BOUNCE Basketball events are staffed with experienced coaches and collegiate players who have competed and won at the highest levels. BOUNCE Basketball founder, Stephanie Lawrence Yelton, is the head women’s basketball coach at the University of West Florida. Her entire life has been surrounded by sports as she grew up a coach’s kid. Graduating high school as one of the most decorated athletes in the state of Georgia, her team lost only three games while winning three consecutive state championships. She was named high school All-American twice and was selected as Miss Georgia Basketball in 1991. Her jersey number is retired at Morrow High School. She was one of the most prized recruits in the nation and had scholarship offers from hundreds of schools. She chose to be a Tar Heel and attend the University of North Carolina. Collegiately, her team went on to win two consecutive ACC championships and the 1994 NCAA National Championship. Upon graduation, she held every record in all three-point shooting categories at UNC.
She then signed a contract to play professional basketball in New Zealand for the Waitiakere Rangers. Her plans were to join a European professional team at the conclusion of that season until she suffered a career ending injury that changed her path. She immediately turned to coaching. She started her coaching career as an assistant coach at Wingate University and then moved on to Wake Forest University. At age 26, she was selected as the head coach at Charleston Southern University, making her the youngest Division 1 head coach in the NCAA at that time. Coach Yelton has also coached at Ohio University, Wake Forest University, and Boston College before being selected as the head coach at the University of West Florida.
At UWF, she took the team from worst to first in one season, winning the first Gulf South Conference title in program history and back to back appearances in the NCAA tournament. She followed that up with the winningest season in program history (28-7) in 2017 and an NCAA South Region Championship which gave her team the honor of appearing in the program’s first-ever NCAA Elite Eight. After 11 seasons, she is currently the All-time Winningest Coach in program history and is on track to be UWF’s winningest basketball coach of all time, men’s or women’s. She has received numerous awards including 2-time Gulf South Conference Coach of the Year, Athletic Coach Exemplar, US Navy Blue Angels Key Influencer, and the UWF Excellence in Inclusion Award. Coach Yelton also serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and serves on the NCAA Basketball Championship committee.
Coach Yelton played for two Hall of Fame coaches and has first hand experience in the development of successful coaching staffs. She has mentored numerous assistant coaches at UWF who have excelled in their respective positions. Many former UWF assistant coaches have moved on to coach at the Division 1 level and have been named head coaches of their own programs.
Player development is a very important part of Coach Yelton’s coaching philosophy. UWF players have earned seven All-American honors, 42 All-Conference honors, and have been named Player of the Year eight times and Freshmen of the Year awards six times. These honors can only be obtained through player development which is a collaboration between the player and a knowledgeable coaching staff. Players at UWF are on a mission to leave their own legacy in the record books as well in the trophy case.
BOUNCE Basketball wants to elevate your potential whether as an athlete or as a coach!