HAZLETON, Pa. (9/23/07) - Kean University head women's basketball coach Michele Sharp was inducted into the Hazlelton Area Sports Hall of Fame at Genetti's Best Western on Sunday, September 23. Sharp, who also serves as an assistant athletic director and senior women's administrator at Kean, was a former player at Bishop Hafey High School in Hazleton, Pa. Sharp was one of 17 individuals and three teams inducted as part of the third class of the Hazleton Area Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2006-07, Sharp quided the Cougars to a record 11th New Jersey Athletic Conference championship and to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball tournament for just the second time in program history. Kean tied the program record for wins in a season, finishing 27-4.
A two-time NJAC Coach of the Year, Sharp has coached four of Kean's players that have earned Kodak/WBCA All-America honors.
In 1998, when Kean University sought to revive the fortunes of its flagging women's basketball program, former Associate Director of Athletics Patricia Hannisch knew exactly where to turn. She handed the reins to Sharp, a proven winner at several collegiate programs, and asked her to rebuild the program, restoring it to the elite level it had reached in the 1980s.
Upon her arrival on campus, Sharp knew that a major rebuilding was necessary, and to do that, the entire culture of the program would need to be changed. She hit the recruiting trail hard those first two years, landing three future first-team all-conference performers in Jaquanna Abdullah, Kellie Rice, and Shervon James, who would become the foundation of her program and form the nucleus of the 2001-2002 NJAC championship team.
With Kean women's basketball back on the scene, Sharp was then able to land consecutive NJAC Rookies of the Year in Chari' Cooper and Melissa Beyruti. This past season this new nucleus of talent added another banner to the Cougars' conference record of 11 championships as Kean rallied in the finals, picking up the 2006-07 NJAC crown with a three-point buzzer beater. With the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III tournament, Kean rolled off three straight wins to advance to the Elite 8 before falling to host New York University.
With two conference championships under her belt, Sharp has compiled a 133-107 overall record.
Sharp's rebuilding effort at Kean did not surprise anyone, as she had performed similar feats at her two previous stops. In just four short years at Norwich University in Vermont, Sharp led the Cadets to a 59-40 overall record, including a 22-2 mark in 1990-1991. She then took on another rebuilding project at Manhattan College in 1991. In her fourth year at Manhattan, Sharp led the Jaspers to a 19-11 overall record, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship, and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament where they would face a perennial national power in the University of Virginia.
Sharp's career prior to Norwich consisted of assistant coaching stops at Cabrini College and Philadelphia University, a head-coaching job at Cecilian Academy High School in Philadelphia and a one-year stint as the head coach at Swarthmore College. As head coach of the AAU Philadelphia Shooting Stars, Sharp captured the National Amateur Athletic Union Championship in 1988.
Sharp earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education from West Chester University in 1984 and a master's degree in Educational Administration from Villanova University in 1990. She resides in Union, N.J., with her two sons, Mike McGee and Brian Lytle.
