News

Basketball Coach is Leaving on Heels of Sensational Season

(Released 6/1/09)

JAMESTOWN - Treka McMillian, the coach who led Guilford Technical Community College's first-year women's basketball team to a tie for the conference crown and the championship of the league tournament, has accepted a job as assistant coach at Western Carolina University.

She will be joining new WCU women's coach Karen Middleton, who was named to the post in mid-May. Middleton, a native of McBee, SC, and McMillian were basketball teammates at the University of South Carolina. Middleton was an assistant coach at Illinois before moving to Western Carolina.

"It was a hard decision to make but this is a good opportunity for me in coaching," McMillian said. "I think the program at GTCC is in good shape; we got off to a good start. We have two girls returning and several excellent recruits that I think will still honor their commitments."

GTCC Athletic Director Phil Gaffney said a search for McMillian's replacement already has begun. McMillian was hired by GTCC last June 9. Gaffney said, "Treka did an outstanding job for us."

The first Lady Titans basketball team finished with a 20-6 overall record, tied for first place in the league with a 7-2 mark and won the Carolinas Junior College Conference Region X tournament tournament. A season-ending loss kept the GTCC out of the national "Sweet 16" in National Junior College divisional play.

McMillian came to GTCC with an outstanding coaching record. She revived a dormant women's basketball program and won a national championship at Minneapolis Technical and Community College in 2004.

Not only did McMillian coach Minneapolis Tech for five seasons of Division 3 competition, she also was an assistant coach and director of basketball operations for the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA. She was assistant basketball coach at Concordia University, a Division 2 school, from 1997 through 1999.

She was assistant coach of the Division 1 University of Minnesota team from 1993 through 1997.

McMillian grew up in eastern North Carolina where she played basketball for West Columbus High School. After graduating from the University of South Carolina, she earned a master's degree at the University of Minnesota.

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