TEMPE, Ariz. – Sun Devil Athletics head coaches Charli Turner Thorne (women’s basketball), Missy Farr-Kaye (women’s golf) and Sheila McInerney (women’s tennis) will be participating in an upcoming panel discussion presented by the ASU Alumni Association.
‘Whatever It Takes: Effective Leadership – A Conversation with Sun Devil Head Coaches,’ will take place on Monday, June 6 at noon in the Carson Ballroom of Old Main (ASU Tempe Campus, 400 E. Tyler Mall, Tempe).
Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from the best as the three Sun Devil head coaches will share insights on leadership, work-life balance, accomplishments, success and more.
The cost is $25 for ASU Alumni Association members ($35 for non-members) and includes lunch. Registration will begin at 11:30 a.m. and the panel will start at noon. Click on this link to secure your spot for the event!
About the Coaches:
Charli Turner Thorne: The winningest coach in Sun Devil women’s basketball history and No. 2 in the Pac-12 in most career wins (380), Turner Thorne is at the helm of a program that has made it to the postseason 16 of the last 17 years, including a school record five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances (2005-09), two Elite Eight appearances and a pair of Sweet 16 finishes. In 2016 Turner Thorne was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year – the second time she was recognized with the honor (also in 2001) – and the WBCA’s Region Coach of the Year after leading the Sun Devils to their second regular season Pac-12 championship. ASU would go on to earn its highest NCAA Tournament seed (No. 2) in program history. In 2016 ASU also tied the program records for most conference wins (16) and consecutive wins (15) and set the program record for most road wins (11). Equally successful in the classroom, last year the Sun Devil women’s basketball team had the seventh-highest GPA in the country among women’s basketball programs. Turner Thorne, who has also earned a pair of gold medals coaching with USA Basketball, will be entering her 20th season at ASU in 2016-17.
Missy Farr-Kaye: Missy Farr-Kaye was named the 10th head coach of the seven-time NCAA Champion Arizona State women’s golf team on June 26th, 2015. Farr-Kaye, arguably one of the most respected coaches in the country, spent the past 13 seasons as an assistant coach and then associate head coach of the Sun Devil women’s golf program with Melissa Luellen. In her first season (2015-16), the Sun Devils were ranked as high as No. 10 with two of their five starters ranked in the top-20 by season’s end. Under the partnership of Farr-Kaye and Luellen, ASU won the school’s seventh NCAA Title in 2009, golfer Azahara Munoz took home an individual NCAA title in 2008, and the duo coached 15 student-athletes to a total of 25 All-American teams, and saw three players win Pac-12 Golfer of the Year. During the 2008-09 season, Farr-Kaye, a two-time breast cancer survivor, battled a reoccurrence of breast cancer only to make it to the NCAA Championships and help ASU bring home its seventh NCAA Title. For her courage and strength, the Women’s Golf Coach Association awarded Farr-Kaye with the Kim Moore Spirit Award, the first and only coach to receive the honor typically reserved for student-athletes.
Sheila McInerney: In the past 32 years, Sheila McInerney has seen a vast amount of change at Arizona State, from new athletic directors, new head coaches, schools added to the conference, and numerous renovations to athletic facilities. Through the countless changes across Arizona State, McInerney has continued to lead the women’s tennis program in a successful direction after her 32nd season. This year, McInerney — who was named the Pac-12 and Southwest Region Coach of the Year — has led the Sun Devils to their second-ever victory over eventual Pac-12 and National Champion Stanford, their best conference record since 1979 (8-2), the program’s first Pac-12 doubles champions, and are in the hunt for a singles and doubles national champion currently at the NCAA Tournament. In Arizona State’s history, no coach has the amount of accolades that McInerney has accumulated during her 32-year tenure as a Sun Devil. Since her first season as head coach in 1985, Sun Devil women’s tennis has won 481 matches, advanced to 31 of 32 NCAA Tournaments, including 29 straight, and has finished each season in the top 38 nationally. That’s the second most wins by any Arizona State coach in school history.