Refreshed and Reunited
Seton Hill's Labati the Right Fit
By Walter Villa

The scene played out often in the early 1980s at Agnus Berenato's New Jersey's apartment.

Berenato, then the head women's basketball coach at Rider, and Ferne Labati, her counterpart at near-by Trenton State, would visit with each other to talk hoops.

"We would use the salt-and-pepper shakers to diagram Xs and Os," Berenato said. "Then we would watch tapes of our games on the VCR. And when my husband, Jack, would wake up in the morning to go to work, Ferne and I would still be talking basketball."

Labati went on the become the head coach at the University of Miami, leading the Hurricanes to their first NCAA Tournament bid in 1989 as well as a 1991-92 season that included an 18-0 Big East record, a 30-2 overall mark and a No. 6 final national ranking, still a school record.

Berenato, who calls Labati her best friend, has meanwhile transformed Pitt women's basketball into a national power, earning three straight postseason bids for the first time in school history.

Now Berenato's long friendship with Labati has come full circle. After Labati was fired at Miami in 2005 after a 13-16 season and despite great career achievements, Berenato came to the rescue.

Hearing that there was an opening at Seton Hill, Berenato recommended Labati for the job.

Labati was hired in 2006, and now the friends are neighbors once again.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think this was going to happen," Berenato said. "I am thrilled. Women's basketball needs Ferne Labati. She was born to coach."

Labati said the Miami firing hit her hard.

"I was severely depressed," said Labati, 63, whose age-discrimination lawsuit was adjudicated in favor of the university. "My passion is basketball. And when you (have that taken away), you are lost in life.

"I feel bad for anyone who loses a job. But for me, it wasn't a job. It wasn't a career. To me, coaching is a lifestyle - eat, live, breathe, bleed basketball."

Labati said she stayed in a "funk" for 11 months. The only thing that got her out of it was when Seton Hill president JoAnne Boyle and athletic director Chris Snyder offered her the job.

"I am indebted to them for the rest of my life," Labati said. "Just the fact that we made it from NAIA to Division II in two years instead of the four years it normally takes ... this is like Fantasy Island for me."

Labati said life in Division I was hard.

"(At Miami,) I was never home," she said. "I was on the road (recruiting). I would sleep maybe 2-3 hours a night. You have no life in Division I."

She has one now in her third season at Seton Hill, a Catholic school with 1,800 students that was women-only until 2002.

The school built the 1200-seat McKenna Center three years ago, and the small gym fits the program.

The same can be said for Labati.

"Ferne was a natural for Seton Hill - Catholic, strong beliefs," Berenato said. "When I heard that job was open, I said, 'Oh my God! Ferne is a perfect fit.' "

After posting 12-11 and 12-15 records in her first two years at Seton Hill, the Griffins are 5-6 so far this season. But Labati has big plans.

"Our goal is to win the (Division II) national championship in the near future," she said. "We don't want to be average. We want to be overachievers."

The Griffins, with 10 of their 12 players from Pennsylvania, will return their entire squad for the 2009-2010 season. They will also add Clare Berenato, a 5-11 guard from Oakland Catholic and the daughter of the Pitt coach.

"Clare made her own decision," Agnus assured. "But I was ecstatic. I think Clare chose Seton Hill because she knows Ferne and knows she will have a strong and strict coach."

Labati is strict, but she is also a character, according to Seton Hill star Katie Lintner, a 6-0 junior forward from Johnstown.

Lintner said the players love the fact that Labati brings big-time experience and teaching skills. But they also love their coach's "goofy" side.

"There are so many funny stories about her, especially on road trips," Lintner giggles. "She always yells at people: 'This is an emergency situation. You need to get on the bus.'

"It's hilarious. So we made up these T-shirts that says 'Seton Hill' on the front and 'Emergency Situation' on the back."

Perhaps that is a fitting catchphrase for Labati, whose 2005 "Emergency Situation" was saved by a job at little school called Seton Hill.