Despite the lack of sports I still watch ESPN every morning. Mostly it’s nice to have a break from the grim specter of pandemic news. But today I wasn’t expecting Sportscenter to provide breaking Iron Range sports news.
Former WNBA player Tamara Moore will coach the Mesabi Range College men’s basketball team next year. This makes her the first African American woman to coach a men’s college basketball team and only the second woman to coach a men’s college team.
Tamara Moore (PHOTO: UW Athletic Hall of Fame)
Moore, 40, was a Minneapolis North high school star and University of Wisconsin-Madison hall of fame college player. She was a first-round draft pick for the Miami Sol in the WNBA. During her 2002 rookie season she was traded to the Minnesota Lynx before bouncing around the league. After 2007 she played professional ball overseas.
Until recently Moore had been coaching the girls basketball team at Edison High School in her hometown of Minneapolis. According to ESPN, a counselor at Mesabi Range informed her of a coaching opportunity for the men’s team. In addition to coaching men’s basketball, Moore will also coach women’s softball at Mesabi.
Moore told ESPN that she holds the goal of coaching a men’s Division 1 college team someday, something a woman has never done.
The Mesabi Range men’s team went 6-19 last year.
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