National college hoops champs have a Washougal connection

A 2001 Washougal High graduate recently proved instrumental in leading one of the greatest turnarounds in college hoops history.

When the University of Virginia (UV) men’s basketball team defeated Texas Tech University on April 8, earning the Cavaliers their first national basketball title, Washougal native Ronnie Wideman, UV’s associate athletics director for basketball administration, was right there on the sidelines celebrating.

“This journey is so hard to put into words,” Wideman, 35, recently told the Post-Record.

The loyal Panther has been working with Tony Bennett, UV’s head men’s basketball coach, for the past decade, but said their relationship goes back to when Wideman was a student at Washington State University (WSU) and Bennett’s father, Dick, was the Cougars head basketball coach. It all started when Wideman went to a WSU basketball game in Pullman and spotted a student he recognized on the Cougar bench wearing a suit and tie.

“I asked him how he got involved with the team and he said, ‘I’m a student manager and we are looking for help,’ so I jumped at the chance,” Wideman said.

As a student manager he assisted with the day-to-day operations of the basketball program organizing team travel, equipment distribution, summer camps, even editing game and practice video footage.

Wideman earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology along with a teaching certificate at WSU and accepted a teaching job at Tulsa University right after graduation.

Around the same time, Dick Bennett retired as head coach and was replaced by his son, Tony, who immediately asked Wideman to join him as the director of basketball operations for WSU. Wideman initially turned down the basketball job, but after some deep soul searching and heeding the advice of mentors, he called Tony Bennett and asked to see if the opportunity was still available.

“He (Tony Bennett) took a big chance on me, and I’m forever grateful for that,” Wideman said.

In Tony Bennett’s first year at WSU, the school’s men’s basketball team advanced to the second round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament. The following year, in 2008, the team made it all the way to the “Sweet 16.”

The next year, Bennett accepted the head men’s basketball coach position at UV, and Wideman packed three suitcases and left everything else he owned in Pullman to join Bennett in Charlottesville, the gateway to the Blue Ridge Mountains. This is where Wideman almost immediately met his wife and best friend, Courtney.