Rachel Clay-Keohane just completed what could be said as the most successfull season in UVa-Wise women's basketball history.
A year ago, the eighth-year head coach of the Lady Cavaliers led by a talented group to the program's first NAIA National Championships appearance and Appalachian Athletic Conference title. The Lady Cavs produced its first 20-win season since in 12 years at 24-10 and the second most wins in program history.
The 2006-07 season gives great optimism for another run for a spot at the NAIA championships and AAC title. The team will have a veteran lineup with five seniors dotting the roster.
Clay-Keohane's team improved by 13 wins last year after posting an 11-18 mark in 2004-05. The core group of seniors have a mark of 50-43 the past three years under Clay-Keohane.
The foundation for last seaon's AAC title run started in the AAC playoffs the previous year where the Lady Cavsn played into the semifinal round where they nearly pulled off an upset in overtime.
Ten players return from the 2005-06 roster, including NAIA All-American and AAC Defensive Player of the Year, Sarah Helton. All she did last year was lead the team for the third year at 16.3 ppg and grab 8.5 rebounds per contest. In three years, the senior has compiled 1579 points and 768 boards
Helton again will be joined by four super seniors in guards Chelsea Lee, LaShay Collier and her twin sister, Rachel Helton along with forward Terri Ann Hill.
Clay-Keohane has been an intregal part of the UVa-Wise women's basketball program for over a decade.
She came to the UVa-Wise program with little previous playing experience but made her mark on the program shortly after joining the team.
Clay-Keohane played a couple years at Abingdon High School before becoming a three-year standout for UVa-Wise.
In her three seasons, Clay-Keohane earned All-Tennessee Valley Athleticn Conference honors as well as being named both an All-American Honorable Mention (1992-93) and Academic All-American (1991-92).
She helped the Lady Cavs to the most successful three-year run with a 67-26 record, three-straight 20-win seasons and the most season wins in school history of 25-8 for the 1991-92 season. Individually, Clay-Keohane totaled 1,089 points and 1,108 rebounds for her career . She set a school record with 433 rebounds in the 1991-92 season.
She graduated from UVa-Wise in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics with a minor in physics and secondary education.
Before Clay-Keohane returned to direct the Lady Cavs, she gained some valuable coaching and teaching experience at a private school in Utah.
Along with coaching the Lady Cavs, the coach is also a professor in the college's mathematics department.
She lives with her husband, Michael Keohane, and three-year old daughter, Elisabeth, in Abingdon, Va.
Overall, the basketball coach boasts more than 10 years of coaching experience both
as a head and assistant coach of highly competitive basketball programs. The majority of the stops Carter has made have not had a winning history. However, he has a successful track record for implementing change and helping to turn programs around at each coaching staff Carter has been associated. Before his stop at CCAC South, the central Pennsylvania native spent three seasons (2002-05) as the assistant basketball and softball coach at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in King's Point, NY. While with the Mariners, the women's hoops teams set the school record for victories and were one of the finest defensive teams in the nation as they finished in the top 10 of several NCAA Division III defensive categories. The squad was selected as the most improved team of Division III with Carter's assistance as he recruited multiple league Rookie of the Year award winners. Carter was a graduate assistant coach from 2000-02 at NCAA Division II Lock Haven University (Pa.) where he was the Intramural Director and part of the Office of Camps and Conferences department over that time.
The Williamsport, Pa. area product earned both his bachelor of science in health and
physical education and his master's of liberal arts with a sport administration concentration both from Lock Haven.
