Two weeks ago the women’s basketball team announced Tynesha Lewis would be their new head coach.
“As we know women’s basketball and women’s sports in general have turned a big corner. We saw viewership of this year’s championship NCAA tournaments for women’s basketball outpace all others historically. That is a moment of intense pride for this university,” said Chancellor Laura Van Noort.
The decision came after a search committee that was made up of student-athletes, the athletic department staff, and many more people who care a lot about the success of UNCA athletics.
“Today marks a new chapter for our women’s basketball. College women’s basketball is at an all-time high. We expect both our teams to achieve great things. I thought it was very very important that we hire someone who shares the values that we have, values of doing things the right way, Values about caring about people, how you treat people and that comes across so much in every conversation.” said Janet Cone the UNCA athletics director.
The firing of the old head coach was a surprise and was controversial.
“The other thing that was very clear to me as soon as it was announced that we have an opening I can not tell you the number of people across the country, my phone was lighting up with text messages, what they didn’t know was we already had this person on our list we’ve been following her, that is very very important that we know that people supporting her, they have given us recommendations that we are in for a treat,” said Cone.
Coach Lewis came from a successful career at Elizabeth City State University. She had been the coach since the 2020-2021 season where she had a steady winning season every year.
“We are working with the number one dream team. I appreciate one of the things when you look forward to a new experience, the systems in place, and they are. I appreciate the work that we are going to do together. I’m super grateful for this opportunity. I want to be here as long as you’ll have me and we will do the work. we’re going to see something great. They already play a great D,” said coach Tynesha Lewis.
The future looks bright for the UNCA women’s basketball team and a lot of people are excited.
“I’m going to teach them all that I know, everything that I have. I want to be somebody, I want to be a coach, I want to be a mentor that you know that you can contact, that you know that trains you the best that you can be,” said Lewis.
