Mary Beth Whitaker is in her second year as the Lady Colonels’ Director of Basketball Operations. Whitaker joined the Lady Colonel program after spending the 2007-08 season as a women’s basketball graduate assistant manager at the University of Louisville. Whitaker also served as an assistant at Lexington Catholic High School for five seasons.
Whitaker played one season (1999-00) at Georgetown College before an injury ended her playing career. While pursuing her degree at Lexington Community College and Eastern Kentucky University, Whitaker’s coaching career began at Lexington Catholic High School.
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In five seasons, Whitaker helped the Lady Knights win four district championships, four region titles and two state championships. LCHS also finished as the state runner-up twice. After capturing the 2006 state championship with a 35-1 record the Lady Knights finished the season ranked third in the nation in the USA Today poll.
The Somerset, Ky., native joined the Louisville program in 2007. She was part of a team that finished as the runner-up in the Big East conference tournament, earned the highest NCAA tournament seed in program history and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16. The Cardinals finished the 2007-08 season ranked 12th in the national polls.
In her year at Louisville, Whitaker worked closely with the recruiting coordinator, helping the Cardinals land the 11th ranked recruiting class in the nation for 2008. She also assisted the director of operations with team travel, scheduling and equipment, helped develop schedules for player workouts and recruiting visits, was responsible for day-to-day managerial operations and served as the summer camp co-director.
Whitaker earned a bachelor of science degree in child and family studies from EKU in May of 2006. She began the social work master’s program at Louisville’s Kent School of Social Work and plans to pursue a master’s degree at EKU in a similar field.
