Southern Utah University and Director of Athletics Debbie Corum announced that women’s basketball head coach Tracy Sanders has signed a contract extension that runs through the 2023-24 season.
“It is an honor to be a part of Southern Utah University and the Cedar City community. I am extremely proud of our women’s basketball players and their commitment to the process of rebuilding this program and getting better everyday,” Sanders said. “I am blessed with an amazing coaching staff that shares a vision of leading this program into something phenomenal. I’d like to thank President Wyatt and Debbie Corum for the opportunity to continue doing what I love at this university in beautiful Cedar City.”
Sanders is in her second season at the helm of the women’s basketball program after taking over in April of 2018.
The team is currently off to their best start since the 2014-15 season with a 5-2 record and a spotless 4-0 record inside of the America First Event Center. Senior Rebecca Cardenas leads the Big Sky in scoring, averaging 18.7 points per game, and just earned her second Big Sky Player of the Week award only five weeks into the season.
“We feel really lucky to have Tracy leading our women’s basketball team, and we’re excited to be able to sign her to this contract extension,” Corum said. “In a relatively short amount of time she has completely changed the culture and identity of this team, and the future looks incredibly bright.”
In her first season leading the program, Sanders took a team that won just three games in 2017-18 and more than doubled their win total. The team won eight games, including big victories over the University of San Diego, BYU, and Utah Valley. They also won their first Big Sky Conference Championship Tournament game since 2015, beating Montana 64-56 in the first round.
Last season, Cardenas was the first Thunderbird since 2016-17 to earn an All-Conference recognition for the program when she was named a Big Sky All-Conference Honorable Mention. The team also had the second-highest number of athletes named to the Big Sky All-Academic team since SUU joined the conference in 2012 with nine Lady T-Birds earning the award.
Story Courtesy: Kyle Birnbrauer – SUU Athletics Strategic Communication
