HBCU turns to veteran coach to steer ladies's basketball program

One other HBCU basketball coach opening has been stuffed, this time by a veteran who is aware of her method across the Southwestern Athletic Convention.

Johnetta Hayes, who coached Texas Southern to 3 straight common season ladies’s basketball convention titles, returns to the SWAC as Alabama State’s head coach, the college introduced Friday.

“Right now, we have a good time Johnetta Hayes as the brand new head ladies’s basketball coach at Alabama State College,” Hornet athletic director Jason Cable mentioned in a press release. “Her ardour for the sport, dedication to participant improvement, and imaginative and prescient for fulfillment align completely with our imaginative and prescient. I don’t doubt that our ladies’s basketball program will attain new heights underneath her management, fostering each athletic excellence and private progress for our student-athletes.”

“I’m deeply grateful to President Ross, Dr. Cable, and Dr. Lavalais for entrusting me with the unimaginable alternative to steer the Alabama State ladies’s basketball program, Hayes mentioned. “Alabama State athletics embodies a tradition of unwavering dedication, a championship-driven mindset, robust household values, and faith-based rules. It’s a true honor to be a part of a college that stands firmly behind such core beliefs. Now could be the time for us to return collectively, SWARMAS1, and construct a legacy of championship-level success for girls’s basketball.”

Johnetta Hayes named head ladies’s basketball coach.

Learn extra ➡️ https://t.co/TiEkwBn9z6#SWARMAS1

— Bama State Athletics (@BamaStateSports) April 11, 2025

After a standout profession at Rice College, Hayes served as head coach at Wiley College and as an assistant at Prairie View A&M earlier than being employed at Texas Southern in 2013. Hayes led the Tigers to the SWAC common season championship through the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons. The third time was the allure for Hayes and Texas Southern as they gained the SWAC match and made the primary NCAA match look in program historical past.

Hayes went on to teach at Maryland-Baltimore County and was an assistant at Rutgers final season. Her profession mark as a head coach is 154-154, with 115 of those wins coming at TSU.

Hayes replaces Freda Freeman-Jackson, who retired last month after 27 seasons at the helm in Montgomery.

Hayes’ official introduction will happen Tuesday Apr. 15.