Charleston Southern Names Julie Goodenough Head Women's Basketball Coach
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Charleston Southern University athletic director Hank Small announced the hiring of former Oklahoma State head coach Julie Goodenough to the position of head women’s basketball coach during a Monday afternoon press conference at the school. Goodenough replaces Stephanie Yelton, who resigned following the 2005-06 season after five seasons.
“It is with great pleasure that we announce the hiring of Julie Goodenough as our new women’s basketball coach,” said Small, who added that interest in the position was very high. “Julie is a proven recruiter, a proven teacher of the game, and a proven winner at a school very much like Charleston Southern. She is someone who is sensitive to the issues we face at CSU because she has been a part of a program with similar issues. She also has experience as a head coach at the highest level of college basketball in one of the nation’s top three conferences. That will be a great asset as she builds a consistent winner at Charleston Southern.”
Goodenough’s most recent head coaching position was a three-year stint at Oklahoma State University. She resigned the position following the 2004-05 season. Prior to her tenure at OSU, Goodenough spent nine years as the head women’s coach at Hardin-Simmons University, like CSU, a Southern Baptist University.
While at Hardin-Simmons, Goodenough coached three All-Americans, 34 All-Conference selections and 46 Academic All-Conference selections. She left the program as the winningest coach in school history, reaching 150 career wins in less than 200 career games. Hardin-Simmons captured six conference championships and made five consecutive post-season appearances under Goodenough, who posted a 188-54 record in her nine seasons.
“It’s a great day to be a Buccaneer,” said Goodenough as she opened her remarks. “This is an exciting opportunity for our family and we’re excited that our family will now be a part of the CSU family. With the things that have happened on this campus over the last year, there is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm for athletics at CSU. We want our women’s basketball program to be a part of that growing enthusiasm.”
At Oklahoma State, Goodenough recruited and coached the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and posted the 19th best recruiting class in the country in her first full season. Five of the top 10 largest home crowds in school history occurred during Goodenough’s tenure, including the largest crowd to ever watch a home women’s basketball contest. Goodenough was 23-61 in three seasons, giving her a career record of 211-115 as a head coach.
Goodenough hopes to have a coaching staff in place quickly as she prepares for summer camps and recruiting.
As a player, Goodenough was a two-year captain and All-Conference selection at Western Texas College before transferring to the University of Texas at Arlington. At UTA, Goodenough was a two-year captain, an All-Conference selection, and left as the 13th-leading scorer in program history.
Goodenough received her Bachelor of Arts degree from UTA and received her Master’s degree from Texas Tech in 1993. She also did coaching stints at Texas Tech, UTA and Lubbock Christian University prior to becoming the head coach at Hardin-Simmons in 1993.
Goodenough and her husband, Rob, have two daughters, Bailey (10) and Macy (8).