After a 17-year run at the helm of Mississippi State’s women’s basketball program, head coach Sharon Fanning-Otis will retire at the end of this season, she announced Monday.
Fanning-Otis’ retirement marks the end of her 36-year coaching career which has seen head coaching runs at UT-Chattanooga, Kentucky and MSU. She will retire as the winningest coach in MSU women’s basketball history with a record of 281-229 with the Lady Bulldogs. In December, Fanning-Otis picked up her 600th win and currently has 608 wins to her name.
MSU said she will now serve in an athletic development role with the Bulldog Club, the fundraising arm of the MSU Athletic Department.
“I want to thank Mississippi State for the opportunity and experience it gave me to be the women’s head basketball coach for the past 17 years,” Fanning-Otis said in a statement. “I look forward to working in the Bulldog Club in a fund-raising capacity for all our sports. I especially want to thank all of the coaches, players, staff and fans for the tremendous experience. I am blessed to have been a part of the growth of women’s basketball over the past 37 years.”
The coaching change follows two seasons that saw the Lady Bulldogs struggle on the court. MSU currently sits at 4-10 in SEC play, and the Bulldogs posted a losing record a season ago. In the 2009-2010 season, Fanning-Otis lead her team to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. Athletic director Scott Stricklin will now make his second head coaching hire as the athletic director and said in a statement he is looking for a coach to move the program forward.
“I want to thank Sharon for her devotion to our women’s basketball program for nearly two decades and for the accomplishments she has guided our program to during that time,” he said. “She has a great heart for people, and her work ethic and dedication to Mississippi State has taken our women’s basketball program to successes never attained prior to her arrival. The timing of Sharon’s announcement gives us the opportunity to begin looking for our next women’s basketball coach. As always, we’ll identify a hard-working, intelligent coach who can move this program forward.”
Fanning-Otis led the Lady Bulldogs to six NCAA Tournament berths in her time as head coach and was also named SEC Coach of the Year in 2000. She has coached 10 All-SEC players at MSU, as well as two Kodak All-Americans.
The final home game as head coach for Fanning-Otis will be this Sunday when the Lady Bulldogs take on Kentucky at 12:30 p.m. at Humphrey Coliseum.