Fast Break Points - 2025-26 Catamount Basketball Game Program

Page 1


WESTERN CAROLINA ATHLETICS – DEPARTMENT SENIOR STAFF

DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS KYLE PIFER

KYLE PIFER was named Western Carolina Director of Athletics by Chancellor Kelli R.Brown on Monday, May 19, R. Brown 2025. Pifer served as the deputy athletics director and chief operating officer for WCU Athletics since November 2020 and, most recently, as the interim director of athletics.

Pifer served as a WCU Athletics senior staff member and second in command within the department for the previous four years, managing all internal functions for the Catamounts, including budget and finance, capital projects, sport administration, event and facility operations, and human resources.

A skilled administrator, Pifer has spent the past 23 years of his professional career working in higher education and intercollegiate athletics. He served previously as the senior associate athletics director for compliance at Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon, from 2013 until 2020, when he came to Cullowhee. He also held an associate athletic director position at the University of Washington in Seattle from 2009 until 2013 and worked in NCAA compliance positions at Oregon State and Gonzaga.

Pifer’s professional experience in major collegiate athletic conferences, such as the Pac-12, combined with his strong relationships on campus, in the community, with regional leaders, and within the Southern Conference, make him a good fit to lead the Catamount athletics program.

Over the last four years in Cullowhee, Pifer has spearheaded the formation of the sport administrator committee and the student-athlete well-being committee, both aimed at the better management of the teams and to evaluate the student-athlete experience at Western Carolina. He has also served on numerous campus committees, including the institutional planning, well-being, health and safety, and emergency crisis management teams.

Pifer began his professional career as an NCAA compliance officer in 2003 at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. In 2007, Pifer departed for the first of his two stints at Oregon State, beginning as an assistant director of compliance. He then took on the role of the director of compliance at the University of Washington in Seattle, advancing rapidly and earning four promotions in under five years, working his way to an associate athletics director position. He was a member of the UW Athletics department senior staff.

As the senior associate athletics director for compliance at Oregon State, Pifer has experience within on-

campus and department operations, including a wealth of knowledge on NCAA compliance within the changing landscape of intercollegiate athletics. As a part of the OSU athletics executive staff, he was the sport supervisor for the Beavers’ men’s golf and the women’s cross country/track and field teams. He was also particularly influential in the development of the Oregon State track and field program, rekindling the program after a nearly 20-year hiatus from the sport sponsorship.

During his eight-plus years at OSU, concluding as the senior compliance administrator, Pifer served on a variety of campus committees, including the Enrollment Management Leadership Team, the High Incident and Event Group, and the Criminal History Attendance and Participation Committee.

A native of Frankfort, Indiana, Pifer is a former intercollegiate student-athlete at Francis Marion University, where he was a four-year track and field letter winner and earned academic all-district honors. He possesses a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Francis Marion where he was a member of the Francis Marion Honor Society and graduated summa cum laude in 1999. He earned his master’s degree in sport and athletic administration from Gonzaga in 2021.

Pifer and his wife, Sydney, have three daughters: Reese, Delaney, and Ellis.

Daniel Hooker Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations
Wes Cogdill Associate Athletic Director for Development
Travis Chandler Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance
Ashleigh Simmons Senior Associate AD for Student Success (SWA)
Todd Lawing Deputy Athletics Director
Dr. Alex Macaulay Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR)
Amanda Murchie Assistant Athletic Director for Business
Chad Gerrety Senior Associate AD for External Affairs

WESTERN CAROLINA ATHLETICS – CATAMOUNT HEAD COACHES

ALAN BECK baseball
TIM CRAFT men's basketball
JONATHAN TSIPIS women's basketball
CORBIN HUNTLEY cheerleading
KERWIN BELL football
TIM ECKBERG men's golf
ANNE MARIE COVAR women's golf
CHAD MILLER women's soccer
JIM CLIFT softball
BRET BEAVER women's tennis
JESSE NORMAN cross country / track & field
KAREN GLOVER volleyball

CATAMOUNT MEN'S BASKETBALL

2025-26 SCHEDULE

TIDJIANE DIOUMASSI

JULIEN SOUMAORO
MARCUS KELL

HEAD COACH TIM CRAFT

Second Season at Western Carolina

An experienced head coach with regional ties, Tim Craft was named head men's basketball coach at Western Carolina University on Wednesday, March 23, 2024. He was formally introduced to the Catamount Nation on Tuesday, March 19.

Craft spent 11 years as the head coach at Gardner-Webb where he averaged over 17 wins per season. He is the 20th men's basketball head coach in Western Carolina history.

