UPIKE Athletics

Joanna McNamee is in her third season as the head coach of the University of Pikeville women's basketball team, she enters the 2015-16 season with a 37-27 record at the school.

McNamee (pronounced Mac-Na-MEE), a native of Weirton, W.Va., is the seventh head coach in the history of the program which dates back to 1979 and brought the team back to the NAIA National Tournament in just her second season.

UPIKE finished 23-9 in 2014-15, advancing to the opening round of the national tournament where the team lost to third-seeded Langston. It was the first trip to the national stage for the Bears since 2003.

McNamee started her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Eastern Kentucky, from which she earned a master's degree in sports administration. Following that she was the head coach for one season at West Virginia Wesleyan, where in the 1998-99 campaign she guided the Bobcats to an 18-9 record.

After stints back at EKU as an assistant coach and the same position at West Virginia, she was hired as an assistant at Maryland in 2003 and was on staff during the 2006 national championship season when the Terrapins beat Duke 78-75 in overtime for the title and finished with a record of 34-4.

Serving as the recruiting coordinator at Maryland, McNamee assisted in signing back-to-back top-five recruiting classes and three ranking in the top 10. In addition, she coached four players who are currently in the WNBA.

As a student-athlete, McNamee was a four-time all-conference selection at West Liberty (W.Va.), where she was an All-American and the 1997 Player of the Year in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletics Conference. She pulled the rare feat of scoring 1,000 points and handing out 1,000 assists and holds the NCAA record of averaging 9.5 assists per game for a season.

Joanna is married to Joe McNamee. The couple has two sons, Luke and Caden.