Emily Garner, the Rebecca Quinn Morgan ’60 Head Coach of Women’s Basketball, has announced her final addition to the 2024-25 women’s hoops staff in Vanese Barnes, who will serve as the team’s Director of Basketball Operations. Barnes joins the Big Red after serving as an assistant coach at Tufts University for the past two seasons.
“We’re so excited to finalize our staff with a phenomenal addition in Vanese Barnes as Director of Basketball Operations,” said Garner. “A rising star in our industry, she recently completed a WSF Tara VanDerveer Fellowship and master’s degree in Diversity and Inclusion Leadership from Tufts University. She’s had success at every institution she’s been at, and her commitment to leadership, growth, and connection will help us continue to build our culture. We’re thrilled to have her as part of the Big Red family.”
Barnes was named the to the Tufts Athletics Future Leaders Fellowship assistant coaching position with women’s basketball prior to the start of the 2022-23 season. In her first year, she helped guide the team to an elite eight appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament and a NESCAC conference regular season and tournament title.
As part of this two-year program, Barnes earned a master’s degree in Diversity and Inclusion Leadership within the Tufts Graduate School of Arts & Sciences while serving as a graduate assistant coach for the Jumbo women’s basketball team.
Before Tufts, Barnes served as an assistant coach for Southern Maine Community College, temporarily taking over the lead role while the head coach was on maternity leave. She was also a varsity assistant and the junior varsity head coach at Portland High School for a year. During the 2020-22 school years, she taught at Park Avenue Elementary School in Auburn, Maine. She has also participated in a number of professional development opportunities in recent years, including being a member of the Maine Women’s Basketball Coaches Development Series since 2020.
Barnes earned a degree in elementary education at St. Joseph’s in 2019, where she was a member of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference championship team in 2017-18. She previously played at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine from 2015-17, was captain of the team, and was selected as a United States Collegiate Athletic Association Academic All-American in 2017.
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