In his debut season in Cullowhee, Craft guided Bernard Pelote to eclipse 1,000 career points as the senior finished sixth in league play, averaging 16.3 points per game to pace the Catamounts. Pelote also finished second in the league with 227 total rebounds and 181 defensive rebounds for WCU. Redshirt sophomore Marcus Kell had a breakout season with a pair of SoCon Player of the Week awards averaging 14.7 points per game in SoCon play while eclipsing double figures 16 times, including 12 straight to close the season, while Cord Stansberry also set the school-record for free throw percentage on the year at 91.3 (min. 70 makes).

As a team, WCU led the SoCon in defensive rebounds per game (28.1) and was second in total rebounds per game (38.4).

Including a pair of 20-win seasons, Craft led the Runnin' Bulldogs to eight .500-or-better overall finishes during his tenure. His 2018-19 Big South tournament championship squad won 23 games including two over ACC-foes Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, finishing the season ranked No. 25 in the MidMajor Top 25 poll. In 2014-15, GWU finished with 20 wins with a pair of Power Five conference wins at Clemson and Purdue.

All told, Craft's teams won six games against Power Five conference opponents. He also secured wins over his new team, Western Carolina, in three straight seasons.

Just the fourth Big South head coach to win at least 15 games in each of his first four seasons – and the 10th coach to reach 50 overall wins through his third year – Craft won 188 games during his tenure at Gardner-Webb including 102 in league play to rank fourth all-time among the all-time win-

TIM CRAFT

Career Coaching Experience:

Western Carolina, Head Coach – (2024- )

Gardner-Webb, Head Coach – (2013-24)

East Carolina, Assistant Coach – (2010-13)

Auburn, Assistant Coach – (2008-10)

Auburn, Director of Basketball Operations – (2007-08)

Gardner-Webb, Assistant Coach – (2004-07)

Pensacola Junior College, Assistant Coach – (2002-04)

Robert F. Munroe School, Varsity Boys Head Coach – ('01-02)

Robert F. Munroe School, Asst. Varsity / Head JV Coach – ('00-01)

ningest coaches in conference history. He guided the Runnin' Bulldogs to a pair of postseason appearances including the College Basketball Insider (CBI) tournament in 2015 and the school's first-ever NCAA tournament appearance in 2018-19. The only Big South head coach to post 10 seasons of 10 or more league wins in conference history, Craft's squads did not finish below sixth in the Big South Conference standings during his tenure.

Runnin' Bulldog men's basketball student-athletes earned a combined 26 All-Big South Conference postseason honors between the first and second teams, honorable mentions, and all-freshman plaudits over his 11 seasons leading the GWU program. Six of his players collected multiple seasonal awards from the league's head coaches including three-time All-Big South honorees Tyrell Nelson (All-Freshman, 2013-14; 2nd team 2015-16, '16-17) and David Efianayi (HM, 2016-17; 2nd team 2017-18, '18-19). Also in 2023-24, Lucas Streiber became just the third Gardner-Webb player to collect the Big South's Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor, the second under Craft as Will Byron earned the distinction back in 2013-14.

Most recently coming as the head coach, Craft had a pair of stints at Gardner-Webb, first as an assistant coach from 2004-07 before joining Jeff Lebo's staff at Auburn as the director of basketball operations in 2007-08. He was promoted by Lebo to an assistant coaching role the following season where he spent two years on the Plains until making the move to ECU with his head coach.

Auburn averaged 18 wins per season with Craft on staff over three years. The 2008-09 Tigers finished with the second-most wins in program history by going 24-12 and placed second in the SEC with a 10-6 record. That squad reached the quarterfinals of the NIT in postseason play.

While at ECU, Craft helped the Pirates to its best season in school history in 2012-13, as the Pirates won a school-record 23 games and capped the run with the CollegeInsider. com Postseason Tournament (CIT) championship.

During his three-year stint as an assistant at GardnerWebb, Craft mentored four all-conference performers for the Runnin' Bulldogs in the ASUN Conference. He recruited and coached Tim Jennings, the program's first two-time ASUN Defensive Player of the Year, as a part of assembling a Top 50 national recruiting class at GWU in 2006. He was part of Gardner-Webb's first team title as an NCAA Division I program, winning the ASUN regular-season title in 2004-05, advancing to the conference title game. The regular-season crown represented the first ASUN title for GWU in any sport.

