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Baldwin hired to regenerate women's basketball
From ECU Media Relations with Bonesville staff contributions
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East Carolina women's basketball
coach Sharon Baldwin. Photo: ECU Media Relations. |
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GREENVILLE — After a far-ranging search for a women's hoops coach with a
winning background and a track record for attracting top-flight players,
Mike Hamrick found his target.
Sharon Baldwin, who served as head women's basketball coach at Mercer
University last season, has been named to take over East Carolina's women's
program.
The announcement was made by Hamrick, ECU's athletics director, at a
Monday news conference.
"We conducted a national search and looked for certain criteria we felt
we needed, especially someone that has been successful in recruiting," said
Hamrick. "I think that's the life-blood of any program.
"We were looking for someone who's been at a great program and has
recruited at the highest level and we think we got that. We also wanted to
try and get a proven head coach, a winner — someone who's won, understands
winning, and knows what winning's about..."
Baldwin, a native of Smyrna, GA, will be the ninth Pirate women's
basketball coach in the history of the program. She takes over the reigns of
a program that was guided by interim head coach Gene Hill since Dee Stokes
resigned this past January. Stokes had been ECU's head coach since 1998.
Baldwin hopes to hit the ground running in order to make ECU a factor in
a league for which she has substantial respect.
"I'm very excited about this opportunity to coach women's basketball here
at East Carolina. I appreciate Mike Hamrick for giving me the opportunity to
do so. Conference USA is a great women's basketball conference and I looked
forward to us being competitive hopefully sooner than later.
The 34-year-old Baldwin brings a reputation for building winning programs
in a short time. At Mercer, located in Macon, GA, Baldwin took over a
program that went 6-23 during the season prior to her arrival. Her Bears
went 16-13 in 2001-02, representing one of the biggest turnarounds in NCAA
Division I last season.
Baldwin's efforts, which included a run to the semifinals of the league
tournament, earned her Atlantic Sun Conference Coach-of-the-Year honors. Her
team was also successful in the classroom as four Bears earned Academic
All-Conference designation.
Prior to her arrival at Mercer, Baldwin served three years as head
women's basketball coach at Life University in Marietta, GA, where she
started the NAIA program from scratch and compiled a 53-14 record in two
seasons of competition. Her final squad there, in 2000-01, finished with a
31-3 record and No. 1 national ranking in two final polls and advanced to
the quarterfinals of the national tournament.
She was named WBCA NAIA Coach of the Year for the 2000-01 season and won
the Naismith Georgia NAIA Coach-of-the-Year award in both 1999-2000 and
2000-01.
Baldwin got her start in the coaching field at Georgia, her alma mater.
She was on the staff of Lady Bulldog coach Andy Landers for seven seasons.
Serving as Landers' top assistant, she gained a reputation nationally as
a strong recruiter and was responsible for landing All-Americans Rachel
Powell, Kedra Holland-Corn, and Coco and Kelly Miller. Georgia's recruiting
class was ranked No. 1 in the country in 1993 by Blue Star Report and was
recognized as the No. 2 class by that same publication in 1997.
During her tenure, Georgia won two Southeastern Conference Championships
and advanced to the NCAA Final Four on two occasions, including the 1996
National Championship game against the University of Tennessee. She earned
the Naismith National Assistant Coach-of-the-Year award in 1996.
She enjoyed a successful playing career at both the high school and
collegiate levels. At Smyrna's Old Wills High School, she averaged 21 points
as a senior in 1985 and was named the Georgia Class AAAA State Player of the
Year.
She signed out of high school with Kennesaw State University where she
played for two seasons before transferring to Georgia. At Kennesaw State,
she was an all-district and all-conference selection, averaging 18 points as
a freshman and 20 points as a sophomore. She is ranked 12th all-time in
scoring at KSU with 831 points and her 12 steals in 1985 agaisnt Tennessee
Temple is still a school record.
As a junior at Georgia, Baldwin averaged six points and three rebounds a
game. She improved those averages to 10 points and four rebounds as a
senior. Serving as team captain, she established career highs of 24 points
and 10 rebounds in a game against Ohio State.
Baldwin earned a bachelor's degree in education from Georgia in 1991 and
completed her Masters of Education there in 1997.
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02/23/2007 01:39:16 PM
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