Tammy Millsaps Named Bloomsburg Women's Basketball Coach

BLOOMSBURG—Bloomsburg University has announced the naming of Tammy Millsaps as the new head coach of the women's basketball team.

Bloomsburg University president Jessica Kozloff feels the team needed some stability after a season of uncertainty.

“Tammy has clearly demonstrated her abilities as an effective and talented coach under very difficult conditions,” said Kozloff.   “I've been very concerned about the prospects of more uncertainty and instability in our program should we continue coach Millsaps in an interim position. This action should remove the uncertainty that our coaching staff, current players and recruits have about the direction of our program”.

Millsaps is honored and thrilled to be named the head coach of the Huskies.

“This is an exciting opportunity and I'm very grateful for it,” said Millsaps. “I'm looking forward to using my experiences as a player and a coach to guide the Bloomsburg women's basketball program.”

Millsaps served as the interim head coach of the Huskies for the final 19 games of the 2004-05 season and posted a record of 9-10. She guided the Huskies to a third place finish in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division and a berth in the PSAC playoffs.

With the hiring of Millsaps as head coach, Bloomsburg becomes just the 14th school in NCAA Division II (out of 247) with an African-American female as head coach of its women's basketball program according to the NCAA. If excluding Historically Black Colleges from the count, Bloomsburg will be one of just six schools (out of 227) in NCAA Division II with a female African-American leading its program.

Kozloff knows the significance of hiring a minority for the position from her role as a leader with the NCAA President's Council.

“I spent six years on the NCAA Presidents' Council and I'm well aware of the lack of minority coaches in intercollegiate athletics,” Kozloff commented. “I'm very pleased that the unique factors in our situation have resulted in adding one more talented person to the black head coaching ranks.”

Bloomsburg University Athletic Director Mary Gardner endorses the hiring of Millsaps.

“I support Dr. Kozloff's decision to name Tammy the head coach immediately,” Gardner commented. “She has shown much potential these past few months as head coach and we look forward to having her step into this challenging role.”

Gardner also said that the decision also allows the university to immediately begin a search for a full time assistant coach.  

“There are many aspects to operating a collegiate basketball program and both the team and the program will benefit from having two full-time people in place,” said Gardner.

Millsaps came to Bloomsburg after serving as a graduate assistant on the staff at Virginia Union University in 2002-03. While coaching at Virginia Union she was responsible for individual development of the guards as well as preseason conditioning and academic monitoring.

Millsaps previously spent time as the assistant coach at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. As a four-year member of the women's basketball team at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) where she graduated from in 1998 with a degree in Mass Communications, and was a member of the Dean's List. She helped VCU to a berth in the Women's NIT during her career. Millsaps then went on to earn a Master's Degree from VCU in Sport Leadership with a concentration in coaching in the spring of 2003.