Lees-McRae College Vice President for Athletics and Club Sports Craig McPhail announced the hiring of Quante Lee as the new head women’s basketball coach at Lees-McRae on Monday afternoon. Lee comes to Banner Elk from Carolina University in Winston-Salem, where he served as the head women’s basketball coach since January 2021.
“In searching for our next leader of our women’s basketball program, we set out to find someone who understands North Carolina is a basketball state, was an experienced head coach, could relate well to women’s college basketball players, had high character morals and someone who would grind/hustle everyday to get our program to where we all think it should be, said McPhail. “In doing so, Quante rose to the top.”
At Carolina University, Lee was promoted to the head women’s basketball coach in January 2021 where he guided the Bruins to two regional appearances in the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) South Region and mentored three NCCAA All-American athletes, four NCCAA First Team All-Region athletes, and one NCCAA Scholar-Athlete. Lee was named the NCCAA DI South Region Co-Coach of the Year and served as the NCCAA South Region Chair. Lee was the assistant coach of the women’s basketball program from August 2020 to January 2021, where he served as an academic liaison and assisted with on and off campus recruiting.
“I am honored and grateful to be the next head coach of Lees-McRae College women’s basketball program,” said Lee. “A special thanks to President Dr. Lee King, VP of Athletics, Craig McPhail, Associate Athletic Director, Rita Smith and Deputy Director of Athletics, Jeff Merrill, for their support throughout this process and their confidence in me moving forward.”
Prior to Carolina University, Lee served as the Associate Head Coach/Sports Information Director at Wake Technical Community College from June 2018 to August 2020 where he helped guided the Eagles to their first regular season conference championship in program history and helped produce 2 NJCAA Scholar-Athletes and three NJCAA First-Team All-Region athletes.
“This is a professional dream come true. The past three years at Carolina University have been extraordinary for my family and I. We had a good deal of success on and off the court. More importantly, we built great relationships with our student-athletes and the surrounding community, and we are excited to call Lees-McRae home for many years to come,” said Lee. “I want out student-athletes to love their entire experience here at Lees-McRae and I am excited for that responsibility starting today.”
Lee holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from North Carolina State. Lee is also a member of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
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