Oklahoma women’s basketball coach Sherri Coale, who led the Sooners to three Women’s Final Four appearances and won six Big 12 regular season titles, announced her retirement on Wednesday.
“Being a head coach at the University of Oklahoma was the privilege of my life,” Coale said in a statement from the university. “… I am grateful to my players for being able to coach them. That is a gift that I have never taken lightly and a joy that I have never known before. I want them to know they left bits of themselves behind. Me and I’m better at it. “
Coale, 56, has been the Sooners’ coach since the 1996-97 season and led OU to four conference tournament titles. The team, which mainly used a rotation of seven players, finished 12-12 this season.
“It’s never easy to leave, no matter how great you are, because there’s always something left behind. It’s hard to leave these players,” said Coale. “This seasoned group of gritty competitors who built their wings in the fiercest wind clawed their way to the sanctity of the team. This season there will always be one tattooed on my heart. But that’s the trick of sport and the amazing gift of it. the team – it penetrates you and it never goes away. Lucky, lucky, lucky me. “
Overall, Coale, who led Oklahoma to 19 NCAA tournaments, had a record of 512-293 with the Sooners. The four-time Big 12 Coach of the Year reached the Final Four in 2002, 2009 and 2010.
She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
Sherri Coale has encouraged everyone, from players to peers, to ‘leave your story better than you found it,’ said athletic director Joe Castiglione in a statement. Its transformational impact on women’s basketball at OU, which in turn inspired generations of young girls in our state to play the sport, is nearly impossible to measure. There are certainly milestones, from halls of fame inductions to Final Fours. to conference titles for All-Americans and beyond, but it was the raising of the profile of the program to the nation’s elite that will be best remembered. “
In August, Coale apologized after some former black players wrote on social media that they felt there was an air of racial insensitivity to her program.
“Throughout my career, I have been proud of the work I have done on the field and the dedication to the personal growth of the women I have led,” said Coale, who is white, as part of her apology. in August. “While I have always intended to show concern for others, it is clear that there have been times when my intention has not been the same as my impact – I apologize for that.”
The Sooners had a 19-year series of NCAA tournaments that ended in 2019 after finishing 8-22.
Coale also served as the head coach for USA Basketball and led the women’s national team to the gold medal at the 2013 World University Games.