MIAMI SHORES, Fla.—Emer Foley joins the women’s basketball staff this season as the lead assistant under head coach Bill Sullivan, replacing Cassie Bro who left to coach at Centennial High in Boise, Idaho.
Foley spent the last three years at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy teaching physical education. She also coached the Dreadnaughts at Lakeland High for two seasons.
Foley was a star at conference rival Florida Southern, helping the Lady Mocs to a 33-23 mark over her two years. She finished her career with 1,023 points and 665 rebounds 85 games between FSC and Southern Mississippi.
Foley played in 41 games in two seasons with the Mocs and made 33 starts at forward. She scored a total of 551 points in two seasons, including averaging 14.4 points as a junior in 2007-08 and 11.6 points as a senior in 2008-09. Additionally, she pulled down a total of 354 rebounds and averaged 8.6 boards per game. She earned Second-Team All-SSC honors as a junior in 2007-08. She scored a career-high 30 points against Puerto Rico-Bayamon on Nov. 11, 2007 and had a career-high 19 rebounds versus Flagler on Dec. 8 that year. She shot 48.5 percent from the floor.
Her college basketball career began at The University of Southern Mississippi. She received Conference USA player of the week, Southern Mississippi Student- Athlete of the week and led her team in rebounding and was second in scoring. As a forward in her freshman year, she scored a career-high 27 points off the bench on 10-of-12 shooting from the field, also pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds against East Carolina University. She grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds against University of New Orleans. She scored in double-figures in nine of the last 10 games that season and averaged a double-double in those 10 games.
She was selected for the Irish International Basketball Team at age fourteen and represented her country on the Irish International Team Under-15, Under-16, Junior Women, Under-21 and at the World University Games in 2005. During this time she competed in European Championship Tournaments in Portugal, Madera and Lithuania. She also competed in prep tournaments in France and Ireland. She competed in the Four Countries Tournament (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) in Newcastle, United Kingdom. She also competed in the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey. She attended the Five Star Basketball Camp in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 2001 where she received MVP of the camp.
Her international awards range from being named Irish School Girl of the Year 2001, International Championship Tournament Under-16 Tournament Top Rebounder 2002 in Portugal, Irish Player of the Year 2003 and named Irish Team MVP in the European Championships in Lithuania 2006.
She also received academic awards such as The University of Southern Mississippi Academic Honors (2004-2005) GPA 3.2, Division II Academic Achievement Award and was a member of the Sunshine State Conference Commissioners’ Honor Roll 2007-2009 and graduated cum laude from FSC with a 3.6 GPA. She received her master’s degree in educational leadership and administration in one year and four months, graduating with a 4.0 from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Fla.
In her time as a middle school physical education teacher, she has organized fundraisers, t-shirt sales and applied for grants to raise money for the physical education program. In 2010, she was awarded a bronze medal from Discovery Education and the USADA True Sports, for her exemplary program and curriculum. She also received a $2000 grant from “Catch” for new equipment in 2011. She established the girl’s volleyball team and also coached the girl’s middle school basketball team.
Her coaching experience began in 2005 at The Lady Eagles basketball camp in Mississippi, The Gormanstown Basketball Academy in Dublin Ireland 2009, The Kilkenny Basketball Academy in Killkenny Ireland 2010 and Florida Southern Individual Skills Basketball Camp 2012.