University of North Carolina Athletics
Stafford-Odom Named New Women's Basketball Assistant
August 24, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Aug. 24, 2011
CHAPEL HILL --- Trisha Stafford-Odom has joined the University of North Carolina women's basketball staff as an assistant coach, head coach Sylvia Hatchell announced Wednesday. A 1992 graduate of the University of California, Stafford-Odom spent three seasons as an assistant coach at UCLA from 2005-08 before coaching at Duke from 2009-11.
"We are extremely excited to add Trisha to our staff," Hatchell said. "She has played the game at the highest level professionally and coached at the highest level, and she's going to be a tremendous addition for us. Trisha is replacing a Carolina legend in Charlotte Smith, but I think her enthusiasm for women's basketball and her work ethic as a coach and a recruiter will help make this a very smooth transition."
Noted as one of the nation's top recruiters, Stafford-Odom helped bring in a number of highly-rated classes at both UCLA and Duke. Her best class at UCLA was ranked No. 3 in the country and she had back-to-back top-5 classes at Duke, including a 2009-10 group that was considered the nation's best.
A four-year letterwinner in Berkeley, Stafford-Odom ranks among the best players in Cal women's basketball history. The Los Angeles native scored 1,530 points in her career, good for ninth in school history. She also ranks among the school's top 10 in scoring average, field goal attempts, field goals made, free throw attempts and free throws made.
Stafford-Odom was a two-time first-team All-Pac 10 selection in 1991 and 1992 and led the Lady Bears to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances. During her senior season, she averaged a conference-best 22.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game en route to earning honorable mention on the prestigious Kodak All-America team. She was also named to the school's 1986-96 All-Decade Team.
Stafford-Odom played two seasons in the WNBA with Houston (2001) and Miami (2002). She also appeared with San Jose and Long Beach in the ABL as well as overseas in Italy, Spain, Israel, Brazil and Puerto Rico.
In addition to her time at UCLA and Duke, Stafford-Odom spent three seasons (2002-05) as the head coach at Westchester High School in Los Angeles where she tutored more than 10 players who earned college scholarships.
Trisha and her husband DeWayne Odom live in Durham with their sons Amari and Trajen.
