OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 14, 2020) – Former Oklahoma Christian basketball player and longtime University of Oklahoma women's coach Sherri Coale will be inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame later this year, the Hall announced Friday.
Coale, from Healdton, will be formally introduced as part of the 2020 class on Feb. 27 during a luncheon. The induction ceremony will be held later this year. In recent years, it's been in August and held at the Riverwind Casino in Goldsby, just south of Norman.
Coale graduated in 1987 from OC, where she was recruited by the OC program's founder, Max Dobson, and played for both Dobson and current OC coach
Stephanie Findley. After two years as an assistant coach at Edmond Memorial High School, Coale became Norman High School's head coach in 1989 and in seven seasons, won two Class 6A titles and posted a 147-40 record.
She became Oklahoma's coach at age 31 and turned a struggling program into a major-college power. In 24 seasons, she is 501-275 and ranks second (behind Findley) on the state's career wins list for women's college basketball.
She is one of eight active NCAA Division I coaches to have taken their current program to at least three Final Fours, having done so in 2000, 2009 and 2010. She has posted 15 20-win seasons with the Sooners and was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
Coale is in numerous other Halls of Fame, including the OC Athletic Hall of Fame.
She will be one of two OC alums in the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, along with current OC assistant track and field coach
Jeff Bennett, who was inducted in 2017.
"Naturally, I think Sherri deserves every honor she receives," Findley said. "She built that program from the ground up her way. It's built on character and not characters. She doesn't look for quick fixes in transfers, but instead builds a foundation on bringing in freshmen who she can mold and teach. They, in turn, help mold and teach the next generations.
"She understands there are more important things in life than winning ballgames. What better gift can you give your players than an understanding of the big picture? I think that is what makes a Hall of Fame coach."
