Marynell Meadors (born August 27, 1943) is a women's basketball coach at the college and professional level. She is currently the head coach and general manager of the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association and was one of the original eight head coaches when the WNBA started in 1997.

[edit] Biography

Meadors grew up in Nashville, Tennessee and began playing basketball at a young age. shooting at a backboard mounted against a willow tree. According to Meadors, she decided in seventh grade to become a basketball coach. After graduating from Hillsboro High School, she attended Middle Tennessee State University not far from Nashville. She graduated with a B. S. in Physical Education in 1965 and with an M. S. in Physiology of Exercise in 1966.^[1]

[edit] College coaching

Meadors was allowed by MTSU to begin coaching women's sports, and coached basketball at MTSU before it was a varsity sport and before Title IX was passed. In 1970, women's basketball became a varsity sport. She would coach twenty seasons at Tennessee Tech, finishing with a 363-138 (.724) lifetime record.^[2] Meadors would win six consecutive Tennessee state championships, four Ohio Valley Conference championships and two Metro Conference championships.^[3]

Looking for opportunities on a larger stage, she would coach at Florida State University from 1986 to 1996 where she lead the Seminoles to two NCAA tournament appearances and the 1991 Metro Conference Championship.^[4] She left Florida State after the 1995-96 season to take over coaching duties of the Charlotte Sting.^[2]

Meadors also served as an assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh from 2003 to 2005.^[5]

[edit] Professional coaching

In 1997, Meadors was hired as the head coach and general manager of the Charlotte Sting. It was the first year of the WNBA's existence, and she led the Sting to a 15-12 record. In 1998, the Sting finished 15-13. However, during a 5-7 start in 1999, Meadors was fired after an 82-56 loss to the Cleveland Rockers.^[6]

Between coaching jobs, Meadors would become director of scouting for the Miami Sol in 1999, before the team began play in 2000. She would keep the job until the team folded in 2002. Meadors would then be hired as an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh University women's basketball team^[7] and coach there between 2003 and 2005.

In April 2005, Meadors was hired as an assistant coach by former Washington Mystics head coach Michael Adams. Adams resigned from the Mystics in the same month to join the coaching staff at the University of Maryland, and new Mystics head coach Richie Adubato kept Meadors on the coaching staff. Meadors would remain with the Mystics during Adubato's stint with the Mystics, and would finish 2007 with Tree Rollins as head coach. (The Mystics would go 50-52 while Meadors was on the coaching staff.) ^[8][9]

[edit] Atlanta Dream

On November 27, 2007, Marynell Meadors was hired by owner Ron Terwilliger to become the coach of the new, Atlanta Dream WNBA franchise in Atlanta. Meadors presented detailed plans for the new franchise in an interview, and had a master list of WNBA players and college players, with notations as to which players might be protected and which college players might be worth acquiring. "I wouldn't give them the list until they hired me," said Meadors.^[10]

With the new team forced to acquire much of its talent from an expansion draft, and with key players being injured or not signing, the Dream endured an 0-17 start to the season and only won four games during their inaugural season.

The next year, the Dream went 18-16, finishing second in the Eastern Conference, and making the playoffs. This tied for the largest win turnaround in WNBA history of 14 game win total from the previous year (Detroit Shock 9 wins in 2002; 25 wins in 2003).

As general manager, Meadors was responsible for convincing veteran Chamique Holdsclaw to return from retirement,^[11] drafting rookies Angel McCoughtry (forward) from Louisville and Shalee Lehning (guard) from Kansas State, and getting Michelle Snow and Sancho Little in the supplemental draft from the folding of the Houston Comets.

Meadors was named WNBA Coach of the Year receiving 30 votes, finishing ahead of Lin Dunn of the Indiana Fever who received 6 votes.^[12]

[edit] References