Feb. 23, 2010

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - - Former University of Memphis women's basketball players Paris Leonard and Ashley Thornton have each received an invitation to participate in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association`s (WBCA) So You Want to Be A Coach Program, April 2-4th in San Antonio, Texas, at the NCAA Final Four.

Both Leonard and Thornton graduated in May after completing their eligibility. Leonard went on to play professionally in Puerto Rico while Thornton started her coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at Jacksonville State University.

The Tiger tandem will be just the second and third Memphis players to get selected to participate in the WBCA coaching clinic. Former Tiger Jennifer Sullivan also attended the clinic while she was an assistant coach at Rhodes College, and now coaches at Arkansas State University.

The WBCA has tracked 170 of the 330 former student-athletes who have completed the program and 71 percent of those former participants are now continuing in the coaching profession. The two-and-a-half day clinic is held in conjunction with the WBCA National Convention and the 2010 class marks the largest in the eight years of the program's history. The clinic, which was designed to increase the number of women in the coaching profession, with an emphasis on female minority coaches, provides a workshop based on education and professional principals to help those interested in the field.

The WBCA program is sponsored by the WBCA, the NCAA Diversity and Inclusion, NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee and the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics.