SC State promotes Tonya Mackey to head women's basketball coach
April 12, 2004
ORANGEBURG, S.C. - South Carolina State University announced Tonya Mackey as
it's new women's basketball head coach Monday afternoon. S.C. State interim Athletics
Director Charlene Johnson proudly presented Mackey as the new head coach at a
press conference in the Garnet and Blue Room on the campus of South Carolina
State
University.
Tonya Mackey
"We are pleased to present Coach Tonya Mackey as the new women's basketball
coach here at South Carolina State University," Johnson said. "We believe that
she possesses the knowledge and ability to move the women's basketball program
forward."
Mackey, the former associate head coach for the past two seasons, was introduced
as the successor to the departing Keshia Campbell, who resigned at the end of the 2003-
04 season.
"I'm elated about being the women's basketball coach at S.C. State," Mackey said
at an afternoon press conference. "To me, South Carolina State University is the number
one school in the country."
The head coaching position will be the first for Mackey who has been a Lady
Bulldog assistant coach for SCSU women's basketball for the past seven seasons,
including associate head coach the last two seasons.
"Coach Mackey has been a part of the basketball tradition here for several years,
both as a player and as an assistant coach," Johnson added. "She's familiar with the
university's expectations for our women's program - which has enjoyed many successes
and achievements over the years - and has accepted the challenge to return the program
to those lofty heights."
Mackey was a member of the staff that led the team to consecutive 18-win
seasons in 2000-01 and 2001-02. She also spent three seasons as a Lady Bulldog player
from 1987-1990, earning three letters and several team and conference honors.
"I was a student, a student-athlete here, and I've been an assistant coach here,"
Mackey added. "What better place to give your all than the place where you received
your upbringing."
Prior to returning to S.C. State in 1997, Mackey served as an assistant women's
basketball coach at Kentucky State University where she helped to guide the
Thoroughbreds to the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Western Division title
as well as the SIAC championship in 1996.
