MOREHEAD, Ky. — Morehead State has named Cayla Petree as its new women's head basketball coach. She replaces Greg Todd who left in May to become the head coach at Eastern Kentucky.
Petree comes to the Eagles program after a successful run in the Junior College ranks. She spent one season at Gulf Coast State College in Florida where she led the program to a No. 15 seed in the NJCAA tournament. The Commodores led NJCAA Region VIII in scoring, averaging 75.0 points per game, exceeding the average in 13 of the team's 22 games on the season.
Before that she was in Texas at South Plains College for five seasons. Petree's best season at the helm of the Texans program came in her final campaign in 2019-20 as South Plains College wrapped the season with a 32-1 record, including a 26-game win streak to open the year, to earn the No. 2 national seed in the NJCAA National Tournament, prior to the Covid-19 global pandemic. Despite the abrupt end to the campaign, the season culminated in National Coach of the Year honors from the WBCA, NJCAA, and WhoopDirt.com.
"I am extremely excited to lead this Division I program. It's been a goal of mine for probably the last 25 years, and Morehead State is the perfect opportunity. I am so grateful," said Petree. "I feel like Jaime (Gordon) and I have similar visions for what MSU can be. He is very culture-oriented and student-athlete experience driven, and so am I.
"I have already spoken with our student-athletes, and I could genuinely see their excitement. They are ready to go to work in building our culture. That's one of the things I am protective of. We are going to work extremely hard, but the player experience is one of the things I know will set our program apart."
Morehead finished 7-16 this past season and only had two seniors on the team.
