Guth and Frese: Coaching Duo Relationship Comes Full Circle

As Loyola women’s basketball head coach Allison Guth and assistant coach Marsha Frese are underway in their third season with the team, the pair recently eclipsed 20 years since first connecting.

Then a fourth-year guard in the women’s basketball program at the University of Illinois, Guth’s 2003-2004 season saw a significant overhaul in the coaching staff led by Hall of Fame head coach Theresa Grentz. 

Among Grentz’s hires was Frese, who’d been brought on to assist in the program’s recruitment strategy. 

“I knew how much Coach Grentz respected and was stoked about getting someone of her caliber,” Guth said. “They had a really good rapport immediately when she came in. There was just an excitement from Coach Grentz about having fresh new ideas.”

Originally from Cedar Rapids, IA, the Frese family were no strangers to basketball, and the name had a major pull in women’s basketball, according to Guth. Frese’s sister Brenda — now in her 22nd year as women’s basketball head coach for the University of Maryland — found success with numerous NCAA appearances and led a NCAA championship-winning squad in 2006.

Despite initial apprehension over losing the core group of her coaches in her final year, Guth said her fears were quelled after Frese presented herself to the group as relationally-driven and willing to connect with players beyond the court.

Guth’s final playing season ended as the Fighting Illini dropped a Big Ten Tournament first-round matchup against the University of Michigan, and she took a job with Coca-Cola North America in Denver. Frese remained with Illinois until 2007.

Despite the switch from athletics to the business world, Guth and Frese remained well-connected via phone calls and check-ins — whether discussion was about careers, basketball or raising families.

When Guth made the decision to leave Denver and start her coaching career with Loyola as an assistant, she said she made a point of stopping in Champaign for some advice from Frese.

“I went to her office and just brought a notebook and a pen,” Guth said. “Sitting there, writing copious notes of how I could be the best assistant, how I could be a great recruiter, what I needed to focus on first.”

After moving on from the University of Illinois, Frese bounced around various parts of Illinois and Missouri before landing an assistant coaching opportunity at San Diego State University in 2020. 

Guth, on the other hand, took a brief stop in Missouri, but largely remained in Illinois until she started a stint at Yale University in 2015.

While Frese was on the West Coast, the rest of her family — husband Jason, daughter Kylan and son Camden — remained in Kansas City. 

Frese’s time in Arizona was cut short when her father, William, began a tough battle with cancer and she returned to be by his side in the Midwest. William died in early January 2022.

At the same time, Guth had been enlisted by Loyola to lead them through the new challenge of the Atlantic 10 Conference. As she began laying out her assistant staff, Frese was a “no-brainer.” 

Similarly, Frese said she was extremely considerate about what her next steps would be.

“I was coming off a family situation where I had left a job that I was pretty passionate about to be closer to my father,” Frese said. “I was passionate about still trying to coach, but I was very much not going to do it with just anyone or just anywhere.” 

After their initial conversation, Frese felt the situation she’d been handed by Guth was similar to hitting the lottery in terms of the “three P’s” — people, place and purpose. The next step was convincing the rest of the family, especially at a time where they had settled into life in Kansas City.

The first to receive Guth’s pitch was Jason.

“Guth did one of her best recruiting jobs on my husband,” Frese said. “Because she really had him on board before the kids were ever on board.”

The family eventually made the move, and Guth and Frese worked together to overcome an extremely difficult first season, an unfortunate byproduct of building a solid program with the right people, according to Guth — before righting the ship in year two. 

Their third year together has brought in a new perspective, as Kylan applied to Loyola and was accepted, declaring a major in political science with a minor in international business.

Despite the Frese-basketball connection, Kylan said she has no real interest in playing sports, as none of the options stuck with her as a kid — instead she said she chooses to appreciate basketball from a viewer’s perspective, going to as many of her mother’s games as she can.

Before setting up on the Lake Shore Campus, Kylan said she wasn’t initially aware of Loyola as an option, instead opting to look at schools in the Kansas area — she only considered Loyola after her mother introduced her to it.

Since stepping onto campus, Kylan said she makes weekly visits to Frese’s office to talk about life at school — sports are rarely discussed — and to grab a snack from a small vending machine in the Alfie Norville Training Facility.

“I go decently often, usually just when I know my mom is in the office,” Kylan said. “I just go up there to get some candy and when I go up there, there’s Coach Guth with some of the staff, some of the players, and I talk with them.”

When Kylan’s not directly in front of her, Frese will ask players, usually first-years, if they’ve spotted her walking around campus or in their dorms — often to little success. 

Kylan’s in-and-out behavior is largely attributed to a busy club schedule, evidenced by the fact she’s only been able to make it to two games so far this season — something she said she’s trying to amend.

For Guth, the weekly check-ins at the office resonate in a special way with her. 

“Talk about a full circle moment — Coach Frese is pregnant with Kylan when I’m leaving,” Guth said. “We as a group get to see Kylan now — she’s up in the office, checking in with Coach Frese. As a mom, when I look at Ray and Garvey, like our sons, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, how quickly that all goes.’ There’s so much you sacrifice being a college coach pouring into other humans’ children.”