Craft began his coaching career as the assistant varsity coach and the head junior varsity coach at Robert F. Munroe School in Quincy, Fla., in 2000-01, and was later promoted to head varsity coach at Munroe in 2001-02. He made the move into the collegiate ranks in 2002-03 as an assistant at Pensacola (Fla.) Junior College (PJC) under head coach Paul

Swanson. While at PJC, the Pirates posted a 20-win season and were ranked as high as No. 13 nationally.

Originally from Tallahassee, Fla., Craft earned a Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in secondary education from the University of Florida in 2000. He is married to the former Jessica Arenas of Tallahassee, Fla. The couple has four children – Lola, Macy, Bennett, and Christian.

COACHING CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

• Secured 188 career head coaching wins at GardnerWebb – fourth all-time among head coaches within the Big South Conference, by-passing former Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey;

• Became the fourth coach in Big South history to win at least 15 games in his first four seasons … the 10th coach in league history to reach 50 overall victories in his third season in the conference … and the only coach in Big South Conference history to have 10 seasons of 10 or more victories in league play;

• His Gardner-Webb teams scored SIX victories over Power Five competition including defeating Clemson (ACC), Georgia (SEC), Georgia Tech (ACC), Nebraska (Big Ten), Purdue (Big Ten), and Wake Forest (ACC);

• Led Gardner-Webb to a pair of postseason appearances ed during his tenure: guided the Runnin' Bulldogs to the CBI in 2014-15 – just the school's second postseason bid in its NCAA Division I history … Led Gardner-Webb to the program's first-ever NCAA D-I Tournament appearance in 2019 … In that first-round game, built the largest lead of the tournament over eventual national champion Virginia as the Runnin' Bulldogs led the Cavaliers by 14 points;

• Finalist for the 2020 Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award, Award, which is presented annually to recognize those who not only achieve success on the court but also display moral integrity off it as well;

• Was a finalist for the 2014 Joe B. Hall Award, which is presented annually to the top first-year head coach in college basketball by CollegeInsider.com;

• Was part of an ECU men's basketball staff that won 23 games in 2012-13 including winning the CollegeInsider. com Postseason Tournament (CIT) championship.

CATAMOUNT MEN'S BASKETBALL – ASSISTANT COACHES & STAFF

Andre GRAY Associate Head Men's Basketball Coach
Andrew BROWN Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator
Jimmy MITCHELL Graduate Assistant
Will RING Graduate Assistant
Connor STARK Graduate Assistant
AJ STROOP Graduate Assistant
Adam BULLARD Assistant Men's Basketball Coach
Jackson SIMMONS Assistant Men's Basketball Coach

WESTERN CAROLINA CATAMOUNTS 2025-26 MEN’S BASKETBALL ROSTER

CATAMOUNT MEN'S BASKETBALL – DID YOU KNOW...?

•Western Carolina men's basketball has FOUR honored jersey numbers through its history – #15 RONALD ROGERS (1949-53), #20 MEL GIBSON (1959-63), #10 HENRY LOGAN (1964-68) and #32 KEVIN MARTIN (2001-04);

• RONALD ROGERS as Western Carolina's first basketball All-American, named NAIA All-America in 1951, 1952, and 1953, as well as a three-time first-team North State Atlantic Conference pick ... Rogers scored 1,960 career points ... He led Western Carolina to its first 20-win season in 1953 (22-8) ... He was inducted into the Western Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990, WCU's first-ever induction class, and his number was retired on February 9, 2002;

• MEL GIBSON was an all-star on WCU's most heralded basketball team as he was a first-team Associated Press and NAIA All-American selection on the 1963 team that won its way to the NAIA National Championship Game ... Ranks second on WCU's all-time scoring list and averaged over 20 points per game as a junior and senior leading the Catamounts to 49 wins ... He was a key player on USA's gold medal team in the Pan American Games in Brazil in 1963 and was drafted in the second round by the Los Angles Lakers and played extensively as a rookie ... He was inducted into the Western Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992 and his jersey retirement ceremony was on January 14, 2006;

•Western Carolina’s HENRY LOGAN – the program’s all-time leading scorer –helped break the color barrier in college basketball when he signed with WCU in 1964 becoming the first African-American collegiate athlete in the history of North Carolina and perhaps at any predominantly white institution in the southeastern United States ... Logan scored an astounding 3,290 points – an average of 30.7 points per game – during his WCU career and was a four-time NAIA All-America selection ... One of 11 in WCU’s initial Athletics Hall of Fame Class in 1990, Logan was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2000;

