Porter Looks to Rebuild Women's Basketball Program

By Connect Mason Sports Director Damien Sordelett
Photos by Connect Mason Photographer Jennifer Tubach

Speaking to supporters at Brion's Grille Thursday night, new George Mason women's basketball coach Jeri Porter made it perfectly clear that she is not afraid to begin rebuilding, and learned a lot about what it takes from her past six seasons at Radford.

After turning around the Radford women's program, the Capital Heights, Md. native returns to her roots to begin the rebuilding process at Mason, where the women's basketball team has not enjoyed a winning campaign for four seasons.

"George Mason for me is just a tremendous fit on a lot of different levels. There's a lot of great connections there on a personal level, and from a professional standpoint, George Mason is just a great next step for me," said Porter. "Getting the opportunity to step into a tremendous conference like the Colonial Athletic Association and at a university where there's such a great tradition like George Mason, it's just a great opportunity."

Porter looks to create a tradition for the women's program much like the men's program. However, Porter knows that will not come easy and is eager to take on that challenge and take the basketball team to the next level.

"It starts with the attitude of competition, then you add the work ethic and discipline," said Porter. "Eventually they will start to do what you tell them and then you all start functioning better and get going and then you can take it to the next level."

Porter comes from Radford University, where she lead the Highlanders to one WNIT berth (2007-08) in her six years as head coach. In her first four seasons at Radford, Porter only recorded one winning season. The past two seasons garnered 20-plus wins, including this past season with the second most wins in Radford women's history (23).

Porter comes to Mason with an overall head coaching record of 157-128 in her 10 seasons as head coach. She spent her first four years as coach of North Alabama.