Grambling State’s new appointed women’s head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs has named her assistant coaches for the 2012-13 season. Lou Hamilton, Erica Henry, and Brittanie Taylor-James will join Bibbs.
Hamilton comes in his third year assisting Bibbs. The Greenville, South Carolina native played for Charleston Southern football team before relocating to Fayetteville State to further his playing career.
As a basketball coach, for many years, he is also the recruiting coordinator for the Grambling Lady Tigers basketball team.
Hamilton has worked with Bibbs for three years now and she describes him as a “go-getter.” Bibbs said, “There’s a certain, special person it takes to recruit and I mean not just bringing people in to put on a uniform, people who can play and will help you to be successful.”
In his previous year of coaching at North Carolina A&T, the Aggies held the No.1 recruiting class with nine freshmen and was the sixth youngest team in the country.
“The idea that I want to bring is to bring those types of athletes that can come in and have an immediate impact so we can beat major programs not just SWAC programs,” said Hamilton.
Entering her first year coaching on a Division I level, Henry is imperatively concentrating on the post players. Henry is joyful not only because she gets the opportunity to coach Bibbs, but also gets to be closer to home.
“It’s always great to coach under a legend, you get to get that experience,” said Henry. “Being closer to home is also a blessing and I know she (Bibbs) is going to push me. She’s heard it all, done it all, and she’s going to expect greatness.”
Henry, also spoke on recruiting. “We’re going to rely heavily on our recruits in this area,” she said.
Henry being a Shreveport native with many accomplishments under her belt, Bibbs likes her chances on bringing Louisiana recruits to Grambling.
“She was a good addition to the staff because she is a native of Louisiana. It is also good to help get more Louisiana players on the team considering there is only one who is a senior,” Bibbs said on Henry.
As a leading player for both C.E. Byrd High School and Fresno State University, Henry won several awards including: All-District, All-City, and All-State in high school and Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week in 2008 and All-Academic WAC. She was also nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award in 2008
Taylor-James, also a former player for Bibbs, is a native from Chicago. After one season at the University of California Santa Barbara, she transferred to North Carolina A&T where she and Bibbs met.
“Under her supervision, I was able to be taught on how to be an athlete more so student-athlete first and also a woman,” said Taylor-James.
Like Henry, Taylor also has many tremendous accolades. She was the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference player of the year in 2008-2009, the 22nd lead scorer in the nation in 2008-2009 and led the Lady Aggies to back -to-back championships from 2007-2009.
She was also a WNBA draft prospect in 2009 and in addition, she also has professional European experience in Portugal with the Quinta dos Lombos where she averaged 17.8 points.
Taylor-James is looking to bring that confident feeling Grambling had 15 years ago.
She would like to be more proactive to help the team through community service, to reach out, let the city of Grambling know that they are here, they are back, and coming even more forceful than before.
Bibbs knows that Brittanie Taylor-James’ work ethic is impeccable. “She’s a hard worker,” said Bibbs.
Bibbs is teaching her new assistants to be good and humble coaches. “You have to be humble if you’re going to be successful,” said Bibbs. Bibbs also hope to bring the winning tradition of women’s basketball back to Grambling State University and she believes, with this staff she assembled, that they are going to do a great job.