May 19, 2008

Contact: Greg Murphy

Amy Wright, a four-year letterwinner at Arkansas and former WNBA and "Premier Players" guard, has been named an assistant women's basketball coach at Cleveland State. Head coach Kate Peterson Abiad made the announcement on Monday (May 19).

"Amy is a welcome addition to our coaching staff," Peterson Abiad said. "She brings a tremendous amount of coaching and playing experience with her and will help take our program to the next level. She will be an outstanding resource for our players because of her basketball knowledge and I look forward to working with Amy as we continue to build a strong foundation in our program."

Wright joins to the Viking staff after spending one season as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky where she assisted in the day-to-day operations, including recruiting, scouting, game preparation and player development. She helped WKU earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship as the Lady Toppers won the Sun Belt Conference Championship.

Wright will work with a talented group of returning guards at CSU, including junior Kailey Klein who finished second in the league in scoring and set a single season school-record with 654 points last season. She will also help mentor junior Angel Roque, who started all 33 games at point guard last season, finishing 13th in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.05).

In addition to her one season on the bench at WKU, Wright spent three seasons as an assistant coach at South Florida where she helped the Bulls amass 54 wins, including a 21-win campaign in 2004-05. USF made three trips to the postseason during her tenure there, earning an at-large berth to the NCAA Championship in 2006.

A 2002 graduate of Arkansas, Wright lettered for the Razorbacks from 1999-2002 and is the only point guard in school history to lead Arkansas to four straight postseason appearances, including the 1999 WNIT Championship and a berth in the WNIT semifinals in 2000.

She graduated as Arkansas' all-time leader in assists (717), setting the school record for assists in a season as a senior (205), leading the Razorbacks to the second round of the NCAA Championship.

An academic all-SEC selection as a junior (2001-02), Wright never missed a game, playing in 131 consecutive contests. Following her collegiate career, Wright participated in the WNBA Pre-Draft Camp and was drafted by the Detroit Shock in 2002.

A native of Williamsburg, Ind., and 1998 graduate of Northeastern High School, Wright graduated from Arkansas with a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and management in 2002.

Cleveland State concluded the 2007-08 season with a 19-14 record and won its first-ever Horizon League Championship to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. The Vikings fell in the first round at eventual national runner-up Stanford.