Shanele Stires, who starred at Kansas State and played professionally both overseas and in the WNBA, joined the Aztecs in June of 2008 as an assistant coach.
Utilizing over eight years of WNBA and professional playing experience, coach Stires works directly on the court with the Aztec forwards and centers. Administratively, she assists with recruiting, scouting future opponents and player development and coordinates all electronic and hard mail correspondence.
Prior to her stint at SDSU, Stires was an assistant coach at the University of San Francisco, where she worked with the Dons[apos] forwards and post players, while also assisting with recruiting and scouting and working as the team[apos]s community service liaison. In her two years in the Bay Area, USF went from 9-20 the year prior to her arrival in 2005-06, to a 14-16 overall mark last season.
Before moving to California, Stires was an assistant coach at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, from 2003-06. Her on-court duties included working with the Bobcat post players, while off the court, she helped with recruiting, opponent scouting, team conditioning, marketing, summer camps, travel and community outreach. Stires tutored a pair of all-Mid-American Conference players and an all-league freshman team performer at Ohio.
Stires also has experience coaching at the prep level as an assistant for the 1997 5A Kansas state runner-up team at Salina South High School and was a volunteer assistant coach at NCAA Division III Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn., from 2002-03. In 2002, she organized and conducted her own high school basketball clinic and has worked behind the scenes with both the Minnesota Lynx and Columbus Quest.
Stires entered the coaching ranks after a successful professional playing career in the WNBA and ABL and overseas in Greece, Portugal and Sweden. She played both guard and forward for the Minnesota Lynx from 2000-03, and the Columbus Quest from 1996-98, when the team won a pair of ABL championships.
A 1995 graduate of Kansas State with a bachelor[apos]s degree in social science, Stires was a three-year letterwinner for the Wildcats from 1992-95. She was an honorable mention Kodak All-American, first-team all-Big 8 selection and runner-up for conference player of the year as a senior in 1995, after twice being named to the all-league second team. The Salina, Kan., native left K-State ranked fifth in career rebounding (701) and sixth in scoring (1,344 points).