Bowling Green State University Athletics
Achter Shows Father Knows Best, and Bowling Green Benefits
February 21, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2006
BOWLING GREEN - Last March Bowling Green freshman Kate Achter formally introduced herself at the Mid-American Conference women's basketball tournament in Cleveland.
In spearheading a win over Kent State in the championship game, Achter became one of the few freshmen to be named MVP of a conference tournament, and she helped to usher in a new, winning era of BG basketball.
Since Achter became the starting point guard in December 2004, BG is 42-6. The Falcons, currently ranked No. 25 in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 coaches poll and the class of the MAC, are 22-2 and 13-0 in league play following yesterday's home win over Buffalo.
BG is a talented team, loaded with players capable of taking over a game offensively. The Falcons are the most balanced scoring team in the MAC.
Yet Achter, who starred for her father at Clay High School and literally grew up in the gym, is the one who pulls it all together for the Falcons.
BG coach Curt Miller understands what makes Achter, a 19-year-old sophomore, so special.
"Kate fits our system perfectly," Miller said. "She is one of the best point guards in our league, and one of the best point guards in the Midwest. We wouldn't be where we are without Kate."
Yesterday, Achter scored 11 points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds in her first collegiate double-double.
Achter was somehow able to step right in and start at a position that's probably the most difficult to play in college.
Miller, who spurned overtures from Colorado State after last season, is a coach on the rise who has created a national buzz. In building BG into a MAC power, Miller targeted Achter, a player who was reared and coached by her father, Roger.
"The first thing that jumps off the page at you about a coach's daughter is they've grown up in the gym and they're always around the game," Miller said. "Without question, coaches are always tougher on their sons and daughters. I think coaches' daughters are really tough mentally. They've been through a lot of hard times being coached by their fathers."
What some might mistake for being tough, Kate merely considers tough-love and a necessary trade-off for her current success.
"I was able to take criticism from my father, and that's huge at the collegiate level," she said. "Coach Miller is the kind of coach who will do anything to get you going. He can criticize me and I can take it. I realize that I need to take it as a player and build upon it to be the player that I want to be. If it weren't for the way my father coached me in high school, there would be no way I could do that.
"Coach Miller is very similar to my father as a coach. He's a very intense man. And I know he wants to win just as much as I do, just like my father."
Roger Achter's coaching job is done. Now observing Kate from the stands, he absolutely loves what he's seeing from his daughter on the court.
"I guess I toughened Kate up because I was so hard on her," Roger said. "Maybe I was too hard. There were a lot of apologies on my part. A lot of hugs. Curt kids me and says that no matter what he does, it doesn't compare to what I did.
"I was probably a lot more fortunate than a lot of other fathers. We spent a lot of time together as father and daughter. We took a lot of long trips together. We had a lot of really nice conversations. It's nice to be able to sit back and observe her now and watch her getting better and better along with the rest of the team. It's neat to see her grow up like this."
Said Kate of her father: "I would do it over again in a heartbeat. We were able to develop such a unique relationship. It was a great opportunity and a great experience for me. I wouldn't change it at all."
That's the feeling that will always exist between Roger and Kate Achter. And it's a big reason why BG women's basketball is so popular.
John Harris is a Blade sports columnist.
