Susan Walvius - Head Coach

* 2002 SEC COACH OF THE YEAR *

* WBCA DISTRICT 3 COACH OF THE YEAR *

The 2002 SEC Coach of the Year, Susan Walvius has brought in five recruiting classes ranked among the top-25 nationally during her tenure at South Carolina, including the 2007 class, which was ranked 18th. Under her watch, the Gamecocks placed a league-high 10 student-athletes on the SEC Winter Sports Academic Honor Roll in 2007, eight student-athletes on the SEC Winter Sports Academic Honor Roll in 2006 and have seen players earn the honor 33 times in the last four years (8.25 student-athletes honored per year).

Coming off back-to-back postseason appearances in 2006 and 2007 and with a top-20 recruiting class in tow for the 2007-08 campaign, Susan Walvius enters her 11th year as head coach at South Carolina and her 18th season as a head coach at the Division I level. She has led the Gamecocks to the postseason in four of the last six years, including a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight in 2002 and the NCAA second round in 2003.

Under Walvius, the Gamecocks have emerged as one of the best defensive and rebounding teams in the Southeastern Conference the last two years. In 2006-07, South Carolina led the SEC in blocked shots, rebounding margin and rebounds per game and ranked second in the league in field goal percentage defense and steals.

With Walvius stalking the sidelines, Carolina turned the Colonial Center into a very difficult place for opponents to play in 2006-07, compiling a 15-5 record at home that included an 80-48 pounding of in-state rival Clemson, a 95-35 wipeout of SEC foe Alabama and an 81-40 second-round Women's NIT victory over America East Conference champion Hartford. In fact, the Gamecocks outscored the opposition by an average margin of just under 22 points per game in home games played during the 2006-07 campaign en route to matching a school record total for home victories.

Walvius' crew posted a nine-game improvement in 2005-06 from the year prior, a mark that led all Southeastern Conference schools and ranked as the fifth-largest improvement in any of the power conferences (SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, Big East). A significant factor in the Gamecocks' improvement was suffocating defense, as Carolina led the SEC and ranked second nationally in field goal percentage defense, holding the opposition to 34.7 percent shooting from the field. Walvius' team also ranked among the national leaders in blocked shots (third; 6.7 blocks per game) and rebounding margin (fifth; 8.3 rebounds per game) and ranked among the top 30 teams nationally in scoring margin (16th; +12.2 points per game), field goal percentage (22nd; 45.0 FG pct.) and scoring defense (26th; 56.8 points per game).

The Gamecocks set the school record for blocked shots and field goal percentage defense in 2004-05, then came back to break both of those records in addition to setting a new school mark for scoring defense in 2005-06.

During the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons, Walvius posted a combined 48-15 mark with the Gamecocks and a 19-9 mark in the SEC. For her efforts, Walvius was honored as a finalist for Naismith Coach of the Year in each of those two seasons.

Under Walvius in 2001-02, the Gamecocks recorded a 25-7 overall mark and finished second in the SEC with a 10-4 record. South Carolina advanced to the NCAA Tournament and into the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. The team achieved its first national ranking in 10 years and finished the season ranked sixth in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll. For her achievements, Walvius was selected as the SEC Coach of the Year by her peers and by the Associated Press, and was named as the WBCA District 3 Coach of the Year.

In 2002-03, Walvius directed South Carolina to a 23-8 record and a 9-5 SEC mark. Ranked 18th in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll, South Carolina secured a 20-win season for the second consecutive year and posted the school's first back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 12 years. The Gamecocks defeated Tennessee-Chattanooga in the first round of the Big Dance in 2003, marking the first back-to-back first round NCAA Tournament victories in South Carolina's history. The Gamecocks fell in the second round to host Penn State.

To celebrate the team's Elite Eight appearance in the 2002 NCAA Tournament, the Gamecock women were also chosen to open the state-of-the art Colonial Center on Nov. 22, 2002. The inaugural game attracted a state of South Carolina basketball record crowd of 17,712 who witnessed Carolina's victory over in-state rival Clemson. The record attendance was also the fifth-highest figure in the NCAA during the 2002-03 season.

Walvius has worked hard to establish South Carolina's reputation as one of the up-and-coming women's basketball programs in the country since being hired on April 28, 1997. Her dedication to the program can be seen by some of her achievements at Carolina; helping to build top-notch facilities for the student-athletes, renewing the team's focus on academic success and developing the Mentor Program. Walvius is extremely involved with the marketing of the team and is a frequent guest speaker in the community and on radio and television.

Thanks to her work behind the scenes and on the sidelines, Gamecock home game attendance has tripled. During the 2001-2002 season, South Carolina established another precedent by selling out the Carolina Coliseum for the January 17th game against Tennessee. The announced attendance of 12,168 was the largest at any Carolina Coliseum sporting event all year.

Concerned with her student-athletes' academic pursuits, Walvius' teams consistently achieve a high grade-point average and set a new team record with a 3.347 mark in the Spring, 2005 semester. In addition, seven Gamecock players were named to the SEC Winter Sports Academic Honor Roll in 2005. Carolina led the league and set a new school record by placing 10 players on the SEC Winter Sports Academic Honor Roll in 2007 just one year after leading the conference with eight honor roll selections in 2006. Walvius also recognizes the importance of student-athletes receiving guidance in the real world before graduation, as she engineered the "Mentoring Program" which teams up female leaders of the Columbia community with members of the Gamecock basketball team to further their real-world education, cultural and networking skills. The mentors help the student-athletes work on their cultural and business education for life after basketball.

Since taking over the South Carolina rebuilding project in 1997, Walvius has attracted five top-25 recruiting classes to the South Carolina campus with the 2007-08 freshman class tabbed as the No. 18 group in the nation by The Collegiate Girls Basketball Report and the 2005-06 freshman class ranked as the 13th-best in the country by Blue Star Index. The 2003 class was ranked as the 10th-best class in the nation by All-Star Girls Report. The 1998-99 freshman class was named as the 10th-best in the country while the freshmen who entered Carolina in the fall of 1999 were named as the 22nd-best group in the country.

Prior to coming to South Carolina, Walvius was the head coach at West Virginia University. In just her second season at WVU, Walvius led the 1996-97 squad to its first winning season in five years with a 19-12 record. She displayed her ability as an outstanding recruiter by attracting a top-20 freshman class to West Virginia.

Walvius' ability to rebuild a program was first evident during the five years she spent at the helm of Virginia Commonwealth University. The youngest head coach in the country at only 25 years old, Walvius coached at VCU from 1990-95 and led the 1995 team to the Women's NIT after posting a 20-10 record. That 20-win season was just the second in the history of the VCU program. Walvius' effort did not go unnoticed as she was named the 1995 Virginia State Coach of the Year and was nominated for National Coach of the Year in District 3.

Walvius began her coaching career at Bradley University in 1986 as an assistant coach for two seasons. After spending a year in private business, she returned to coaching as an assistant at Rhode Island before accepting the head position at VCU.

As a player at Virginia Tech, Walvius established herself as one of the most successful players to wear a Hokie uniform. The four-year letterwinner was named to Virginia Tech's all-decade team and is the school leader in career blocked shots, second in field goals made, and third in scoring and rebounds. An All-Metro Conference selection in 1986, Walvius was an All-American by Converse and Street and Smith's. She graduated in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in urban studies.

 

 

 

 

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