Second of a two-part story
When Minnesota hosts Indiana this Friday, April 11 in women’s tennis, 2 of the handful of Black head coaches will face each other for the first time this season.
Using boxing lexicon, here is the diversity tale of the tape: Indiana’s Gabrielle Moore is in her first season at Indiana, and this is Lois Arterberry’s second season at Minnesota. Both Black women are seasoned coaching veterans.
Moore and Arterberry are just 2 of 14 Black female head tennis coaches in college. According to the NCAA, this is eight below the all-time high of 22 (2020 and 2021).
Moore began her coaching career at Lake Forest College (2015-16), then as Jackson State assistant coach for both their men’s and women’s tennis teams in 2016. She was then promoted to head coach of both squads the following season.
The Southern University grad with a biology degree was a standout tennis player, a four-time all-SWAC player, and helped her team win four straight conference titles and two NCAA appearances.
After six seasons at Jackson State, where she won as coach two SWAC regular season titles and the 2022 conference postseason crown, Moore left for McNeese State for two seasons, where she posted a school-best 20 wins (20-4) in 2023-24.
Arterberry also is a Southern grad with a bachelor degree in business management (2013) and a masters in business administration (2015). Before she went into coaching as a grad assistant at the school, Arterberry was a three-time conference champion. and played in three straight NCAAs (2011-13).
The second-year Gopher coach, who was hired in 2023, was a two-year assistant coach at Missouri and an assistant for one season at UNC-Asheville before two head coaching stints — Jackson State (men’s and women’s, 2015-17) and Eastern Illinois (2017-18).
At Jackson State, Arterberry won a conference title (men’s, 2016) and reached consecutive HBCU Championship finals (women’s, 2016 and 2017).
She moved up north and coached at St. Thomas, her third head coaching opportunity, during its transition from Division III to Division I.
On Friday, the two Southern alums will lead their respective Big Ten squads against each other.
WNBA hiring Black coaches
It hasn’t been reported much, but WNBA teams over the off season have been hiring Black assistant coaches. Chicago has an all-Black coaching staff, including HC Tyler Marsh, and 12 Black assistant coaches also have been hired for this season.
HBCU Athletic Conference grows
HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC) last week welcomed Paul Quinn College and Huston-Tillotson University as new conference members, effective July 1. This brings the total membership of the only all-HBCU conference in the NAIA to 15 schools.
“We are thrilled to welcome Huston-Tillotson University and Paul Quinn College to the HBCU Athletic Conference,” said Commissioner Dr. Kiki Baker Barnes in a released statement. “Both institutions bring a rich tradition of athletic and academic excellence, and their addition strengthens our conference’s mission to elevate HBCU athletics while creating more opportunities for student-athletes to compete at the highest levels.”
Also announced last week: The HBCUAC becomes the only HBCU conference to offer a men’s soccer championship. The two new schools “paves the way for the addition of men’s and women’s soccer as official HBCUAC championship sports,” noted the league’s press release.
Huston-Tillotson is located in Austin, Texas, and was established in 1875 as Austin’s first institution of higher learning. Paul Quinn is located in Dallas, Texas, was founded in 1872 in Austin, then moved to Dallas in 1990. Both schools were members of the Red River Athletic Conference.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.