• WCU gave birth to the 3-point shot in the NCAA as former Catamount RONNIE CARR buried the NCAA's first 3-pointer in WCU’s 77-70 victory over Middle Tennessee on Nov. 29, 1980 … the ball he used is on display at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. … The shot was made from the left corner with 16:09 left in the first half (7:06 pm) ... Dr. Carr is in the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame;

• WCU finished as the 1963 NAIA National Runner-Up under head coach Jim Gudger ... With a 28-7 overall record, WCU won the Carolina’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAC) tournament and the NAIA District title ... the Catamounts then rattled off wins on consecutive days over Eastern Montana, Miles, Lewis & Clark and Fort Hayes State before falling in the championship game to Texas Pan American;

• In its only NCAA tournament appearance, the 1996 Catamounts led by WCU Hall of Famer ANQUELL McCOLLUM nearly pulled off the most improbable of upsets as the No. 16 seed fell by two, 73-71, to No. 1 seed Purdue in Albuquerque, N.M. ... the game was tied 71-71 with under three minutes to play with Purdue’s Brandon Brantley scoring the game’s final bucket with 1:30 showing on the clock at “The Pit” ... WCU had two looks at both a game-winning and a game-tying shot inside the closing seconds but both attempts missed;

• WCU’s bid to play in the CollegeInsider.com Post-Season Tournament (CIT) following the 2009-10 season represented the Catamounts’ return to post-season play for the first time since 1996 ... WCU made its third post-season appearance in 201516 when it traveld to Burlington, Vt., in the first-ever meeting against the Vermont Catamounts in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) with a fourth coming in 2022-23 with a trip to Daytona Beach, Fla., for the 20223 CBI postseason event;

• WCU’s most recent former player to play in the NBA is KEVIN MARTIN, who played for the Catamounts from 2001-04 ... Martin, a 2019 inductee into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame and the first-round pick of the Sacramento Kings in ‘04, was the FIRST Catamount to ever be selected in the first round of the NFL, NBA or MLB Draft ... Martin had his jersey number hung in the rafters on Dec. 9, 2023 and was inducted into the Southern Conference Hall of Fame in 2024;

• FRANKIE KING (1993-95) and KEVIN MARTIN (2001-04) were both named to the Southern Conference's 100th Anniversary Men's Basketball team in 2021;

•Five Catamounts have been named SoCon Player of the Year: TERRY BOYD (1991-92, media); FRANKIE KING (1993-94, media; 1994-95, media & coaches); ANQUELL MCCOLLUM (1995-96, coaches); BOBBY PHILLIPS (1997-98, coaches); and most recently, VONTERIUS WOOLBRIGHT (2023-24).

RONALD ROGERS
MEL GIBSON
HENRY LOGAN
RONNIE CARR
TERRY BOYD
FRANKIE KING
ANQUELL McCOLLUM
BOBBY PHILLIPS
KEVIN MARTIN
VONTERIUS WOOLBRIGHT

CATAMOUNT WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

2025-26 SCHEDULE

KEHINDE OBASUYI
ALLY HOLLIFIELD
ARY DIZON

HEAD COACH JONATHAN TSIPIS

Second Season at Western Carolina

A former head coach at both George Washington University and the University of Wisconsin, JONATHAN TSIPIS was named the head women's basketball head coach at Western Carolina University on April 5, 2024. Tsipis (pronounced SIPiss) came to Cullowhee having most recently served on the staff at Marquette University.

Tsipis is the 14th different head women's basketball coach in Western Carolina history dating back to 1965. He is a veteran coach with 28 years of experience, including nearly a decade as a NCAA Division I women's basketball head coach.

In his first season on the Catamount bench, Tsipis guided WCU to 13 seasonal victories, the first double-digit win total in 10 years and the most for the program in over a decade. The 2024-25 Catamounts posted 10 nonconference victories and had seven wins on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center.

Transfer forward AC Carter earned first-team All-Southern Confernece plaudits, the first Catamount to earn an all-conference first-team nod since 2011-12.

Tsipis spent two seasons (2022-24) as the Advisor for Scouting and Analytics at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis., alongside Megan Duffy, current head coach at Virginia Tech who played for him while an assistant at Notre Dame and coached under him at George Washington. The Golden Eagles women's basketball team went 44-20 over those two years with consecutive 20-win seasons with Tsipis on the staff. in 2023-24, Marquette posted the best seasonal start in program history. The Golden Eagles were one of just three non-Power 5 programs in the country to receive at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament in 2022-24.

