Monmouth University has hired Cait Wetmore as their new head basketball coach. She was the associate Head Coach at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. She becomes the 10th Head women’s coach in Monmouth history. Now the question for the Shore community and Monmouth is what’s next?
SHE HAS WORKED HER WAY TO THE TOP
Much like Ginny Boggess before her, Cait Wetmore is not well known by most in the area. While she was an assistant coach at D2 Adelphi University most of her D1 career has been spent in the south, in the state of North Carolina. She was an Assistant Coach at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for six years. Where the program made to the Conference Championship. She also was a Grad Asst at Columbia when starting out her career. She lands at Monmouth after a successful 4 year run at UNC Charlotte, where in 2022 the team made it to the NCAA tournament for only the 3rd time in school history. Why is all this important to know? Because it’s clear she has had to work her way up the ladder in the college basketball profession. A profession, especially on the women’s side. Where people are often hired not based on there talent but rather by who they know. Cait Wetmore is well prepared for this opportunity. But make no mistake this will not be an easy task.
THE TURN AROUND
When then new Coach Ginny Boggess stepped in at Monmouth, contrary to what many believe, she had real pieces to work with. Lucy Thomas, Jen Louro, Stella Clark and Freshman Antonia Panayides all were from the Shore conference and while not stars in the Shore, were excellent role players for Monmouth. All were starters except Antonia. Stella Clark was in fact an All Conference player. Coach Boggess did a great job of adding top talent to this group. In her 2nd year, she also added a 5th Shore player and starter to her roster in St. Joe’s transfer Lovin Marciano. Her team then pulled off 4 straight upsets in the league tournament and won the CAA. Then this past season Monmouth won 20 games. But now this where all the problems and misunderstandings began and why it affects new Coach Cait Wetmore.
THE EXODUS
When Ginney Boggess left for the University of Toledo many believed that the mass exodus of players was due to her leaving. The fact of the matter is most if not all of those players were on there way to the portal or told there scholarships where not going to be renewed. So regardless if Coach Boggess stayed of left Monmouth was going to be in a massive rebuild mode. Cait Wetmore will now need to put together a roster.
HER FIRST RECRUITING OPPORTUNITY
First the CAA is basically the old MAAC Conference with a new polished up name. The University of North Carolina Charlotte, have many players capable of not just playing in the CAA but excelling. Why is that important? Because with the departure of Charlotte’s head coach Cara Consuegra to Marquette University. A number of talented Charlotte, players have entered the portal. This will be Coach Cait Wetmore first big recruiting opportunity. If she can bag one or two of these Charlotte, players in the portal that would be a good start. Monmouth currently has a roster of 4 players left and that is not changing, regardless of what you have read. The possibility of those currently in the portal returning is zero. The good news is there are currently 1,400 players in the portal and Cait Wetmore has time and no doubt already has a list of kids to work with from her time at UNC Charlotte. She needs to pick up at least 4-5 players. Grad students in my opinion is a great move because they only have a year. She also would be wise to fill out her roster with walk on’s, if she can’t find the right players vs. burning scholarships, she may want back in a year. But that’s an evaluation decision.
THE SHORE CONFERENCE FACTOR
Now many are talking about the Shore Conference. Ginny Boggess had expressed her disappointment in not being able to land a star player out of the Shore. But it takes time, 3-4 years at least to get a big fish out of the Shore. Before Coach Boggess left for the University of Toledo. Tessa Carman still was seriously considering Monmouth. The same for Christina Liggio. Both are being recruited by bigger conferences than Monmouth and by highly academic schools, always a factor with Shore kids. But what people really need to know is this, if Coach Boggess had stayed at Monmouth and she had 2.2 Million reasons to leave. The 2026 insanely, talented, heavily recruited class, I believe would have been her coming out party. I have no doubt, she would have landed one or two BIG FISH. She had paid her dues and built up strong relationships with top players. This is a fact, the best players in the 2026 class loved Ginny Boggess. Now the question is can Cait Wetmore pick up where Coach Boggess left off and will she even want Shore kids? They’d not a trick question and she is late to the table.
THE RELATIONSHIPS AND UNSPOKEN TRUTHS
Folks every Monmouth coach with exception of Stephanie Gaitley and James Young have said they wanted to recruit Shore kids but yet rarely recruited them. They have wanted the superstars and Micky “D” All Americans, outside of the stars Monmouth has not recruited Shore players. The list of non shore stars that Monmouth could have gotten and went on to shine at others D1 schools is too long to list. Just this past year, Monmouth incredibly passed on Sarah Karpell a 4 year starter at Fordham, who went on and had a monster season at the U of Albany. To add insult to injury it was the daughter of maybe the most important coach on the entire East Coach Dawn Karpell. This was a massive PR and relationships building mistake. To say the Shore folks that matter were upset is an understatement. These type mistakes have done Monmouth in over the years. James Young a Shore high school coach for years set Ginny Boggess up with talented players from the Shore that were not stars but excellent mid and low major players, Ginny Boggess then added high major talent and coached them all up. Cait Wetmore will not have such luck, she will be in the same position as every Monmouth Coach before her with the exception of Ginny Boggess, starting from the bottom with little or no talent at all.
WHAT SHOULD BE CAIT WETMORE’S FIRST MOVES
The biggest thing for Cait Wetmore is to get talent and she shouldn’t worry if it’s from the Shore Conference, Timbuktu or Mars. I believe putting together a teaching staff and building relationships will be the key to her program. She may want to consider hiring someone with real experience with East Coach ties(salary could be an issue). She must create a real home court by putting asses in seats by working the youth in the area with free clinics and summer camps . She needs to build a fan base. Ginny Boggess was doing this and I believe if given a few more years she would have had that building rocking. But now Cait Wetmore must start from scratch. Don’t believe the comments you read about keeping it going, building a giant. None of that is happening anytime soon. Cait Wetmore will need time to get her philosophy and culture in place. She will try to create her own program and build her own relationships. But I will pass along some real advice. Administrators never know the landscape of what is truly going on in the world of college basketball recruiting. So she would would be wise to start with these things.
- Regain the trust of the most successful coach in the state Dawn Karpell. She has 7 D1 players on her roster. All who would be stars at Monmouth
- Joe Montano has four P5 players and 4 D1 players who would start for Monmouth. She be wise to invite Coach Montano to campus
- Tracey Sabino runs the Shoreshots and they have more D1 players than everyone in the state combined. She is a Monmouth grad. She must have a relationship with her.
- Connect with the director of Mid Monmouth youth basketball. This will be the key to building her fan base. But it takes years and patience.
Cait Wetmore has a tough road ahead. But she has the best job in New Jersey this side of Princeton in my opinion. Monmouth has a rock star location, beautiful facilities, a nice campus, lots of diversity, a great education great football and play in a league they can contend for a championship every year. Thry are one of two schools in the state that can recruit above the level of there conference. Monmouth is a sleeping giant… but how long have we be saying those words? Maybe Cait Wetmore will be the Coach that can wake up this Giant and keep it awake for a while… something nobody has been able to do!
I LEAVE COACH CAIT WITH THIS LAST BIT OF ADVICE
“Be your own person, have your own style and do your own thing baby”