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Thursday was a big day at Missouri State as the university introduced its new women’s basketball head coach Beth Cunningham.
She comes with a huge resume as both a coach and a player.Â
Missouri State Athletic Director Kyle Moats was ecstatic about landing the new head coach.
“It was apparent when we met with her, we knew,” Moats said.
Beth Cunningham has a resume that speaks for itself, as a player she held Notre Dame’s all-time scoring record for nearly 20 years.
As an assistant coach, she’s been to five final fours with her alma mater and won a national championship in 2018.
She spent the last two years at Duke, before both those stops she was a head coach at Virginia Commonwealth where she’s the all-time wins leader.
After a decade away from that post, she says she is ready to lead a program again.
“I feel like I’ve been in every situation. You know, I’ve been in a program like VCU initially. I left there, we were going to the postseason every year. I had a lot of pride in what we accomplished and built there, and then going to the University of Notre Dame and competing for a national championship year in and year out. Ultimately that’s what you dream about,” Cunningham said.
At her introductory news conference, Cunningham told her players she’d always have their back.
Forward Sydney Wilson describes the moment Cunningham met the team Wednesday evening, “It was awesome, she came into the locker room, we were all super excited. We all gave hugs and you know, we’re just ready for the season,” Wilson said.
The program has been so successful in recent seasons that Amaka Agugua-Hamilton and Kellie Harper were both lured away by power five programs.
Moats is hoping to build something longer term with Cunningham.
“We have to make this job as appealing as we possibly can. Then coaches have to win. Then if they decide they want to stay, that’s great. If we can get the Jon Leamy’s of the world, the Holly Hesse’s of the world, and the Keith Gutton’s of the world and they’re successful here, that’s great,” Moats added.
To hear Cunningham talk about this job, the program is off to a great start.
“Everyone dreams about being a head coach at a premier women’s basketball program if that’s the business that you’re in. So that’s why we jumped at this opportunity,” said Cunningham.
