Tech Topics - Spring 2009 - (Page 41) YELLOW JACKETS Still Loving the Game Basketball remains central to Lara Kauffman 16 years after leading Tech to first NCAA tourney VAN JENSEN Lara Kauffman, Mgt 93, has fond memories of her playing days at Tech. By Van Jensen O ne can imagine basketball plays a big role in the household of Lara Kauffman, a 6foot-1-inch former Georgia Tech star, and her 7-foot-1-inch husband, Matt Collins, who played at North Georgia. One-on-one to see who takes out the trash? H-O-R-S-E loser washes dishes? “It’s this constant,” Kauffman said of basketball’s role in the lives of her family, starting with her father, Bob Kauffman, a three-time NBA All Star. “It gave me a college education, and it opened a lot of doors. I wouldn’t be sitting behind this desk without that background.” The desk in question sits in the Lovett School’s athletic complex in Atlanta. Kauffman is in her ninth year at the private K-12 school. She started as coach of the varsity girls’ basketball team and has served the past several years as assistant athletic director. She came to Lovett after working as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Tech for two seasons under her old coach, Agnus Berenato, and a couple of years as a training assistant at Turner Broadcasting. Kauffman’s current job, which involves managing budgets, organizing training programs, marketing and scheduling events, has the 1993 graduate falling back on her management degree. “The main thing Tech teaches you is to break down a problem and be resourceful,” she said. “When you finally graduate, you feel like there is nothing the world can toss you that you can’t field.” She managed her class load while leading Tech to unprecedented success on the court. An undersized center from Gwinnett County, Kauffman and the Yellow Jackets went to the team’s first NCAA tournament in 1993, her senior season. While that season is one of Kauffman’s best memories from college — and is memorialized in a glass paperweight on her desk — she says the previous season was even more exciting. The 1991-92 team had had a decent regular season and at 15-12 needed a strong showing in the ACC tournament to make the postseason. Over three days the Jackets played three games that were decided by a total of three points, toppling Maryland and Clemson at the buzzer before barely falling to Virginia. “That was the highest of the high,” Kauffman said. “That tournament was just spectacular, the best ball we ever played.” The team went on to win the NIT for the first time in school history. Though Kauffman said she no longer “plays pickup with the boys,” she can’t stay away from the roundball court, coaching the Lovett middle school girl’s team and attending a few Tech games every season. She’s also almost certain to be raising future basketball standouts. Her daughter, Shannon, turns 2 soon and is already large for her age. And Kauffman is expecting a son in July. “We’ve been double-teaming, and we’re getting ready to go into man-to-man,” Kauffman said of coparenting, falling into on-court analogy. “We’ll be in trouble if we have to play zone.” The Kauffman basketball dynasty is ever growing. Her three younger sisters all played college basketball, including Joannah, STaC 98, also a Tech star. Now they have children as well, and the sisters wonder if their competitive streak from playing growing up will spill over into the stands as they cheer for their children. “I hope I’m not somebody who kills the love of the game for my child and instead lets them develop their game to the extent they want,” Kauffman said. “My dad always tried to be constructive, but he was that guy in the stands who everybody heard yelling. At the end of every game he had a list of things I needed to work on.” But, she said, “that fire and competitiveness has served my sisters and me well.” And now it’s serving Lovett well, as the school’s athletics program has flourished under Kauffman and athletic director Steve Franks. After a period of down years, the about 600-student high school, which competes at the AA level, has seen most of its teams compete in the state finals. And it has finished in the top few schools every year in the Georgia High School Association’s Directors Cup. “If you saw our kids in street clothes, you’d say no way could they compete with the other top schools,” Kauffman said. “But they get it done. And they’re smart too; they use their noggins.” Just the kind of player Kauffman was during her years in the white and gold. TechTopics | Spring 2009 41
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