recruiting from other sports teams, and two soccer players and a volleyball player joined at his request.
“We were able to get real specific as we absorbed those early year losses,” he said. “But I knew it was going to get better.”
Newlee said the turning point was the signing of highly-sought recruit Alyssa Charlston.
“I knew we had turned the corner and were going somewhere,” he said. “She was a big-time recruit. She saw our vision and believed in what I was selling here. And once we got her then other people followed because they know her talent.”
Charlston, a 6-foot-1-inch post, was the No. 8 recruit in the state of Washington. The Vandal recruit blossomed with the program and averaged 14.3 points per game during her senior season at Idaho.
When Ali Forde, Christina Salvatore and Connie Ballestero arrived in Moscow four years ago as freshmen, Newlee said he knew his team added a trio of talented athletes.
The year before Newlee’s arrival, the Vandals had won just four games.
In his time with the program, Newlee has won the Big Sky Conference championship and taken his team to the NCAA tournament three out of the last four years.
Newlee said a successful program means he has to be selective of the recruits he brings to Moscow.
“It’s amazing the amount of talent that has come into the program,” Newlee said. “They’re talented but they’re also really smart and they’re great kids. I don’t have any of that stuff I had when I first got here.”
The Idaho head coach said the expectation is to win the conference championship and go to the NCAA Tournament. Newlee said the expectations have quickly become a reality, and the success is due to the team’s chemistry.
“We promote the family atmosphere here,” he said. “We’re not going after the exact same person – we’re going after a type of person that I want in this program.”
Newlee said the recent success of the Vandals has allowed him to be selective with prospective athletes.
“If I don’t think they’re going to fit in with my team, we don’t recruit them,” he said. “If you don’t have that unity, that closeness, you’re not going to have the results on the court.”
The head coach said the latest program recruits are exactly what he was hoping to bring to Idaho.
“The kids coming in next year are awesome,” Newlee said. “Great kids, great families, great players as well. The same kind of players are coming in and the talent level is getting higher and higher for every class coming through.”
Now 10 years old, Bailey gets to visit the University of Idaho during breaks in the school year and travel with her dad and the Idaho women’s basketball program.
“She loves traveling with that basketball team,” Newlee said. “She plays basketball, they’re her idols. Those girls are fantastic with my daughter and I love them for that.”
Tess Fox can be reached at [email protected]
(Photo courtesy of Idaho Athletic Media Relations)