"When you go away from home and go to college, that's when you formulate your own set of values and principles and decide how you want to live your life," she said. "I was fortunate to be surrounded by great people who made great impressions on me." -Sherri Coale
Sherri Coale is an Oklahoma native who grew up in the small town of Healdton. She went to school at Oklahoma Christian University where she played guard on their basketball team. She married Dane Coale in 1987 and has a son, Colton, and a daughter, Chandler. Coale's basketball coaching career started as an assistant coach at Edmond Memorial and then at Norman High School where she was their head coach for 6 years. She became the youngest head coach in the high school prep classification at age 2. After that she went straight into coaching at the University of Oklahoma when their women's team was one of the least respected and experiencing too many losses. She took this team and completely turned it around, taking them to the National Championship game in 2002. In the 2005-2006 season the Sooners were 16-0 in the Big 12 and became the second team to go undefeated in conference play. It is safe to say that she took this team and completely turned it around. Her career does not stop in college because she went on to be the assistant coach to the USA Women's Basketball Team where they took the bronze medal. While Coale is very well-known for her basketball successes she is even more known for her passions about academics and service. She has her team participate in community events and a big sister program to be mentors to younger girls. She wants them to have an impact on the people that they are around and be role models to all of the girls that look up to them. She has a strong faith and that definitely shines through in her actions.
"I want it to be my legacy at OU that we produced people who made a difference in the world," Sherri told Oklahoma magazine. "It's not just about champions, or only about how we played the game."
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