Cassondra Bratton wanted one more opportunity to play college basketball and doubted any coach would give her a shot, considering she was a 25-year-old single mother.
Then Tanya Haave was named head coach of the Metro State women’s basketball team in 2010, and Bratton slid a note under the coach’s office door requesting a meeting.
Less than a year later, that slip of paper had produced the Roadrunners’ leading scorer on a team that won the program’s first NCAA Central Region championship.
“She is very, very special to me,” Bratton said.
Haave is retiring as the winningest coach in Metro State women’s basketball history. But it is her support of young women — rather than the wins and basketball instincts — that players like Bratton say made Haave such a special coach.
“She was the first coach I ever had that taught me what a servant leader was,” Bratton said. “I’d always heard that but to see it in action…Coach really cares about us.”
Haave announced her retirement from coaching after the Roadrunners lost their last game of the season on March 1, failing to make the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament. But Haave won’t be leaving the Metro campus. The school plans to announce her next role in the athletics department later this year, spokesman Eric Lansing said.
After 14 years as head coach, Haave said she’d reached a point where the day-to-day demands of coaching were no longer fun and she recognized it was time to let someone else take over. While Haave still enjoyed practice, the energy needed to travel for recruiting, road games and various meetings waned.
“I always said I loved it because it never felt like I had a job,” Haave said. “It started feeling like a job. It wasn’t fair to the athletics program or the players.”
Haave took the reins of the Roadrunners program in 2010. In her first season — with Bratton on the team — the Roadrunners finished 30-3 with an RMAC regular-season championship and the program’s first-ever NCAA regional title. Haave leaves Metro with a 252-179 overall record and 201-120 mark in the RMAC. She won three RMAC Coach of the Year awards and led the team to two RMAC regular-season championships, the 2022 RMAC Tournament championship and five NCAA Tournament appearances.
“I can’t thank Coach Haave enough for all she has done for MSU Denver and our women’s basketball program,” athletic director Todd Thurman said in a news release. “Not only did she have great success as our coach, but she was an amazing leader who provided guidance and mentorship to the players that came through our program.”
Haave’s legend in Colorado sports started as a standout athlete at Evergreen High School, where she excelled in two sports. In 1980, she became the first girl to win the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame’s High School Athlete of the Year for her success in volleyball and basketball. People who knew her in high school still debate which sport was her best.
Basketball was the one that carried her career.
Cheney’s Yolanda Laney breaks for a potential basket, but Tennessee’s Tanya Haave, right, is too much for her, causing Laney to miss the shot on March 31, 1984, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac)
Haave took her athletic talents to the University of Tennessee, where she played both sports before ultimately choosing to focus on basketball as a junior. Haave played point guard for Pat Summitt, the legendary Lady Vols basketball coach, and credits Summitt for inspiring her coaching career. At Tennessee, Haave played in three Final Fours, was named an All-American and finished her career as the team’s leading scorer.
After college, Haave played basketball in Europe and Australia, then came home to Colorado to begin coaching.
She coached at Regis University, the University of Denver and CU, where she spent four seasons with Hall of Fame coach Ceal Barry. She took her first head coaching job in 2007 at the University of San Francisco, where she was fired after four seasons.
Then Metro State called.
At Metro, Haave found her “sweet spot,” she told The Denver Post in a 2022 interview.
Metro’s mission of providing a college education to students who otherwise might not get one resonated for the coach. Students earning second chances, becoming first-generation graduates and overcoming difficult circumstances make Metro a special place, she said.
“The stories that come out of that university of students getting their degrees are amazing,” she said. “The longer I’m there, the more I appreciate that. I’m grateful and appreciative of MSU Denver.”
Haave enjoyed coaching young women unlikely to play professionally who would take lessons learned on the basketball court to other jobs.
For Jaelynn Smith, who played at Metro from 2015 to 2019, those lessons include showing up 15 minutes early for her shift as a nurse at a Dallas hospital. That’s because Haave demanded that her players arrive 15 minutes early for appointments, practices and game-day warmups.
Haave was a tough coach, Smith said.
Freshmen had to earn their team gear by reaching conditioning goals and passing quizzes on NCAA rules. A missed free throw during a game meant 100 free throws at the next day’s practice.
Smith started with the Roadrunners on shaky ground. Haave had met with the student toward the end of her senior year at Denver East High School and suggested Smith consider a junior college before signing with Metro. Haave didn’t think Smith would get much playing time with the Roadrunners.
But Smith did not want to go to junior college and enrolled at Metro. She joined the basketball team and went to work. Midway through her freshman season, Smith became a starting guard. She would go on to earn all-conference honors for her basketball and academics.
“She proved me wrong and I’m glad I was wrong,” Haave said. “It has nothing to do with me. It’s her getting that opportunity at Metro. She worked hard and made the most of that opportunity.”
But Smith said Haave deserves credit for helping her grow up.
“She had an expectation and you wanted to meet her there,” Smith said. “And by the time you got there, you were doing better than both of you anticipated.”
As for Bratton, that one season playing for Haave was life-changing.
Bratton started her college basketball career in 2004 at DU after starring at Pomona High School in Arvada. She got pregnant and had a daughter after her freshman year.
She took a year off from school and then transferred to Metro State and signed with the basketball team. But she quit after two years because college basketball and parenting were too much.
Two more seasons passed.
Bratton missed basketball and wanted to finish that fourth year of eligibility. So she slid that note under Haave’s office door and asked the coach to give her a call.
“I can only imagine the things she heard from DU coaches and former Metro coaches,” Bratton said. “She gave me my last and final chance to finish something I started. I’m forever indebted to her.”
Bratton made the most of her third chance at basketball. She earned first-team all-conference and all-region honors while her team finished with a 30-3 record. Haave then made Bratton a student assistant and later an assistant coach while she finished her degree at MSU.
Taking that risk on Bratton remains a proud coaching moment for Haave.
“It was the best decision because she came in and was a tremendous leader, and the girls had a tremendous amount of respect for her,” Haave said. “There’s stories like that throughout the university. And she’s a great story for our program.”
As for Bratton, she now coaches girls basketball at Pomona and works in medical sales. Her daughter, Jayna Bratton, is a freshman at Metro.
Because Haave offered her a last chance to finish her basketball career, Bratton said she understands the importance of giving second chances on the basketball court to girls who might be struggling with something in another part of their lives. She sees Haave as a role model because she was able to adapt as a coach to help her players be successful on and off the court.
“To see something isn’t working and be willing to change was amazing,” Bratton said. “We were like, ‘You’re Tanya Haave. You don’t have to change anything.’ But with her, it was about ‘How can I serve these kids’, not ‘How can they serve me so I can get more wins?’”
Metro State head coach Tanya Haave, center, fires up her players before the game against Regis at MSU Denver on Feb. 5, 2022. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)