Before starting on staff in the "Original Brew City" in September 2022, Tsipis spent five seasons on the sidelines an hour to the west at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. With the Badgers, Tsipis coached players to eight All-Big Ten honors including a pair of 1,000-point scorers Marsha Howard and Cayla McMorris. His 2018-19 season recruiting class featured three Top 100 players marking one of the highestranked classes in program history.

Tsipis coached the Badgers to their best finish in nearly a decade in 2018-19 with a 15-win season and helped the team advance to the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals for the first time since 2013.

Prior to his time at Wisconsin (2016-21), Tsipis served as the head coach at George Washington from 2012-16 where he helped turn the Colonials into a national power.

Taking over a program that went 11-18 the year prior to his arrival, GW posted a record of 92-38 through four seasons with Tsipis at the helm. In his final two seasons in the nation's capital, the team had a 55-11 record with Atlantic-10 titles and NCAA Tournament appearances in both years. In

JONATHAN TSIPIS Collegiate Coaching Experience:

Western Carolina University, Head Coach (2024 –)

Marquette University, Advisor for Scouting & Analytics (2022-24)

University of Wisconsin, Head Coach (2016-21)

George Washington University, Head Coach (2012-16)

University of Notre Dame, Associate Head Coach (2008-12) University of Notre Dame, Assistant Coach (2003-2008)

UNC Greensboro, Director of Basketball Operations (2002-03)

Elon University, Men's Basketball Assistant Coach (2000-02)

LeMoyne College, Men's Basketball Assistant Coach (1999-2000)

Cornell University, Men's Basketball Assistant Coach (1996-99)

Duke University, Men's Basketball Staff Assistant (1995-96)

2014-15, Tsipis was named the A-10 Coach of the Year after seeing the Colonials peak as high as 19th in the national polls. He also coached and helped develop two-time honorable mention All-American and 2016 WNBA first-round draft pick Jonquel Jones, who was inducted into the GW Athletics Hall of Fame in February 2024.

In four seasons at George Washington, Tsipis led the Colonials to three postseason appearances including the WNIT third round in 2013-14 and consecutive NCAA tournament berths in 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Working under Women's Basketball Hall of Fame head coach Muffett McGraw at Notre Dame from 2003-12, Tsipis made a name for himself as one of the top assistant coaches in the country with a strong track record of player development. In 2008 he was promoted to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, and that same year was named the BasketballScoop.com National Assistant Coach of the Year.

In his nine seasons with the Fighting Irish, the team compiled a 228-77 overall record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament every year including five Sweet 16 appearances and national runner-up finishes during his final two seasons.

Tsipis earned his start in the coaching world with several positions in men's basketball, three in the state of North Carolina. Before his time at Notre Dame, he worked as the director of men's basketball operations at UNC Greensboro (2002-03) under Fran McCaffery, assistant men's basketball coach at Elon (2000-02), Le Moyne College (1999-2000) in Syracuse, N.Y., and Cornell (1996-99) and was an undergraduate men's basketball staff assistant at Duke (1995-96) under another Hall of Fame head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

A native of Hinckley, Ohio, before moving to Durham, N.C., as a junior in high school, Tsipis graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in pharmacy. He and his wife Leigh are parents to two children, a daughter Emily, and a son Joshua.

CATAMOUNT WOMEN'S BASKETBALL – ASSISTANT COACHES & STAFF

Alison SEBERGER WBK Associate Head Coach
Sydney LOWERY Assistant WBK Coach
Darius BARKSDALE Assistant WBK Coach
Claire KAIFES Assistant WBK Coach
Andrea SHIRE Graduate Assistant

WESTERN CAROLINA CATAMOUNTS

2025-26 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL ROSTER

CATAMOUNT WOMEN'S BASKETBALL – DID YOU KNOW...?

• Western Carolina’s 1969 women’s basketball team made history on March 22 as the first team to compete in the CIAW Championship, facing West Chester State (Pa.) in the title game, falling 65-39 ... Coached by BETTY WESTMORELAND (see more below), the team finished its fourth season with a 14-3 record, losing only to UNC Greensboro twice and West Chester in the final game ... the 1969 Catamount women’s basketball team was inducted into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003;

• JAYNE ARLEDGE was the first female student-athlete to receive athletic grantin aid at WCU in 1976 and was later the first female student-athlete to have her jersey retired in school history ... In 1992, Arledge was inducted into the Western Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame ... She coached at North Greenville University for 36 years, remaining on-staff as the Senior Woman Administrator ... She was inducted into the Crusaders’ Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019;

