Inside The Huskies

Ducks Hire Simmons as Assistant Coach for Women's Team

The former Husky long-range shooter flourished as Garfield High's girls basketball coach.

Dan Raley

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Tre Simmons, successful in just about everything he tries these days, has been hired by the University of Oregon as an assistant women's basketball coach — just months after leading his alma mater Garfield High School to a Class 3A girls state championship in his first season as head coach.

Post Montlake, the former Husky basketball standout has gone from a sparkling 14-season international playing career to assisting Brandon Roy and others with Garfield High's high-powered boys teams to a seamless transition to the female game.

Add to that, Simmons last month unveiled his own hand-crafted ale beer, which he christened "TR3," recognizing his proficiency at shooting from 3-point range.

When we last caught up with him right before the pandemic, Simmons expressed his desire to become a college coach, only he envisioned it happening in men's basketball. Coaching fate intervened.

"Of course, if I didn’t take that [Garfield girls] job, this wouldn’t have existed," Simmons told Todd Milles of SBLive. "If the Oregon staff had not seen me perform on the sidelines, I wouldn’t have had  [this] opportunity. I'm glad people talked me into taking the job and stepping in, and I did a pretty OK job getting that trophy."

Simmons, 41, played for a couple of NCAA tournament teams at the UW in 2004 and 2005 as this ultra-smooth 6-foot-5 shooter, teaming with Roy, Nate Robinson and current Husky men's assistant coach Will Conroy. 

He went to training camp with the Atlanta Hawks but didn't stick, and he later tried to go back for another shot at the NBA and ran into a lockout.

Simmons found his niche overseas, playing those 14 seasons in Spain, Greece, France, Israel, the Czech Republic and Russia. He was good in any language, especially with that wildly accurate shot of his. He won seven championships and was named MVP four times.

"I think I exceeded my expectations," he said.

At Garfield, he shared the boys' team coaching duties with Roy and Jamal Williams, all former UW players and teammates, and he really seemed to resonate with aspiring players. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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