Courtesy: UAPB Athletics
The College of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Chris Robinson introduced Thursday that Erica Leak has been named the brand new head girls’s basketball coach. The 2005 WNBA Draftee will start her period with the Golden Lions Girls’s Basketball as this system’s tenth head coach.
With Leak’s being drafted on the highest degree of girls’s basketball within the (WNBA) and a number of other alternatives to educate on the collegiate degree, Coach Leak felt that the timing was now.
Previous to becoming a member of the Golden Lion Girls’s Basketball staff, Coach Leak led West Memphis Excessive Blue Devils program to the state finals for the primary time since 2003, incomes the title of Arkansas Excessive Faculty Coach of the 12 months in 2023. She spent 4 years as the pinnacle coach of the 5A East powerhouse program.
Throughout her tenure, Leak’s squad was a 4-time State qualifier, a 5A State runner-up, and went to the 5A State finals for the primary time in 20 years.
Leak started her teaching profession at Forest Metropolis Excessive Faculty earlier than becoming a member of West Memphis. Throughout her four-year tenure, she elevated the win proportion by a staggering 1,000%. Leak has performed a big function in creating a number of gamers who went on to play faculty basketball at each Division I and Division II establishments.
Being a local of Arkansas, Leak is extremely revered amongst faculty coaches and brings a wealth of data, elite basketball expertise, and a robust community of coaches and gamers from each the junior faculty degree and the elite AAU circuit. She has additionally directed and spearheaded camps with the Jr. NBA, Ja Morant, and Mike Conley.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Coach Leak and her household to Golden Lions Nation,” stated Robinson. “She rose to the highest of an extremely sturdy group of candidates and is uniquely poised to guide our program ahead. Her dynamic character and intensely high-level basketball intelligence will allow her to come back in and make a right away affect. Most significantly, she actually cares concerning the student-athletes expertise and can encourage our girls to realize greatness on and off the courtroom,” stated Robinson.
As a 2005 graduate of Louisiana Tech College, Leak was a 4-time Western Athletic Convention (WAC) Champion, WAC Freshman of the 12 months, and made an NCAA Event look all 4 years. She was chosen nineteenth general within the 2005 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics.
“I’m grateful to Athletic Director Chris Robinson and Chancellor Laurence Alexander for entrusting me with the duty of main the Golden Lion program. I’m excited to carry my aggressive edge, power, and successful spirit to this staff and attempt for fulfillment each on and off the courtroom with my gamers for a few years to come back.”
Throughout her time at Palestine-Wheatley Excessive Faculty, Leak had an distinctive basketball profession. She was acknowledged because the Gatorade Participant of the 12 months in 2001, named to the Parade All-American staff, and awarded the Most Helpful Participant of the 2001 Arkansas State All-Star recreation. Moreover, she turned the 2001 State Champion. Leak was additionally chosen to play on the 2000 USA U19 Qualifying Olympic Crew, the place she was coached by the legendary Geno Auriemma.
Leak was born and raised in Wheatley, Arkansas. Her household has a historical past of manufacturing standout Division I basketball gamers, together with her brother Jason Smith (who performed for Ole Miss) and her nephew Carl Baker (who performed for Arkansas), and her sister Angela Gardner. Moreover, she has 4 siblings who’ve all graduated from the College of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
“First, I need to specific my gratitude to my mother and father, Hurley and Dorothy Smith, for instilling in me the significance of household values. My siblings have been an amazing supply of assist for me, each as a participant and as a coach, and I’m grateful for his or her unwavering encouragement. My household has at all times emphasised the importance of Arkansas to me, and I carry that sentiment with me wherever I am going. I’ve deep roots in Arkansas and I’m desirous to leverage my community there.”
Leak obtained her Bachelor of Arts diploma from Louisiana Tech College in 2005 and her Grasp of Arts in Athletic Administration from Concordia College in 2023. She is fortunately married to Antonio and has 5 youngsters – daughters Nia, Tyra, Laila, Demi, and a son named Jace.
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