Memphis assistant takes HBCU job

Whitney Bays, a former assistant at Division I Memphis, is now the top coach of the ladies’s basketball program at West Virginia State College. The transfer brings a high-level coach to a Division II HBCU with championship aspirations.

Bays spent the 2023–2024 season at Memphis, the place she coached each put up gamers and guards. She performed a key function in recruiting and movie preparation whereas additionally overseeing participant improvement and teachers. Whereas at Memphis, she labored with a number of standouts, together with AAC First Group honoree Tilly Boler and All-Defensive Group choice Alasia Smith.

Earlier than her time at Memphis, Bays served as an assistant at Gardner-Webb College. There, she helped this system put up a 29–5 report and win the Large South Championship. The workforce went undefeated in convention play and earned an NCAA Event bid—their first since 2010. She coached the league’s Participant of the Yr and Defensive Participant of the Yr.

Bays’ teaching roots additionally embrace three seasons at Huntington Excessive College in West Virginia. She helped lead the workforce to back-to-back state titles and a 24–1 report in 2021. Her focus prolonged off the court docket, guaranteeing educational success via research halls and trainer engagement.

As a participant, Bays was a two-time Gatorade Participant of the Yr in West Virginia. At Purdue, she earned Second Group All-Large Ten honors and set a faculty rebounding report. Her skilled profession spanned 5 nations, together with a championship and MVP season in Puerto Rico.

Now, she takes over at an HBCU with a wealthy athletic custom. Her West Virginia ties and successful background convey contemporary vitality to the Yellow Jackets.

This rent makes Bays one in every of a number of coaches lately to depart a Division I function for an HBCU head teaching alternative. Her path from Memphis to Institute reveals that Division II HBCUs proceed to draw skilled expertise prepared to guide.

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