An unexpected chapter in the Long Beach State women’s basketball programs offseason has concluded following the hiring of Amy Wright, the team’s eighth-ever head coach.
The news was announced in a press release Monday afternoon and came just 20 days after former head coach Jeff Cammon parted ways with The Beach to take the head coaching job at Saint Mary’s.
Wright comes into the program with over 20 years of experience coaching and is leaving behind her associate head coach role in Norman, Oklahoma where she helped coach the Sooners guard and assisted in leading the program to its second straight NCAA tournament appearance.
“She is a person of high character and is a proven winner,” interim athletics director Ted Kadowaki said in an official release revealing the new hire. “I am confident she will continue the tradition of success that has been built at Long Beach State, while bringing our women’s basketball program to new heights as she works towards winning future championships at the Beach.”
Finding a new head coach was a priority according to Kadowaki and Associate Athletic Director for Communications and Broadcast Roger Kirk, who utilized the assistance of the Collegiate Sports Associates in the search to fill the role. With the transfer portal deadline approaching on May 11 all men’s and women’s basketball athletes have to enter the portal by the due date but don’t have to commit to a school.
Before coaching, Wright was a four-year starter at Arkansas from 1999-2002 setting the program’s all-time assist total with 717 as well as playing in a school-record 131 consecutive contests. She went undrafted in the 2002 WNBA draft but signed with the league as a free agent before being assigned to the Detroit Shock though she would never play in the league.
With the departure of Cammon and inheriting a program about to lose seven seniors, Wright will be asked to stabilize the team using some of Cammon’s final recruits as well as the transfer portal which closes on May 11.
“It is a historic program located in the hotbed of California basketball talent,” Wright said. “I look forward to continuing that winning tradition of success for Long Beach State.”
A press conference will be held later this week or sometime early next week according to Kirk.