FAMU Hires Ledawn S. Gibson as New Women's Basketball Coach

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida A&M University today hired Ledawn S. Gibson, a former head coach at Winter Haven High School, as its new women’s basketball coach.

“We are pleased that we found someone that we believe is a good fit for our program,” said FAMU Athletic Director Bill Hayes. “She is a talented coach who has demonstrated from year-to-year that she has what it takes to lead us to a championship.”

FAMU Board of Trustees today approved a three-year contract for Gibson with an annual salary of $90,000.

“When you consider her record and history, I’m confident that we have found the right coach for our program,” said FAMU President James H. Ammons. “We were looking for consistency and a person with the ability to build a winning program. We found it in Coach Gibson.”

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I'M NOT IMPRESSED WITH THIS HIRE!

First, congratulations to the Ammons Administration for killing the progress of the FAMU Women's Basketball Program. Certainly, a change was necessary from the substandard performance of the Debra Clark era; but to completely ignore accomplished NCAA Division II experienced head basketball coaches and experienced non-HBCU Division I top assistant coaches at Mid-Major programs is just completely stupid.

Ledawn S. Gibson is a very fine "high school coach" with a nice history of productivity. However, if you believe her statements made on March 6, 2008, to The Ledger.com, (read: http://www.theledger.com/article/20080306/NEWS/803060561/1008/SPORTS01 ) she has gone from needing a change from girls coaching to planning to becoming an assistant principal, to FAMU's head women's basketball coach is less than 60 days. And all of this maneuvering was done before Debra Clark was ousted on March 24.

No one with both paddles in the water quits a gig in the mists of a national recession, without a firm offer in hand to pay the bills. I don't think Gibson is totally nuts; but she may be unrealistic regarding what lies ahead, coming to the college arena with a record of 0-0 and ZERO Division I college experience to boot.

The Bob Wade Story

Secondly, this scenario reminds me of the Robert Pernell Wade ("Bob Wade") experiment. Some of you may recall this story of the former Morgan State great who played college football for the MSU Bears. After college, ole Bob had a nice NFL career playing for the Steelers, Redskins and Broncos, before returning to Baltimore to coach basketball and mentor inter-city kids.

Prior to his coaching stint at University of Maryland, Wade had coached at Baltimore's Dunbar High School for ten years, where he compiled a 341-25 record and was often ranked in the nation's top 10. Wade was legendary in Baltimore circles and for stocking both John Thompson's Georgetown Hoyas and Maryland's program with key pieces of their championship teams.

Wade was originally hired to replace College Basketball Hall of Famer, Charles "Lefty" Driesell, Maryland's basketball coach of 17 years. Driesell resigned over concerns about the death of All-American forward Len Bias and subsequent revelations about his players' poor academic performances.

In high school, Wade had been a strong disciplinarian, and he was appealing to University of Maryland administrators who were attempting to clean up the basketball program.

He was also hired in order to increase diversity as he became the first African American coach of a major sport in the Atlantic Coast Conference, despite the fact that he had no prior experience in coaching a team at the collegiate level.

Wade resigned on May 12, 1989 after three years as head coach, compiling a 36-50 record. Not only was he unable to rebuild the basketball program during his tenure, but his resignation came amid allegations that he broke NCAA rules in dealing with players and recruits, and as a result the university received severe sanctions.

Thirdly, Gibson, like Cynthia Cooper Dyke at Prairie View A&M University did two years ago, will be coming to FAMU with total unfamiliarity of NCAA rules and regulations. You may recall that PVAMU lost three scholarships attributed to the former WNBA coach and Houston Comets star major violations in practice and financial support due to unfamiliarity with the required NCAA regulations. PVAMU women's basketball program is currently on four years of NCAA probation.

And Ammons wants you to believe that Gibson will bring consistency and win championships with no preparation for what lies ahead in the complex and competitive world of Division I women's college basketball. As Bob Wade learned, it's one thing to coach high school kids in high school, but it is a completely different world to persuade these same players to come play for a coach with no track record at all beyond junior varsity and high school.

Gibson may one day become a great college coach. Too bad that Ammons has decided that FAMU should become her training ground for his silly experiment, and not some low profile JUCO, Division III or Division II level program. This should not be--FAMU should always strive to hire the best experienced coach available--that can compete with Coppin State University, North Carolina A&T, Morgan State University and Delaware State University; conference programs that are consistently at the top of the MEAC standings.

What does Savannah State and FAMU now have in common? They both hired inexperienced high school coaches to lead their purported Division I major programs in football and basketball, respectively. Unfortunately, Gibson will soon learn that coaching and recruiting against the upper echelon of Division I experienced coaching leadership is not the same as her success on the lesser level.

Did FAMU not learn anything valuable from the Rubin Carter experiment?

You get the picture--I'm not impressed with this hire.

-beepbeep