March 14, 2006

The Women's Basketball Coaches Association announced Tuesday (March 14), that West Texas A&M University women's basketball head coach Bob Schneider has been named Russell Athletic/WBCA NCAA-II Region 6 Coach of the Year.

"This is a great honor, but it is a shared thing with the team. I've always told our team that any honor or award any coach or player gets is a big shared thing," Schneider said. "We've got some great players on this team and the team did some tremendous things this season.

The honor accompanies the Lone Star Conference South Division Coach of the Year Award for the legendary Schneider, who in his 25th season with the Lady Buffs and 28th as a collegiate head coach, and led WTAMU to its conference-record eighth LSC Championship and the NCAA-II South Central Regional Tournament for the third-straight and 14th overall season. The 15th-ranked and second-seeded Lady Buffs were beaten in Saturday's semifinals, falling to eighth-ranked and third-seeded Emporia State University, 88-82. ESU is coached by Schneider's son Brandon. ESU went on to beat No. 1 Washburn, 61-59, in OT Monday night in the Regional Final, dealing Washburn its first loss in 52 games.

WTAMU's season ends with a 28-4 record, the most wins since 1996-97, having its season-long 13-game winning streak snapped. It was the 19th season under Schneider that the Lady Buffs have reached the 20-win milestone.

"Coming in we had some big question marks with some our returning players and our new people, and they just set their goals high and reached them, exceeding some of our expectations along the way," Schneider said. "We had great chemistry and made great some big steps along the way. We overcame adversity and obstacles as we went through the season that made us stronger and better. I certainly can't take all the credit, it's a shared thing with my coaching staff and players."

The Region winners are selected through a two-level process. The first level is by region, in which coaches from each WBCA geographical region vote for their respective top coach. If a coach has been selected as Regional Coach of the Year, they advance as a finalist to the national level of the selection process along with the other Regional Coaches of the Year in their respective division. The number of coaches varies depending on affiliation.

The winners of the WBCA National Coach of the Year for each division will be honored on Tuesday, April 4 at 12 p.m. (ET) during the RUSSELL ATHLETIC/WBCA Coach of the Year Luncheon in the Hynes Convention Center Ballroom, which is part of the 2006 WBCA National Convention. This year the WBCA celebrates it's Silver Anniversary, marking 25 years of existence.

Founded in 1981, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association promotes women's basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster and promote the development of the game in all of its aspects as an amateur sport for women and girls. For more information about the WBCA, check out wbca.org.

-WT-