Eastern Illinois head women’s basketball coach Debbie Black has added a second member to her coaching staff with the hiring of Gwen Burton.
Burton is no stranger to the state of Illinois and its recruiting circles having spent the last 10 seasons as an assistant coach at Chicago State. While with the Cougars program she served as the team’s recruiting coordinator since 2005 helping coach several players that captured all-conference accolades. In the past few seasons five players earned All-Great West Conference honors including 2011 Player of the Year Courtney Waldon, 2011 Sixth Woman of the Year Caila Desroches and Tressa Beckel a WBI All-Tournament team member in 2011.
Coaching guards at Chicago State, Burton helped that position group thrive in her tenure. Waldon finished her career as the program’s career leading scorer with more than 1,500 points while also ranking first in career 3-pointers made. Janay Dockery, a guard from Detroit, Mich., ranked 13th in the nation in steals in 2013 while going over the 1,000 point mark for her career.
In addition to helping mold young players at the guard position, Burton has helped to develop several players who have moved onto play professionally with players in Poland and Australia. At Chicago State she helped the program reach the WBI Tournament in 2011, the first post-season appearance for the Cougars.
Prior to working at CSU, Burton served as an assistant coach for the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Blizzards of the now-defunct National Women’s Basketball League (NWBL) where she was in charge of scouting, travel itineraries and guard development. While working with the Blizzards, Burton served as head coach of Marygrove College, a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) in Detroit.
Burton’s other collegiate coaching experience comes as an assistant coach at NAIA member Michigan-Dearborn from 1998-01.
She began her coaching career as an assistant coach at Bishop Borgess HS in Redford, Mich. She helped lead the team to its first Catholic Youth Organization Championship. Burton later coached one season at Martin Luther King HS in Detroit where she helped the team reach the Michigan Class A state tournament semifinals.
Burton played two seasons at Louisville helping the program capture the Metro Conference Championship and advance to the NCAA Tournament. She was named to the Student-Athlete Honor Roll at Louisville. She began her college career at Detroit-Mercy transferring for one season to play at Allen County Community College under the late and former Oklahoma State head women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke. At ACCC she set the school record for 3-pointers made (120), averaging 16 points per game. Allen County earned its first national ranking that season finishing No. 14 in the NJCAA poll.
Burton graduated from Louisville in 1995 and holds a Masters degree from Everest University in 2009.
"Gwen is a great addition to our staff with her recruiting knowledge not only of Illinois but also the Midwest as a whole," said Debbie Black.
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