WLAC Basketball Coach Honored by WNBA

’s women’s basketball coach Colleen Matsuhara was one of two women recently honored by the WNBA at their “Inspiring Women Night, at a ceremony at the STAPLES Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

According to a WLAC press release, WNBA’s Inspiring Women platform “celebrates leaders who help ignite the dreams and aspirations of women in all endeavors and honors women who embody the same qualities as our players.”

Coach Matsuhara recently completed her 10th year as Head Women’s Basketball Coach and Associate Professor of Physical Education at West LA College where she was the 2009 Western State Conference South Division Coach of the Year.

Matsuhara has an illustrious past, including working as an assistant coach on two National Championship teams: UCLA in 1978 and the Texas Lady Longhorns in 1986.

As head coach at UC Irvine from 1991-97, Matsuhara led the Anteaters to their first ever, and to date, only NCAA post-season berth. She was also Head Coach at the University of Nebraska from 1980-83 and was the assistant athletic director at UCLA while also serving as secretariat of basketball competition for the 1984 Olympic Games and assistant coach for the USA Gold Medal-winning 1987 Pan American team.

Matsuhara has even dabbled in showbiz as the coach and technical advisor for the 2000 movie Love and Basketball.

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