Western Carolina Athletics and Director of Athletics Randy Eaton announced that head women’s basketball coach Karen Middleton will not return as the program’s head coach.
"I want to thank Karen for all of the hard work she and her staff did representing Western Carolina over the last six years," said Eaton. "She consistently recruited quality young ladies and always placed emphasis on the `student’ in the student-athletes she brought to our campus."
In addition to Middleton, two of her three assistants also will not return in both Tre’ka McMillan and Jonelle Streed who have been on staff since Middleton’s hire. WCU’s third assistant, Willie Freeman, will be retained at least until a new coach is hired.
Eaton said a national search for the next head women’s basketball coach at WCU will begin immediately.
Middleton was hired by former WCU Athletic Director Chip Smith in May of 2009 to succeed Kellie Harper as the 10th head coach all-time for the Catamount women’s basketball program. During Middleton’s tenure in Cullowhee, the Catamounts compiled a 63-121 (.342) record in six seasons including a 35-77 (.313) mark in Southern Conference play. All told, WCU was just 4-6 in SoCon Tournament games.
In six seasons, the highest seeding WCU earned in the annual SoCon Tournament was No. 7, doing so three times including 2012 and in back-to-back years in 2014 and 2015. The 2014 squad was able to advance to the semifinal round, the squad’s best performance since winning the 2009 tournament championship under the previous coaching staff.
Under Middleton’s tutelage, three Catamounts earned SoCon All-Freshman team honors including Rena Wakama in 2011, Ali Lane in 2012 and Lindsay Simpson in 2013. Three earned All-SoCon plaudits including Emily Clarke in 2009-10, Kaila’Shea Menendez in 2011-12 and Justin Taylor in 2014-15.
WCU twice had an Academic All-District III selection with both Kristen Feemster (2010) and Makensey Campbell (2015) garnering the accolades. Catamount squads twice garnered national academic recognition from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) with its academic top 25 ranking in both 2012 (13th) and again in 2013 (14th-t).
Middleton’s coaching pedigree includes stops as an assistant at Illinois, Stanford, Eastern Washington, and her alma mater, South Carolina, prior to the head coaching job at WCU in 2009.