• JAYNE ARLEDGE is the program’s all-time leading scorer, finishing with 1,928 career points, averaging 21.7 points per game over four seasons ... Arledge scored 30 points five times and owns 11 Western Carolina game, season and career records ... Arledge led the Catamounts to four-consecutive winning seasons and was twice named All-State;

• WCU won its first Southern Conference tournament title in 2005, outlasting fifth-seeded Georgia Southern, 97-95, in double overtime to earn the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament ... WCU also became the first team in SoCon history to reach and win the tournament championship after playing in the opening round;

• In 2007, Western Carolina won its first SoCon regular season title ... the Catamounts won a school-record 15 league games and tied Chattanooga for the regular season title, earning the program’s first-ever No. 1 seed in the SoCon tournament ... WCU went on to play in the postseason WNIT;

• It took three overtime periods, 101 points and clutch free throws down the stretch, but WCU weathered it all to capture the 2009 SoCon Tournament title, the second in program history ... No. 3 seed WCU defeated No. 5 seed College of Charleston, 101-87, in the come-from-behind victory ... the game was the third-highest scoring game in SoCon Tournament history and also the first triple OT game in the tournament ... WCU earned a No. 13 seed in the NCAA tournament, the highest in school history;

• LAURA ECHOLS (1998-2002) and JENNIFER GARDNER (2001-05) are both in the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame and were named to the SoCon's 100th Anniversary Women's Basketball team in 2021 ... Both Echols and Gardner were three-time, first-team All-SoCon selections in their WCU careers.

Renovated women’s basketball locker room named in honor of program matriarch

Three former members of the Western Carolina University women’s basketball team stepped up to the line to tip off the process of raising enough philanthropic support to name the current Catamount squad’s locker room after the founder of the program.

That opening shot has resulted in a resounding “swish,” as that locker room now bears the name of the individual who launched the program during an era when women’s intercollegiate athletics was primarily an afterthought.

The facility was officially christened the Betty Westmoreland Suhre Basketball Locker Room during a ceremony Friday, Dec. 12, in the Liston B. Ramsey Regional Activity Center.

WCU alumnae Nora Lynn Finch, Judy Stroud and Donna Winbon in 2024 made gifts and pledges of $25,000 apiece for a total of $75,000, also urging other former players to contribute to the effort. Additional donations have pushed the amount raised beyond the $100,000 total required by university guidelines to affix the former coach’s name to the space following approval earlier this year by the WCU Board of Trustees.

A two-time alumna of Western Carolina, after graduating, Westmoreland Suhre remained on campus as a faculty member in the Department of Health and Physical Education, where she played a vital role in bringing women’s sports to Cullowhee, said WCU Chancellor Kelli R. Brown. Now a Haywood County resident, Westmoreland Suhre would go on to coach a team, then referred to as the Lady Cats, for 14 years while also serving as a physical education faculty member. Under her leadership, the program evolved from independent status to the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, then NCAA Division II and eventually NCAA Division I. Her teams never experienced a losing season, with an overall record of 190-89. Her 1969 team finished second in the National Women’s Invitational Basketball Tournament and the 1970 squad finished fourth. During her tenure, WCU was awarded the right to host the 1971 national women’s tournament

LAURA ECHOLS
JAYNE ARLEDGE
JENNIFER GARDNER
BETTY WESTMORELAND

RAMSEY CENTER QUICK FACTS:

DEDICATION: December 6, 1986

First Game / First Women’s Basketball Game: Western Carolina 65, Mars Hill 61 (12/4/86)

First Men’s Basketball Game: N.C. State 96, Western Carolina 75 (12/6/86)

First Men’s Basketball Win: Western Carolina 90, Tusculum 58 (1/5/87)

Top Men’s Basketball Attendances:

1. 8,114 North Carolina State (12/6/86)

2. 6,024 Appalachian State (2/06/10)

3. 5,018 Samford (1/16/24)

4. 4,765 College of Charleston (1/25/10)

5. 4,603 No. 16 Kansas (12/3/87)

6. 4,577 Appalachian State (2/26/96)

7. 4,343 Chattanooga (1/14/06)

8. 4,217 Georgia Southern (2/10/07)

9. 4,178 Davidson (1/24/13)

10. 4,121 Appalachian State (2/28/04)

Top Women’s Basketball Attendance: 2,178 - vs. Chattanooga (02/10/07)

CAT HOUSE PEP BAND AND PURPLE THUNDER

2025-26 CATAMOUNT CHEERLEADERS

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.