Cal Poly’s new women’s basketball coach has a championship resume and played in the WNBA
Cal Poly named its new women’s basketball coach on Thursday, and she comes to campus with conference championships and WNBA playing experience on her resume.
Shanele Stires was announced as the successor to longtime Mustangs coach Faith Mimnaugh, who recorded the most wins in Cal Poly women’s basketball history. Mimnaugh announced her retirement in March after 25 seasons.
Stires most recently served as the head coach for six seasons at Cal State East Bay where she led the Pioneers to a 24-3 record and a California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament championship this past season.
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong and Athletic Director Don Oberhelman introduced Stires at a news conference in the Performing Arts Center lobby.
Stires said she was attracted to the job after meeting with Armstrong and Oberhelman.
“Hearing and feeling their energy and their vision for what we can do here, it was not a tough decision,” Stires said. “It’s an exciting place to be.”
She added: “This is a program that has deep and rich tradition, and a legacy of high character and integrity. For me, it’s just an absolute honor.”
Armstrong said the program’s success has included in Big West championships and academic merit, noting the Mustangs’ team grade-point average is 3.5.
Armstrong said former players have gone on to careers as engineers, professional basketball players, entrepreneurs, doctors, educators, accountants, lawyers and business leaders, developing leadership skills at Cal Poly.
Armstrong said that “under Coach Stires, we will continue this program’s legacy of student growth and development while at the same time elevating our competitive success.”
Olberhelman said Stires emerged from an “amazing candidate pool” of head coaches and assistants from across the country.
“Our selection rose to the top because of (Stires’) energy, her enthusiasm that she brings — it’s infectious — and the proven track record she has at winning basketball games,” Oberhelman said.
Coach played in the WNBA
In six seasons at Cal State East Bay, Stires led the team to a 94-53 record, guiding the program to at least the semifinals of the CCAA Tournament in five of those years.
Stires held an associate head coach position with the University of San Francisco’s basketball team from 2012-16 and before that served as an assistant at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, Stetson, San Diego State, San Francisco and Ohio University.
During that period, she led programs to three conference championships and three NCAA tournament appearances, Cal Poly officials said.
As a player, Stires starred at Kansas State between 1992 and 1995, scoring 1,344 career points, grabbing 701 career rebounds and earning a Kodak All-America honorable mention, among other honors.
She played professionally for both the American Basketball League, winning two ABL titles with the Columbus Quest from 1996 to 1999, and the WNBA, with the Minnesota Lynx in 2000 and 2001.
Playing in the WNBA was “awesome,” Stires said, adding she had to work hard to improve her game significantly.
“I had to make myself into a player,” Stires said. “That experience and to get to the highest level in the sport brings a perspective that a lot of other coaches don’t necessarily have because they’ve not done it on the level I’ve been able to.”
Recruiting is a priority
Stires told The Tribune that she plans to recruit throughout the country, especially seeking top talent in the Los Angeles area, the Bay Area, Sacramento, and U.S. cities known to be basketball hot spots such as Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Chicago.
“One of the things we have to immediately do is (figure out) how to own Los Angeles even though there are five or six other schools there in our conference, and own the Bay and Sacramento,” she said. “That’s where the majority of the talent is in California, though not all.”
Stires said she’s going to hire “extremely hungry” assistant coaches with an eye for “hungry, humble and smart” players who want to get a “fabulous education.”
“We’re looking for high-level achievers who want this kind of experience,” Stires said. “One of the things that’s palpable is that if you can get them here and feel the energy of this community, I don’t know who wouldn’t want to play here.”
She described her teams as close-knit with “a family atmosphere, but one that’s very competitive,” Stires said.
As for her style of offense, she said “playing up-tempo is always the goal, but if you watch any high-level championship basketball, you have to be able to execute in the quarter court, offensively and defensively. You have to be able to play multiple ways.”
Oberhelman said Stires is a “great fit for the culture of our program and our university.”
“She brings a high level of energy and enthusiasm to coaching and leading young women, and I know she will continue the long-standing tradition in this program of developing leaders,” Oberhelman said.
Stires will enter into a new era after more than two decades with Mimnaugh at the helm.
Mimnaugh, a two-time Big West Coach of the Year, led Cal Poly to back-to-back Big West regular season championships in 2011 and 2012, as well as the program’s first Big West Tournament title in 2013.
Mimnaugh retired after tallying 338 wins, the most in program history and second most in Big West history.
“I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude to Coach Faith,” Armstrong said. “She has done an amazing job in helping all of those young women achieve what they achieve on the court and outside the classroom.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 1:42 PM with the headline "Cal Poly’s new women’s basketball coach has a championship resume and played in the WNBA."
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