Coach, teacher, mother of two daughters, grandmother and wife of a hardworking former fireman – Stephanie Findley wears many hats as she leads the Lady Eagles in her 37th season as head women’s basketball coach at her alma mater and her 10th since Oklahoma Christian left the NAIA to begin the NCAA Division II membership process and joined the Heartland Conference. Her program made its Lone Star Conference debut in 2019-20 and promptly made the LSC postseason tournament in OC's first two seasons in the league.
While building a perennial contender -- first in the NAIA and the Sooner Athletic Conference, now in Division II and the Heartland Conference -- Findley has compiled a 640-484 record. She holds the state record for most wins by a women’s basketball coach at a four-year Oklahoma college, setting that record with her 500th win, recorded during the 2010-11 season against Missouri Valley.
She recorded career win No. 600 on Feb. 16, 2017, in a 70-45 romp over Rogers State in what was also her 1,000th game at the OC helm. She is one of only 86 collegiate women's basketball coaches to have reached the 600-win mark.
Entering the 2017-18 academic year, Findley ranked No. 3 among active Oklahoma coaches -- in any sport, at any level -- in tenure and is the longest-serving female college head coach in Oklahoma college history. She has been a head coach, assistant coach or player for OC's women's basketball program for all but one of its 45 years of existence.
Findley took 13 teams to the NAIA Division I tournament, including nine of the last 13 years OC was a member of that organization. The Lady Eagles reached the “Sweet 16” five times and advanced to the national quarterfinals in 1986 – her first season as coach – as well as in 2003 and 2010.
During the 2012-13 season, OC’s first as a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association, she guided the Lady Eagles to the Central Region title – the program’s first postseason tournament win since 1986 – and a fourth-place finish at the NCCAA Championship. In the region title game, OC beat eventual NCCAA champ Southern Nazarene. In 2013-14, OC again won the NCCAA Central Region title and eventually finished fifth at the national tournament.
The Lady Eagles made a strong debut in the Heartland Conference, as they would have finished third if the league had chosen to count OC’s games in the regular-season standings in 2012-13. Since joining the Heartland, OC has finished in the top four in the league standings in three out of four seasons. In 2015-16, OC's first season of eligibility to compete in the Heartland Conference and Division II postseason, she guided the Lady Eagles to a fourth-place league finish, and they tied for fourth again in 2016-17.
OC picked up its first postseason win at the Division II level in March 2018, beating Newman (Kan.) in the first round of the Heartland Conference Championship tournament. In 2018-19, Findley coached the leading scorer in Division II, OC guard Addy Clift, and the next two seasons, Findley guided the Lady Eagles into the Lone Star Conference tournament, posting an upper-division (seventh-place) finish in 2020-21.
Findley’s teams are noted for their up-tempo style of play that keeps constant pressure on the opposition. A strong teacher of the game, she has a knack for developing players and motivating them to reach their full potential. Her teams also are known for their academic achievements and community involvement. The 2008-09 team had the second-highest grade point average (3.762) among all NAIA women’s basketball squads, earning NAIA Scholar Team designation and the program’s ninth appearance on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association honor roll. in 2013-14, OC tied for the NCCAA lead with six players named as Scholar-Athletes. The program also has produced two CoSIDA Academic All-America selections in Kim Golden and Katy Clift.
Findley’s Lady Eagles earned the NAIA Champions of Character team award for women’s basketball in 2006-07 in recognition of their numerous community initiatives. Their recent work includes assisting Wings (a special-needs adult community near the OC campus) and the Capitol Hill Church of Christ Sharing Center. The team also participates in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life and runs each year in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in honor of Richard Cummins, who died in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and was the father of former OC player Courtney Cummins. Findley and her players have spent holidays distributing meals and have worked in recent years with students at an Edmond elementary school, promoting fitness. In recent years, the Lady Eagles have held an annual diaper drive for Lilyfield, a Christian adoption and foster care agency. The team also is a longtime partner with Habitat For Humanity and is involved in other mission and outreach efforts.
A playmaking guard for the Lady Eagles from 1979 to 1982, Findley devotes the same competitiveness, intelligence and intensity in the coaches’ box that characterized her playing days under former coach Max Dobson. Findley took the reins of the program with the 1985-86 season after serving as Dobson’s assistant for three seasons. In her first season, she guided the Lady Eagles to the NAIA District 9 title and the quarterfinals of the national tournament.
The 62-year-old Findley is a four-time SAC coach of the year honoree, having received the award in 1986, 1988, 1990 and 2000. In 1986, she was named coach of the year in NAIA District 9 and she was coach of the year in NAIA District 2 in 2000. She was inducted into the OC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.
