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Martha Gore-Algernon
Women's Basketball Head Coach,
University of Mobile
Last year was yet another great season for Martha Gore-Algernon, who is entering
her 9th season as University of Mobile’s head women’s basketball coach. Posting
a 22-13 overall record, the 2001-02 GCAC Coach of the Year led the Rams to
another NAIA women’s basketball tournament appearance. Coach Gore-Algernon also
reached the century mark in career wins in 2001 with a 69-58 win over Auburn
University Montgomery on November 13, 2001. Her first seven years at Mobile
include:
- 11 Players named All-GCAC
- 5 Players named NAIA All-American
- Four 20+ win seasons
While the Rams’ coach
recognizes that wins make the resumé, it’s the scholastic achievement
of her athletes that gives Gore-Algernon the greatest joy in her
career.
Former players whose
on-the-court exploits have earned them spots in the Rams’ record books
have also gone on to post-collegiate success. Jennifer Wasson, the
former record holder for most points scored in a single game with 32,
has been successful serving as an assistant coach with the Georgetown
University women’s basketball team.
Monica Evetts, the single
season record holder for most three-point field goals with 63, is
enjoying a successful career with a computer company in Birmingham.
Sarah Bailey is working with a law firm in Jackson, Mississippi.
Christy Smith is a nurse in Houston, Texas, and Fannie King
successfully turned around the girl's varsity basketball program at
Murphy High School. These are just a few of the many women who have
found success in Pharr Gymnasium and beyond. This drive to succeed,
indicative of Gore-Algernon's approach to life and basketball, is
contagious and is reflected by these and the many other success
stories.
Coach Gore-Algernon has not
only known success as a coach, but as an athlete as well. She played
collegiate basketball at former GCAC foe Louisiana College from
1986-90, leading her teams to two GCAC Championships and two Regional
Finals. In the process, she twice earned GCAC First Team
All-Conference honors and was named to the All-NAIA District 30 team.
Coach Gore-Algernon got her
coaching break when she came to the University of Mobile as a Graduate
Assistant in 1991. By 1994, Coach Gore-Algernon was promoted to
full-time Assistant after the Rams made a successful run to the NAIA
National Tournament during the 1993-94 season. After Coach Curt
Berger resigned following the 1994-95 season, Coach Gore-Algernon took
the reigns of the successful Rams program and continued to improve the
program, winning over twenty games in each of her first two seasons as
head coach. The Rams have continued to play very competitively under
the guidance of Coach Gore-Algernon, posting a 68% winning percentage
in the GCAC.
Coach Gore-Algernon has
also helped eleven different Rams to individual honors, such as All-GCAC
and All-American. All-GCAC honorees include Lindsay Grant, Bernadette
Powe, Sjajuana Hill, Christy Smith, Olivia Crawford, Monique McKenzie,
Desireé Christen, Edmarie Lumbsley, Shanelle Stallworth, Paula Dill,
and Crystal Coston. All-American honorees include Bernadette Powe,
Olivia Crawford, Edmarie Lumbsley, Shanelle Stallworth, Laurie Simon
and Crystal Coston. In addition, Lumbsley was the first-ever
University of Mobile women's basketball player to be drafted by the
WNBA.
Coach Gore-Algernon is a
member of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and has served as
NAIA District 5 “Coach of the Year” representative. She has also
served on several other national committees, including NAIA National
Tournament committees and chairperson of the Gulf Coast Athletic
Conference Women's Basketball Coaches.
Coach Gore-Algernon
received her Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical
Education from Louisiana College in 1991 and her Master of Physical
Education from the University of Mobile in 1994.
She is
married to Jay Algernon, and they are active members of First Baptist
Church of North Mobile.
Phil Headley
Women's Basketball Assistant Coach
A
coaching career that was born in 1982 as a student assistant at
Marshall University, blossomed and came to full fruition in 1987 when
Headley established the University of Mobile’s - then Mobile College -
first women’s basketball program. Entering his 17th year of coaching,
and his 8th as an assistant, Headley has found a permanent home here
with the Rams. His coaching career is one of great triumphs and
adversity.
It was during his years as Mobile’s head women’s coach that he first
encountered Coach Gore-Algernon. “Martha was point guard for
arch-rival Louisiana College,” Headley recounts. “I always admired her
court leadership, and I knew that she would be an excellent coach
someday. It’s an honor to be working with her on a full-time basis.”
While Headley was named 1990 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference “Coach of
the Year,” the Type-I diabetic was forced to take a one-year
sabbatical from coaching due to the onset of blindness caused by the
condition. Not willing to part ways with their beloved coach, UM
retained Headley’s services as the department's Sports Information
Director.
Unable to stay away from the sidelines, the resilient Vienna, West
Virginia native took the head women's basketball coaching position at
Brewton-Parker College in Mt. Vernon, Georgia. Headley quickly picked
up where he left off at Mobile as he earned the Georgia
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference “Coach of the Year” and Georgia
College NCAA III and NAIA “Coach of the Year” honors in 1993. Diabetes
once again forced the decorated coach to leave his chosen profession
in 1996.
Headley has served as assistant coach at the University of South
Alabama, the University of Montevallo, and Mississippi State
University. Returning to the Rams as the full-time assistant, he and
Coach Gore-Algernon will attempt to lead a very deep and talented
group of women into uncharted territory, an Elite Eight appearance at
the NAIA National Tournament.
Headley is married to the former Libby Sutherland, a 1987 graduate of
UM's B.S.N. program. They celebrated their sixteenth wedding
anniversary on Sept. 5.
Head Coach: Martha Gore-Algernon/
442-2260/ goremartha@hotmail.com
Asst. Coach: Phil Headley/ 442-2400
If you have any
comments, suggestions or problems concerning this Athletic website or about the Athletic Department please contact us at
the
Sports Information Department.
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