Shannon Howley enters her 10th year as head coach of the Elmira College women’s basketball program in 2017-18.
Howley has coached some of the best players in Elmira College history with several players having their names scattered throughout record books. She has mentored eight Empire 8 All-Conference selections, two E8 Rookies of the Year, and three 1,000-point scorers.
The 2013-14 season was Howley’s best season to date, leading Elmira to a 16-10 record. Her team rattled off 10 consecutive wins, marking the longest win streak since the 2006-07 season. Howley coached the 2013-14 Empire 8 Conference Player of the Year in Jessica Zoltowski ’14, a player who went on to receive D3hoops.com All-American honors, the first player to receive All-American honors in EC history.
In 2014-15, Howley guided newcomer Danielle Cleary ’18 to the Empire 8 Rookie of Year award, becoming just the second Soaring Eagle to earn that honor. Cleary, also an E8 All-Conference Honorable Mention, scored 14.2 points per game, the second-highest per game average in EC history. She then broke the single-game scoring record, which was set in 1979, by scoring 37 points in the regular season finale.
In 2015-16, first-year point guard Lindsey Heaton '19 became the third player in EC history to be crowned the E8 Rookie of the Year. It marked the first time that teammates claimed back-to-back Empire 8 Rookie of the Year awards since RIT's Leslie Havens and Courtney Tennant took home the honor in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Cleary picked up E8 All-Conference Honorable Mention honors after posting 16.1 points per game in 2015-16, which ranked third-most in the conference.
The Purple and Gold’s 2016-17 campaign was highlighted by multiple standout performances. The first player to make her mark was Cleary, who became the third Soaring Eagle to reach the 1,000-point milestone under Howley and the program’s sixth all-time 1,000-point scorer. Cleary also earned her third consecutive Empire 8 All-Conference Team award. Sophomore Rachel Vespucci ’19 broke out this past year, as she led the E8 in rebounds per game (10.9) and tallied an exceptional 13 double-doubles, the most by a Soaring Eagle in over 15 seasons, en route to her first All-Conference selection. Heaton continued to shine under Howley’s direction, as she tallied the third-most assists (109) in a season. In just two years, Heaton is already ranked 10th on EC’s all-time assists leaderboard (184).
Howley joined the Soaring Eagles staff after three seasons as head women’s basketball coach and Assistant Director of Athletics at Arcadia University. In her three seasons with Arcadia, she molded the Knights from a six-win team in 2005-2006 to narrowly missing the postseason in 2008.
Her coaching resume also includes assistant coaching positions at the Catholic University and Marymount University. In four seasons at Marymount her teams tallied an overall record of 90-30 including three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and a trip to the Final Four in 2004.
Howley, a native of Silver Spring, Maryland, is a member of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, a member of the Alliance of Women's Coaches, a member of Women Leaders in College Sports and a 2013 graduate of the NCAA Women's Coaches Academy. She holds a B.S. in communications from Radford University and received her master’s degree in educational leadership from Arcadia.
