Coastal Carolina women’s basketball head coach Kevin Pederson has added former DII national champion coach Dennis Cox to bolster the defense for the Chanticleers.
“Dennis is an incredible addition to our coaching staff and he brings a wealth of experience and knowledge with him that will impact our program in a very positive way,” stated Pederson. “Coach Cox had successful stops as a head coach at Daytona State and Clayton State, including winning the D2 National Championship in 2011, by using a defense that really dictated the flow of the game. I have always had a tremendous amount of respect for Dennis as a person and as a coach and I am looking forward to utilizing his talents with our team. We are excited to welcome his wife, Ruth and him both to our Coastal Carolina basketball family.”
Cox comes to Coastal Carolina University with a wealth of teaching and coaching experience at various levels of prep and higher education. He was previously the Director of Athletics and School Advancement at Pathways Private School in Orlando, Fla. Prior to attaining nearly 600 wins in 30 years as a collegiate head women’s basketball coach, he began his career as a high school science teacher and coach for eight years at Seminole Osceola, William R. Boone, and Lake Highland Prep, where he led the Girls Basketball team to a District Championship in 1988.
Following the success at Lake Highland, Cox became the first full-time head women’s basketball coach at Valencia College in 1989, where he compiled a 144-97 record over eight seasons, including four seasons with 20 or more wins and three state tournament appearances.
Cox guided the inaugural women’s basketball program at Daytona State College, and in six years he built Daytona State into a national power. He compiled a 147-41 record, won three Mid-Florida Conference championships, a Mid-Florida Conference Tournament championship, and had a region runner-up finish. His top season at Daytona was in the 2002-03 campaign when the Falcons finished fourth in the nation in the National Junior College Athletic Association final poll with a 29-2 record. He received the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Region IX Coach of the Year honor in 2003, was the Mid-Florida Conference Coach of the Year three times, and was inducted into the Florida College System Activities Association Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 for his coaching success at Valencia and Daytona State.
Cox then took over the helm of the women’s basketball program at Clayton State University prior to the 2004-05 season, where he made an immediate impact. In ten seasons, Clayton State became one of the elite programs in NCAA Division II with an overall record of 267-57, garnering seven Peach Belt Conference regular season championships, four Peach Belt Conference Tournament championships, and ten straight trips to the NCAA Division II National Tournament. Cox led the Lakers to the NCAA Division II “Final Four” in 2007 and the “Elite Eight” in 2009 and 2013, along with a “Sweet 16” appearance in 2008. The culmination of that success, however, was in the 2010-11 season when he paced Clayton State to its first-ever NCAA Division II National Championship that saw the Lakers dominate throughout the tournament, winning six games by an average of more than 21 points.
Under Cox, the Clayton State women’s basketball program was an incredible 96-6 (.941) from 2010-2013, the top winning percentage of any program at the NCAA Division II level. In fact, out of over 1,000 women’s teams competing at the NCAA Division I, II, and III levels, there was only one women’s basketball program that had fewer losses than Clayton State’s six. Baylor University, at the NCAA Division I level, (during the Brittney Griner era) had five.
Along with this success came numerous postseason honors. He was selected Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year four times, the John “Whack” Hyder” State of Georgia Women’s College Coach of Year three times, NCAA Division II Southeast Region Coach of the Year, and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division II National Coach of the Year. In 2016, the Peach Belt Conference celebrated its 25th anniversary, and Cox was one of 25 members elected to the inaugural Hall of Fame class.
After Clayton State, Cox spent six years as the head women’s basketball coach at San Francisco State University and California State University Maritime Academy, respectively. In the last three years at Cal Maritime, he also served as Sports Coordinator, which included administrative duties associated with Community Engagement and Academic Success for student-athletes.
A native of Orlando, Fla., Cox prepped at William R. Boone High School, where he competed in cross country, basketball, and baseball, and is a member of the Boone High School Athletics Hall of Fame. He competed intercollegiate in baseball at the United States Air Force Academy and basketball at Eckerd College, where he majored in biology. He earned his master’s degree in physical education from the University of Central Florida.
https://goccusports.com/news/2024/7/16/womens-basketball-pederson-adds-cox-to-coaching-staff.aspx
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