Many of her former players have enjoyed success in the coaching ranks, including University of Oklahoma head coach Sherri (Buben) Coale and OU assistant coach Jan Ross; Nichole (Sanders) Copeland, who won a Class 6A high school girls state title at Mustang; and Tasha (Turney) Diesselhorst, hired in 2016 as Northwestern Oklahoma State's head coach after winning a prep state title at Pond Creek-Hunter. Other former players-turned-coaches include Tara Satterfield (Bethel High School) and Hope Heinen (Harrah High School).
Findley is a member of the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. She served three terms as the president of the NAIA Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, most recently in 2005-06. She was the NAIA representative to the USA Basketball Women’s Collegiate Committee from 2000 to 2004 and now serves on the board of directors of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She is involved in the selection process of potential honorees.
She was OC’s first senior woman administrator, stepping down from that post near the end of 2013.
Findley, a 1982 OC graduate, is a native of Lexington, Okla., and lives in Edmond. She is an associate professor of physical education for the OC athletic department. Findley holds a master’s degree in secondary education from the University of Central Oklahoma. She is married to Dean Findley, a 1982 OC graduate who retired as a major in the Oklahoma City Fire Department and now works as an assistant professor in UCO's Department of Adult Education and Safety Sciences. They have two daughters, Jordan and Jessica -- both OC graduates and former players -- and three granddaughters.
STEPHANIE FINDLEY
YEAR-BY-YEAR COACHING RECORD
2021-22 ... 2-21
2020-21 ... 7-8 (Lone Star Conference quarterfinalist)
2019-20 ... 8-19 (Lone Star Conference tournament qualifier)
2018-19 ... 12-16 (Heartland Conference quarterfinalist)
2017-18 ... 10-18 (Heartland Conference semifinalist)
2016-17 ... 15-14 (Heartland Conference quarterfinalist)
2015-16 … 14-15 (Heartland Conference quarterfinalist)
2014-15 … 12-14
2013-14 … 19-12 (NCCAA Central Region Champion, NCCAA 5th place)
2012-13 … 20-13 (NCCAA Central Region Champion, NCCAA Semifinalist/4th place)
2011-12 … 9-20
2010-11 … 15-16 (Sooner Athletic Conference quarterfinalist)
2009-10 … 21-13 (Sooner Athletic Conference quarterfinalist, NAIA Division I quarterfinalist)
2008-09 … 13-18 (Sooner Athletic Conference tournament qualifier)
2007-08 … 17-14 (Sooner Athletic Conference quarterfinalist)
2006-07 … 23-8 (Sooner Athletic Conference semifinalist, NAIA Division I round of 16)
2005-06 … 23-10 (Sooner Athletic Conference finalist, NAIA Division I tournament qualifier)
2004-05 ... 26-9 (Sooner Athletic Conference semifinalist, NAIA Division I round of 16)
2003-04 … 21-14 (Sooner Athletic Conference semifinalist, NAIA Division I round of 16)
2002-03 … 21-12 (Sooner Athletic Conference semifinalist, NAIA Division I quarterfinalist)
2001-02 ... 20-14 (Sooner Athletic Conference tournament qualifier, NAIA Division I round of 16)
2000-01 … 19-11 (Sooner Athletic Conference semifinalist, NAIA Division I tournament qualifier)
1999-00 … 23-10 (Sooner Athletic Conference finalist, NAIA Division I round of 16)
1998-99 … 18-14 (Sooner Athletic Conference semifinalist)
1997-98 … 15-19 (Sooner Athletic Conference semifinalist)
1996-97 … 22-11 (Sooner Athletic Conference semifinalist, NAIA Division I tournament qualifier)
1995-96 … 19-12 (Sooner Athletic Conference semifinalist)
1994-95 … 24-9 (Sooner Athletic Conference semifinalist, NAIA Division I round of 16)
1993-94 … 9-19 (Sooner Athletic Conference tournament qualifier)
1992-93 … 20-12 (NAIA District 9 semifinalist, NAIA Division I round of 16)
1991-92 … 11-15
1990-91 … 22-7 (Sooner Athletic Conference regular-season co-champion, NAIA District 9 semifinalist)
1989-90 … 19-11 (NAIA District 9 tournament qualifier)
1988-89 … 24-8 (NAIA District 9 tournament qualifier)
1987-88 … 23-9 (Sooner Athletic Conference regular-season co-champion, NAIA District 9 tournament qualifier)
1986-87 … 17-11, (NAIA District 9 tournament qualifier)
1985-86 … 27-8 (Sooner Athletic Conference champion, NAIA District 9 champion, NAIA-Bi-District champion, NAIA quarterfinalist)
Career Coaching Record (34 years) … 623-436 (.588)
