Oklahoma State Coaches Die in Plane Crash - Plane Crash

The Oklahoma State women's basketball coach and assistant coach Thursday night, were killed when the small plane that crashed carried out on a recruiting trip to Arkansas, said the university.The death of Kurt Budke, the head coach, and Miranda Serna, an assistant came a decade after two Oklahoma State men's basketball players and eight others died in a plane crash near Denver on the way home from a game at the University of Colorado at Boulder.



The pilot, Olin Branstetter, 82, a former Oklahoma state senator, and his wife, Paula, died on Thursday also bring in the crash. They were aboard a single-engine Piper about 45 miles west of Little Rock, said Oklahoma State officials.

The cause of the crash, which happened in clear weather, was not immediately known. The National Transportation Safety Board, told the Associated Press that it sent investigators to the site, near Perryville, and that it may take several months to determine the cause of the crash.

Budke, 50, had just started his seventh season at Oklahoma State and had a 112-83 record there. He had women's basketball at O.S.U. subsequently transformed into the mighty Big 12 Conference in a program that reached the NCAA Tournament in three of the last five years.

In 2009-10, the Cowgirls won 24 games, including six against top-25 teams, and reached a top 10 ranking for the first time in team history. The star player on the team that finished record point guard Andrea Riley, her career with 2835 points, a conference.

"The Oklahoma State family of this tragedy is devastated," said Burns Hargis, Oklahoma State president, said in a statement. "Kurt was an exemplary leader rose and a man of character who had a great influence on his student-athletes. He was an outstanding coach and a wonderful person. Coach Budke our women's basketball program to a new level of success. He and its employees raised our profile in the nation's toughest conference. "

Serna, who was 36, was in her seventh season as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State team and was the recruiting coordinator. As a player she had Trinity Valley Community College of Texas, led the junior college national title in 1996. In 1999, as an assistant coach at Trinity Valley, Budke was the head coach, she helped the university to conduct another national junior college title. Both Budke and Serna had then at Louisiana Tech, before they care committed to Oklahoma State.

Serna was "an up-and-coming coach and an excellent role model for our young ladies," said Hargis.

Oklahoma State, which was canceled in 1-0 games this season, it had planned for Saturday and Sunday.

Budke, a native of Salina, Kansas, is survived by his wife, Shelley, a daughter, Sara, who attended Oklahoma State, and two sons, Alex and Brett. Serna, a native Guadalupita, NM, is survived by her mother, Nettie Herrera, and a sister, Cassandra Herrera.

On 27 January 2001, a Beechcraft King Air 200, donated by a booster crashed while carrying players from Oklahoma State men's basketball team at home in Colorado on a snowy day.

A N.T.S.B. Report cites a loss of power and disorientation by the pilot, according to the AP, and led to stricter controls on borrowed aircraft used by Oklahoma State sports teams.