Shanele Stires, most recently the head coach for six seasons at Cal State East Bay where she led the Pioneers to a 24-3 record this past season -– the program’s most wins since the 2015-16 season — a 15-1 conference record, a CCAA Tournament Championship, and to the West Region Semifinals of the NCAA Division II Tournament, and won two California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships during her tenure, was named head coach of the Cal Poly women’s basketball program on Thursday morning.
The announcement was made during a press conference by university President Jeffrey D. Armstrong and Director of Athletics Don Oberhelman inside the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center. Stires becomes the seventh coach in program history following Faith Mimnaugh‘s announcement last month that she would be retiring after 25 seasons at the helm of the program.
“I’m very proud of the Big West Championships this program has won, but more important to me is the amazing success these student-athletes have once they graduate from Cal Poly,” Armstrong said. “Under Coach Stires, we will continue this program’s legacy of student growth and development while at the same time elevating our competitive success.”
In six seasons at Cal State East Bay, Stires elevated the program while compiling a career record of 94-53. She guided the program to at least the semifinals of the CCAA Tournament in five of her six seasons, including winning titles in 2017 and 2022.
“Coach Stires is a great fit for the culture of our program and our university,” Oberhelman said. “She brings a high level of energy and enthusiasm to coaching and leading young women, and I know she will continue the long-standing tradition in this program of developing leaders.”
During Stires’ tenure, she saw 11 players earn All-Conference honors, including Shomari Harris, who was named CCAA Player of the Year in 2017. Additionally under her watch, 31 players earned CCAA All-Academic honors.
“Her success as a head coach demonstrates that she can wear all the hats required when it comes to leading a staff, recruiting, running practice, developing talent, and teaching the X’s and O’s of the game of basketball,” Oberhelman added.
Prior to taking the head coaching job at Cal State East Bay in the fall of 2016, Stires served as the associate head coach for the women’s basketball team at the University of San Francisco from 2012-16. In that role, she was San Francisco’s recruiting coordinator as well as the team’s primary defensive coach. In 2015-16, she was instrumental in helping the Dons win the West Coast Conference and reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 19 years.
“I knew that Cal Poly was a special place, but after meeting and spending time with President Armstrong, and learning more about his vision for athletics and the university, Cal Poly is the right place to build something special,” said Stires.
“I would like to express deep gratitude to Faith Mimnaugh and her coaching staff that have come before me,” Stires added. “We will respectfully go about honoring those that have come before us as we venture to build a program that will make Mustangs everywhere proud.”
Before arriving at San Francisco, Stires served as an assistant coach at University of Nebraska-Omaha (2011-12), Stetson University (2010-11), San Diego State University (2008-10), San Francisco (2006-08), and Ohio University (2003-06). During this period, she helped lead those programs to three conference championships and three NCAA tournament appearances.
At Nebraska-Omaha, she oversaw recruiting, scouting and the development of UNO’s post players as the Mavericks transitioned to Division I. Stires also helped UNO double its win total from the prior year.
In her one season at Stetson, Stires helped the program to the second-best turnaround in Division I that year. The Hatters went from six wins in 2009-10 to 20 victories in 2010-11. Stetson went on to win the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament for the first time since 2005 and earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Stires also led the effort in producing the top-ranked 2011 recruiting class in the Atlantic Sun Conference, which included three players listed in ESPN.com’s Top 300. The class was ranked 63rd in the nation by recruiting analyst Dan Olson.
During her time at San Diego State, the Aztecs won two Mountain West Conference championships and appeared in two NCAA Tournaments, reaching the second round in 2009 and Sweet 16 in 2010.
Other past coaching experiences include time spent at NCAA Division III Augsburg College as well as Salina (Kan.) South High School, which made the Class 5A state finals while she was on staff in 1997.
Stires was a standout player at Kansas State from 1992-95, where she scored 1,344 career points, grabbed 701 career rebounds and earned Kodak All-America honorable mention, First-Team All-Big Eight honors and runner-up in Conference Player of the Year voting as a senior in 1995. She left the school ranked fifth all-time in career rebounds and sixth all-time in scoring.
From there, she moved on to a professional basketball career, winning two American Basketball League titles with the Columbus Quest from 1996-99. After the ABL folded, she joined the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, where she played 49 games in the 2000 and 2001 seasons. During the WNBA offseason, Stires played overseas in Greece, Portugal and Sweden.
Stires received her bachelor’s degree in social science from Kansas State in 1995, and a master’s degree in collegiate athletics from San Francisco in 2016.
“You can feel the energy, excitement and pride of this community,” said Stires. “I am honored to join forces with Athletic Director Don Oberhelman‘s vision to move this program forward.”
Tagged with: Cal Poly