Kellie Harper, who has served as the head coach at Western Carolina University for the past five years, was named the third head women’s basketball coach in the 35-year history of NC State Wolfpack women’s basketball on April 16, 2009.

Harper has played a key role in eight conference tournament championships, six regular season conference titles and three national titles during her 14 years in college basketball as a player, assistant coach and head coach.  

“This marks the beginning of an exciting new era for Wolfpack women’s basketball,” said Fowler. “Our beloved Kay Yow built a program with rich tradition and I believe that Kellie Harper is the person to build on that legacy and move our program into the future.  She has been a champion at every level - as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach - and we know that she will bring that championship mentality to NC State.”

Under Harper’s direction, Western Carolina compiled a 97-65 record and competed in three consecutive Southern Conference Tournament finals and won its second tourney title in 2008-09. The Catamounts had never won the league tourney before Harper’s tenure.  The team eclipsed 20 wins for the third straight season and has been in postseason play four times in her five years as head coach:  twice in the NCAA and twice in the WNIT.  She coached seven players to 11 all-conference selections and two SoCon Tournament Most Outstanding Players at WCU.

The 2007 Southern Conference Coach of the Year has led her student-athletes to success in the classroom as well, as her 2007-08 squad ranked fifth in the WBCA Academic top-25, her most recent 2008-09 club was eighth and the 2006-07 squad was 15th.

Prior to her tenure at Western Carolina, Harper spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Chattanooga, where she helped lead the Mocs to three consecutive SoCon championships.  She worked primarily with the perimeter players, including the 2004 league player of the year and three other all-conference players.  Prior to her stint in Chattanooga, Harper spent two seasons on the Auburn staff, moving from administrative assistant in 1999-2000 to assistant coach the next season.

Harper, whose maiden name is Kellie Jolly, played on three national championship squads at Tennessee under Hall-of-Fame coach Pat Summit, earning 1999 honorable mention All-America honors.

For her efforts at UT, Harper was inducted into the Lady Vols Hall of Fame on October 2, 2009.

As a junior, she averaged 7.6 points and 3.8 assists while guiding the Lady Vols to a 39-0 record and a national championship.  In the title game against Louisiana Tech, she scored a career-high 20 points and hit four of her five three-point attempts.  She did not miss a free throw in that year’s NCAA Tournament, nailing 14 in a row.  She was named to the 1998 All-Final Four team.

After missing the first 16 games of the 1997 season due to an injury, Harper returned to help lead the Lady Vols to the second of the three national titles they won during her playing career.  In the final game versus Old Dominion, she dished out a championship-game record 11 assists and was named to the All-Final Four squad with a record 20 assists in two games.  That year, the National Strength and Conditioning Association named her its “Strength and Conditioning Female Athlete of the Year.”

For her career, Harper tallied 894 points and 450 assists, ranking among Tennessee’s top-10 career leaders in assists, assists-per-game, three-point field goals, three-point attempts and three-point field goal percentage at the time of her graduation.  She was drafted in the fourth round of the 1999 WNBA draft by the Cleveland Rockers and also earned her degree in mathematics that year.  She was a three-time Academic All-SEC honoree as well.

Harper prepped at White County High School in Sparta, Tenn., earning preseason prep All-America honors and being named the MVP of various tournaments.  In her eight years playing AAU ball, she played on three gold medal teams and three silver medal teams.  She was a five-time All-American and two-time MVP during her AAU career.  She graduated third in her high school class in 1995.