After practices with the UB women’s basketball team, Becky Burke avoids unnecessary trips and rushes home to be able to spend a few extra hours with her wife and her son, who was born almost a year ago.
Once a college basketball player herself, now she balances several priorities.
“[My job] requires a lot of me, so I don’t want them to lose any piece of me and not be at home. I think there’s a balance where I can do everything for everybody,” Burke said.
During her college years with the University of Louisville Cardinals, Burke was a standout player, with three NCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball Tournament games including a Final Four appearance her freshman year.
Her name is cemented in their history books as part of the 1,000 point club at Louisville. She led in scoring her sophomore year and was the second Cardinal to play in the State Farm College Three-Point Shoot-Out her senior year.
While she loved to play, Burke also always found herself interested in the game’s logistics. She was intrigued by how the squad prepared for upcoming games, going over scouting reports and why certain things worked or didn’t. She credits this to Louisville coach Jeff Walz.
“I played for one of the best coaches in the country... I was always so fascinated about his IQ of the game,” Burke said. “As a player, it made me want to take an interest in coaching because of how effective his coaching was to us.”
Burke was offered her first coaching opportunity as an assistant at Saint Joseph’s College for the 2014-15 season and later earned her first head coaching position at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2016. She coached at two more schools before coming to Buffalo.
While Burke has centered herself around women’s basketball, she is no stranger to the idea that sports is a male-dominated realm. Although she has been lucky enough to not experience any outward challenges being a woman in the field, she knows that challenges do exist.
“I feel like just in our field alone we don’t get all the opportunities that we should,” she said.
Burke tries to provide opportunities to help create the experience she’s had by ensuring she has a primarily female staff.
Burke’s confidence takes her a long way in ensuring she is getting the opportunities she deserves. She knows that there are times where she has to be aggressive and stand her ground in order to dominate in the roles she holds.
“I’m a very strong woman in this field that doesn’t put up with s–t and doesn’t let men talk to her a certain way.”
She explains how her personality makes her unique in that she is willing to call people out or do what it takes to make sure she is being treated fairly, a confidence that not everyone has. She knows her abilities, and she knows that as a woman who plays basketball, she is going to be able to relate to her female players on another level, more than a man could.
Although she has found success on the court being a source of wisdom for her players, off the court, she’s still learning. Burke says being a mom has grown her as a person, and she works extremely hard to be able to keep a work-life balance, still trying to achieve that “sweet spot.”
Burke’s wife, Savannah, has always been very understanding of the lifestyle that comes with being a coach. The two have been together for some time now, and Burke said Savannah knew the expectations when they moved from South Carolina to Buffalo, saying “she’s been super supportive.”
Burke says Savannah has been willing to take on the extra responsibilities that come with her not always being able to spend a lot of time at home.
While the basketball season will end in March, there are only two weeks of the year where there is a complete recruiting shutdown and Burke gets to take some time off. The two of them look forward to using one of the weeks off in May to take a vacation together as a way to relax and celebrate the very successful season Burke and her team has had.
Regardless of how things go on the court, Burke knows that she will always have her family by her side.
“At the end of the day, when basketball goes away, I’m still gonna have [my son], I’m still gonna have my wife, and I need to make sure that they feel as important as they need to.”
Izabella Ducato is an assistant sports editor and can be reached at izabella.ducato@ubspectrum.com
