Boyle County Grad Melanie Sendek Glad Santa Clara is Playing UK

As soon as she saw the NCAA Tournament pairings, Melanie Scheuer Sendek was excited.

Her husband, Herb Sendek, is the head coach at Santa Clara and the Broncos (26-8), a 10 seed, face Kentucky (21-13), a seven seed, at 12:15 p.m. ET Friday in St. Louis in the Midwest Region. Sendek was an assistant coach with Rick Pitino at Providence for four years (1985-89) and then was on his Kentucky staff for four years (1989-1993) before getting his first head coaching at Miami University at age 30 in 1993.

Melanie Sendek is a former Boyle County High School player and 1980 graduate who met Sendek when he was coaching at Kentucky. Friday will be the first Kentucky game she has seen in person since they  left Lexington for Miami in 1993.

“I am so glad we are playing Kentucky,” she said Monday. “We are excited. It’s awesome. I am glad we got that seed , that spot, that team. It will just make it more magical when we win.”

Santa Clara has become a trendy upset pick over coach Mark Pope’s Wildcats but Melanie Sendek does have some mixed emotions about the game.

“We coached there, lived there. Our daughter was on the (UK) dance team there for two years. I lived in Kentucky most of my life growing up,” she said. “That place has a special place in my heart and I am sure it does for Herb, too.”

Melanie Sendek, 63, first met her husband after a Louisville-Kentucky game but they did not talk a lot. Later Pitino came into the health club where she worked as a chef.

“He started talking about Herb and told me all about him,” Melanie Sendek recalled Monday. “He took my (phone) number and I thought maybe I could babysit for him. Then the whole Kentucky team came in to do aerobics. Who does that? But Rick set that up so Herb would have to come in and meet me.”

Herb Sendek told her he didn’t need her phone number because Pitino had already given it to him and joked she should be careful who she shared her number with.

“We dated and got married in 1992,” Melanie Sendek said. “We were only in Kentucky another year before he took the job at Miami.

The couple has three daughters — Kristin, Catherine and Kelly. They were all at the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas when Santa Clara lost to  Gonzaga in the title game and will all be in St. Louis along with Melanie Sendek’s brothers, who are also Boyle County High School graduates.

“They all love basketball and love watching our team,” Melanie Sendek said.

She’s heard from friends in Boyle County and Kentucky and knows many will be watching to see her husband’s team play UK on Friday.

“We have potential. We can do it if we hustle and play hard,” Melanie Sendek, who always did both things as a player, said. “We have a lot of guys who can score. They are talented and they are athletic. They are all such good fiends. This team has great chemistry. They have been working so hard all year.

“We have a lot of guys who can score. They share the ball well. They do what it takes to win.”

She also knows many older UK fans might not recognize the way her husband coaches now.

“Herb is giving them (players) high fives and chest bumping them,” she said. “He used to just have that stoic look. Now he is hyping them up. He’s being a cheerleader this year and it has been helpful for his players. He is really getting into this team and they like that. He’s a different Herb than what a lot of UK fans who know him might remember.”