The University of Guam Triton Athletics Department named Cecile Olandez as the women’s basketball coach for the new varsity women’s basketball program to start in Fanuchånan 2019.

“I don’t think we could have found a better coach for our new women’s basketball program," said UOG Athletics Director Doug Palmer.

Olandez has 30 years of basketball experience to include both playing and coaching at the highest level that Guam can offer.

She has served many coaching roles over several years at F.B. Leon Guerrero Middle School to include boys and girls head basketball coach and boys and girls cross country head coach. The Leon Guerrero teams have been successful under her guidance, finishing first or second on several occasions in the middle school leagues.

Olandez has been the secretary of the Guam Women’s Masters Basketball Association as well as the head coach for GWMBA 30+ and 40+ teams in international competition.

She played for the Guam Women’s National Basketball Team in the Micronesia Games in 1994 and 2002 and won both a gold and bronze medal. She served as the head coach and as a player for the Guam Women’s Masters Team that won a gold medal at the World Masters Basketball Games in New Zealand in May 2017. She also played on the 2013 Guam Women’s Masters 30+ Team that won gold at the 2013 Great Barrier Reef Masters games.

She is a UOG graduate with bachelor's in fine arts/art. She also has a degree in tourism from the International Business College of Guam and graduated from Simon Sanchez High School.

"Cecile will bring a positive energy to the program, and I think develop the program into a winning group of Lady Tritons," Palmer said. "Hopefully UOG will become a center of development for women’s basketball on the island and give more young women a place to build their basketball skills after high school."

Olandez will begin recruiting players right away for the new team and will have some partial tuition scholarships available to attract players. The women’s basketball team will also have tryouts in the near future.

UOG has had a club women’s basketball team, the Tridents, the past two years.

For more information on the UOG women’s basketball program, call Doug Palmer at (671) 735-2862 or email palmerd@triton.uog.edu.