Honoring Coach Wendy Larry
Join us for a magical day of online fun and heartfelt stories as we celebrate
Coach Wendy Larry - a trailblazer who has not only highly impacted Old Dominion University but many of our lives as well.
Let's take this moment to honor her!
Honoring Coach Wendy Larry
Coach Wendy Larry is an award winning women’s basketball coach whose career spans more than three decades. Coach Larry is a former Old Dominion University graduate who went on to become an assistant coach before leading the women’s basketball team for 25 years as head coach. She “Bleeds Blue” through and through.
Coach Larry’s impressive career stats boast numerous accolades, 20th all-time coach to win 600 career games, recipient of Coach of the Year awards from three different conferences, and 1997 as the United States Women's Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Coach of the Year.
Coach Larry is Old Dominion's all-time winningest coach, recording 559 wins. Her .722 all-time winning percentage, which includes stops at Virginia Wesleyan, Arizona and Old Dominion, ranks her as the 26th Division I winningest coach of all-time. She also ranks tied for 22nd in the category of most 20-win seasons as a head coach, notching 20 of those at ODU.
Larry's teams reached 20 NCAA Tournaments, captured an NCAA record setting 17-straight Conference Championship titles from 1992-2008, and advanced to the championship game of the NCAA tournament in 1997, the Elite Eight in 2002 and numerous Sweet 16’s.
Players often fondly reminisce on her, whether it is her animated demeanor coaching from the bench or with her signature towel draped over one shoulder. Competition is in her blood and the teams under her leadership rose to each occasion.
Coach Wendy Larry’s numerous achievements include, serving a six-year term as President of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and as a member of the USA Basketball Collegiate Selection Committee. She was also involved with the USA Today Coaches Poll board, the NCAA East Regional Women's Basketball Advisory Committee, and the advisory committee for Coaches vs. Cancer. Active in the Hampton Roads community, she sat on the Board of Directors for the Hampton Roads Habitat for Humanity. Larry was the honorary chair of the 2003 Race for the Cure in Hampton Roads, and her teams were active with the annual race. She supported the "Hoops for a Cure" event at the Ted Constant Convocation Center, which helps raise money for the Tidewater chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. She initiated the Hampton Roads Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome awareness and was actively involved in "Out of the Darkness", an event for suicide awareness. Wendy was the Hampton Roads Professional Woman of the Year in 2000.
Larry helped guide nine players to being drafted into the WNBA including our HMB founder Hamchetou Maiga-Ba who assisted her team in winning the 2005 WNBA Championship with the Sacramento Monarchs and our HMB VP of Marketing Lucienne Poiraud(Berthieu).
Maiga-Ba was also featured on the world's stage as she joined her native Mali national team in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, created Special Olympics in Mali and in 2018 the Hamchetou Maiga-Ba Foundation was born. This is one of the reasons why it is most befitting to honor Coach Wendy Larry as our inaugural honoree.
Coach Larry shared her life with so many students as a coach and as a mentor. We are honored to welcome Coach Wendy Larry into the HMB Wall of Fame for 2022!