A new Delaware State University women’s basketball coaching era has begun, as DSU President Harry L. Williams today introduced Tamika L. Louis, a former championship junior college head coach and Division I assistant coach, as the new Lady Hornets head coach.

In introducing the new head coach at a May 31 media event, Dr. Williams said that he is “very happy” that Coach Louis has decided to become a member of the One Hornet Nation Family. “I expect that she will bring a high-level energy and excitement to our Lady Hornets’ basketball program,” the DSU president said. 

Coach Louis arrives at DSU with 14 years of coaching and recruiting experience. Most recently, she served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator during the 2011-2012 season at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

From 2009-2011, Coach Louis was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for St. John’s University. In addition to organizing all recruiting initiatives, game scouting, overseeing player academic progress and off-court mentoring, she was responsible for the development of St. John guards, including 2^nd Team All-Big East and Freshman All-American Shennieka Smith.

She served as an assistant coach and a recruiting coordinator for the University of Illinois from 2007-2009. Coach Louis was instrumental in signing the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked 2009 class in the country (according to ESPN Hoop Girl and Blue Star rankings), which included All-Americans Destiny Williams and Karisma Penn.

From 2002-2005, she was head women’s basketball coach at Mott Community College in Flint, Mich., where the team’s record was 58-33 over those three seasons. The highlight of her MCC coaching tenure was the 2004-2005 season in which the team boasted a 16-0 conference record (27-7 overall), was the champion of Region XII of the National Junior College Athletic Association and earned a bid in the NJCAA Tournament. During that stellar season, Coach Louis received the Michigan Community College Athletic Association and the Region XII Coach of the Year awards. 

From 1998 to 2002, she also had stints as an assistant and associate basketball coach at Central High School in Fresno, Calif., Rhodes High School in Cleveland, Ohio, and Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio.

After playing her freshman year (1993-1994) at West Virginia University, she transferred to Fresno State where she was the starting point guard and captain from 1995-1998. It was also at Fresno State where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree, both in communications.

In addition to her career progression in athletics, Coach Louis also worked for General Motors in management, product development, sales and marketing from 1999 to 2007, during which time she received the Corporate Woman of the Year Award in 2003.

Coach Louis said that as the Lady Hornets’ head coach, she will be a servant-leader and hopes her energy, dedication and work ethic will be infectious to the young women she will coach and mentor.

“We will establish a winning culture here with an expectation to excel in the classroom and on the court resulting in MEAC championships,” Coach Louis said. “Just as important, we will develop future leaders who, upon graduation, will make an immediate impact in our global society and positively represent DSU.”

The decision to hire Coach Louis culminated a two-month search process that began in late March. Serving on the Search Committee for the head coaching post were Dr. Gwendolyn Scott-Jones (committee chair), chair of the Department of Psychology; Dr. Jan Blade, faculty athletics representative; Candy Young, interim senior associate athletics director and senior woman administrator; Dr. Joe Amoako, professor of English and member of the Athletics Council; Dr. Josette McCollough, DSU alumna and former Lady Hornet student-athlete; Dr. Sonja McCoy, associate director of Mentoring and Advising; Dr. Bradley Skelcher, associate provost; and Kianna D’Oliveira, current Lady Hornet student-athlete.

Eric Hart, interim DSU athletics director, praised the search committee for its hard work and expressed great hopes for the Lady Hornets basketball program under Coach Louis.

“We are starting a new chapter in women’s basketball and I am confident that Coach Louis will be able to build upon a strong basketball legacy here at Delaware State University,” Mr. Hart said. “Coach Louis has built a reputation on the Division I landscape as being a fierce recruiter and has built top tier programs at Illinois and St. John’s, and was on her way to building a strong class at George Washington University.”

Coach Louis succeeds former Head Coach Ed Davis, who retired in March after leading the program for 12 years.