ROCK HILL, SC—Marlene Stollings, the associate head coach at Ole Miss and scoring legend as a high school and college player in Ohio, was introduced on Tuesday as Winthrop University's new head women's basketball coach.
Stollings becomes the 13th different coach in school history as she comes to Winthrop after spending the previous four seasons at the University of Mississippi. As an Associate Head Coach at Ole Miss, her duties included recruiting and player development. Stollings possesses an exceptional ability to develop talent, which she notably proved with the Rebels.
“I'm so excited and honored to be an Eagle,” said Stollings. “I'd like to start by thanking Tom Hickman and president Dr. DiGiorgio for giving me this opportunity. I'm extremely anxious to meet with the team. Our success may not come overnight, but it will come. Winning will become expected here. I want to be the team our opponents aspire to be.”
“We were overwhelmed with the interest in the women's basketball job here at Winthrop,” said Winthrop Athletic Director Tom Hickman. “As a result, the screening process took a bit longer than we anticipated. During that process, Marlene Stollings' background and her experience at many Division I levels clearly stood out. She is a proven recruiter and has shown her ability to lead a program as evidenced by her tenure as a successful interim head coach. We are happy to have her taking the reins of our women's basketball program.”
In 2010, Nike recognized Stollings as one of the top assistant coaches in the country and she received an invitation to attend the Villa 7 Consortium, which is reserved for the cream of the crop in assistant coaches nationally.
The 1998 graduate of Ohio University brings a wealth of coaching and recruiting experience to the Lady Eagle program. Her recruiting experience extends to many levels having coached in the Southeastern Conference, Atlantic 10, Horizon League and Sun Belt. She began her coaching career with Jacksonville in 2001-02 as an administrative assistant and quickly moved on to New Mexico State where she eventually became the interim Head Coach, leading the team to a 9-3 record in that time. She moved on to Wright State in 2003 and then moved to St. Louis University for two seasons before joining Ole Miss in 2007. Every program she's been a part of has set several school records and seen a major improvement in player development.
In her tenure at Mississippi, Stollings helped develop Bianca Thomas into a 2010 first round draft pick of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. She also played an instrumental role in the development of Shantell Black, who finished fourth all-time in Ole Miss record book with 522 assists and Kayla Melson who more than doubled her scoring average as a junior.
As a collegiate player at Ohio University, Stollings had an impressive senior season as she led the Mid-American Conference in scoring and eighth nationally with 22.9 points per game. She earned All-Mid-American Conference First Team honors and served as the team captain the same season. As a prep star, Stollings finished her career with 3,514 points, which is the leading scorer in Ohio high school basketball for both boys and girls; a record that remains the highest in Ohio history.
