Stanley: Washington Mystics Head Coach

Marianne Stanley Mitchell Layton/WNBAE Photos

On April 4, 2002, President of Washington Sports and Entertainment Susan O'Malley named Marianne Stanley head coach of the Washington Mystics. Stanley takes on this new position less than a month before the legendary coach will be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on April 27 as part of the Class of 2002.

Stanley steps into the role of head coach with over 20 years of experience. As both a coach and a player, her career has been nothing short of exemplary. Prior to joining the Mystics as an assistant coach in 2001, Stanley was an assistant for the Los Angeles Sparks under head coach Michael Cooper. There she helped lead the Sparks to the playoffs during the 2000 season.

Stanley began her coaching career, after graduating from Immaculata College in Pennsylvania where the two-time All-American led her team to four consecutive AIAW National Championship games (1972-1976) and two consecutive AIAW National Championship Titles (1972-74) as starting point guard. At the age of 22, Stanley immediately began coaching as an assistant in 1976 at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. One season later, she was promoted to head coach and her storied career took off.

As one of the youngest coaches in history, she guided such women's basketball talent as Anne Donovan, Inga Nissen, Medina Dixon, Tracy Claxton and Nancy Leiberman-Cline. In her first season as head coach at ODU, she became the youngest NCAA Division I women's basketball coach to take a team to a national championship (age 24). Stanley would go on to capture two Championships in her first three seasons as head coach at ODU. Not long after capturing a third National Championship in 1985, Stanley finished her coaching career at ODU in 1987. She compiled a 269-59 (.820) record over ten years and the university ranked among the top 10 nationally for her entire tenure as head coach.

Through the years, Stanley has coached at such celebrated programs as Berkeley (1996-2000), Stanford (1995-96), and the University of Southern California (USC, 1989-93) where she signed two top 10 recruiting classes during the 1989-93 seasons and rebuilt the program from an 8-19 record in her first season, to three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances by the end of her tenure. Stanley has also coached the University of Pennsylvania's women's team (1987-1989).

Stanley's coaching career can be described as successful and groundbreaking. Overall, she compiled an impressive 415-224 (.649) collegiate record, earning four Conference Coach of the Year and two National Coach of the Year honors. Stanley took her teams to 13 post-season appearances, competed in six Final Fours and won three National Championships (AIAW Championships-1979, 1980 and NCAA Championship-1985). She also guided her teams to nine NCAA tournament appearances (20-8) and recruited some of today's outstanding basketball stars including Lisa Leslie of the Los Angeles Sparks (USC) and Adrienne Goodson of the Utah Starzz (ODU). Stanley also served as a member of the US National Team coaching staff from 1981-1993, earning three gold and two silver medals in the World Championships and Pan Am Games.

Stanley earned a bachelor's degree in Sociology from Immaculata in 1976. She has one daughter Michelle, a son-in-law Jonathan, and a granddaughter Madelyn Dixie.