Edna Campbell

Kamie Ethridge 1986 Clarissa Davis 1989 Edwina Brown 2000

Kamie Ethridge as a Longhorn

Coach Kamie Ethridge As a Longhorn won the Kamie Ethridge received the Wade Trophy and Honda Sports award in 1986

Coach Kamie Ethridge- As a Longhorn Kamie Ethridge received the Wade Trophy and Honda Sports award in 1986

 Women's Basketball 3/6/2018 11:18:00 AM By Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

@UNCBearsWBB Head Coach Kamie Ethridge Named Big Sky Coach of the Year

UNC's Kamie Ethridge named Big Sky Coach of the Year

RENO, Nev. – Northern Colorado's women's basketball coach Kamie Ethridge earned her first career Big Sky Coach of the Year honor, as announced by the conference on Tuesday afternoon. Ethridge led the Bears to a 23-6 record and the program's first outright Big Sky regular season championship with a 15-3 conference record.

In her fourth year with UNC, she guided the team to a program best 23 wins and led the team to a few program firsts. It all began on opening night when Northern Colorado defeated its first Top 25 ranked team winning at No. 20/25 DePaul 94-88. The team proceeded to win its first game against an SEC opponent in LSU in its home opener 58-50 and it all culminated to the Big Sky regular season title being wrapped up on February 28 with a win at home over Portland State.

Along with all of the team success this season, Ethridge helped guide Savannah Scott, Savannah Smith and Kianna Williams to All-Big Sky honors. Smith earned the Most Valuable Player award along with her second straight first team designation. Williams was named the Defensive Player of the Year, while Scott made her way onto the second team for the second straight year.

Over her four years as the UNC head coach, Ethridge is 80-43 overall and 52-22 in Big Sky games. She led the program to its deepest run in the postseason, advancing to the third round of the WNIT. In three of her four years at the helm, Northern Colorado has won at least 22 games.

Ethridge and her Bears will play its first game of the Big Sky Conference Tournament tomorrow at 1:05 pm MT against Montana in Reno, Nevada.

To stay up to date on all things UNC women's basketball, visit UNCBears.com and follow the team on Twitter at @UNCBearsWBB.