Former WNBA guard Tamara Moore made history last week when she accepted a position as head coach of the men’s basketball team at Mesabi Range College, a junior college in Virginia, Minnesota. Moore is believed to be the only woman currently holding a head coaching position for a men’s collegiate basketball team.
Tamara Moore is the latest — and likely only — woman head coach in men’s college basketball
Tamara Moore is taking over Mesabi Range College and continuing her legacy of growing the game basketball in Minnesota.
Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images
”For me, it’s not new, just being someone that’s always tried to push the game forward,” Moore said, per ESPN. “I think it means a lot, looking at Becky Hammon and Teresa Weatherspoon and Swin Cash, all women I played with or against in the WNBA, who opened the door for this opportunity. The biggest thing for me is those doors led to this door.”
A six-year WNBA vet, Moore has had a huge influence already on the basketball scene in Minnesota. In 1998, she led Minneapolis North High School to a state championship, was named Minnesota Miss Basketball, and was selected as an All-American.
Four years later, she suited up for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx. Prior to accepting the job at Mesabi Range, Moore coached girls’ basketball at Edison High School in Minneapolis. Now, she’ll have a chance to grow basketball in the state where she was born and raised even further.
Moore isn’t the first woman to coach men’s college basketball. As ESPN noted, Kerri-Ann McTiernan coached Kingsborough Community College in New York City to a conference title in 2000.
Mesabi Range competes in the Minnesota Community College Conference. They finished the 2019-20 season with a 6-19 record.
See More:
