Top 5 sports stories of the 2004-05 school year… as voted on by the Northern Star sports staff. With many big events throughout the school year, many notable stories were left off the list.

When seven-year NIU women’s basketball coach Carol Hammerle retired March 8, NIU athletics director Jim Phillips had one obvious candidate to replace her.

Carol Owens, who is the career leader in points scored at NIU, was hired as the new coach one week after Hammerle’s retirement.

“I had a short list of candidates that I was really comfortable with,” Phillips said. “But I wanted someone who fit Northern Illinois University. She’s an institutional fit.”

Owens led the Huskies to their first-ever NCAA berth in 1990 as a player and will now try to lead them to their first since 1995.

Owens spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach at Notre Dame and helped take the Fighting Irish to 10-straight NCAA tournaments.

“Northern has been in my heart since I left,” Owens said. “The sky’s the limit for this program.”

Hammerle, who led the Huskies to a 7-21 record last season, said she will not coach again and that the program is headed in the right direction.

“It was a struggling program when I took over, and I think that it’s definitely a better program now with a talented group of girls,” Hammerle said on March 21.