| Kellee Barney |
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 | Hometown:
Leavenworth, Wash.
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| Position:
Assistant Coach
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| Alma Mater:
Idaho, '83
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Pacific Northwest native and veteran collegiate coach Kellee Barney returns to Oregon State for her second season as an assistant coach with the Beavers.
In her first season with Oregon State, Barney helped guide the club to its finest season in more than a decade. She served a vital role in the further development of the team's post players, including the continued development of Tiffany Ducker, who ended her OSU career in the top 10 in rebounding, field goal percentage and blocks.
Barney also played a vital role in the early development of Kirsten Tilleman, who, in her first season with the Beavers, started a majority of the Pac-10 season as a true freshman. Tilleman improved as the year wore on, finishing multiple games with 10 rebounds while playing upwards of 30 minutes a game for one of the most improved teams in the nation.
Barney has a wealth of collegiate experience and since coming to the program prior to the 2008-09 season, has been a big influence on the club's roster.
A native of Leavenworth, Wash., she brings to Oregon State 24 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level prior to her appointment with the Beavers, most recently serving as the assistant head coach at Arizona. During her six-year tenure with the Wildcats, Arizona reached the NCAA Tournament three times, winning its first postseason game since 2000 in 2005. The Wildcats also shared the 2003-04 Pac-10 regular season championship with Stanford.
While at Arizona, Barney's players earned two Pac-10 Freshman of the Year awards - Dee-Dee Wheeler and Shawntinice Polk. Her players earned seven All-Pac-10 awards and five were named to the Pacific-10 Conference All-Tournament Team. Polk was named to an All-America honorable mention team four times during her career while Wheeler earned two All-America honorable mention selections in 2004-05.
Four players coached by Barney - Wheeler, Polk, Aimee Grzyb and Natalie Jones - are members of Arizona's 1,000-points club of which there are 15 all-time.
Prior to her tenure at Arizona, Barney was already an established collegiate coach. From 1994-2000, she was the head coach at Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash. While there, she produced two first team All-West Coast Conference selections, six honorable mention All-WCC choices and seven players who earned WCC All-Academic honors. Her 1998-99 team placed in the top 10 nationally for overall team grade-point average.
The stint at Arizona was not Barney's first in the Pacific-10 Conference as she spent nine years at Washington State, first as an assistant coach, then as associate head coach during the 1993-94 season. The Cougars' last visit to the NCAA Tournament, 1991, occurred during Barney's tenure.
Her tenure at Washington State also helped her gain International coaching experience. Barney was an assistant coach for the Pac-10 All-Star Team during its tour of Hungary in 1989 and Belgium and France in 1992.
Oregon State will mark her second coaching stint in the state of Oregon as she began her coaching career at Portland State from 1983-85, where she served as the Vikings' recruiting coordinator for current Portland head coach Jim Sollars.
Barney has also gained athletic exposure outside of the coaching ranks. Prior to her tenure at Arizona, she spent two years as a program manager for the People To People Sports Ambassador Program in Spokane. During her two years with the program, she shared her personal experiences as an athlete and a coach with more than 10,000 families across the United States in order to encourage young athletes to expand their leadership through sports and International travel.
Barney earned a bachelor of science degree in sociology from Idaho in 1983. She played for the Vandals from 1982-83 and was part of the 1982 squad that went 27-5.
She also played at Wenatchee Valley College for Sollars from 1980-81, winning state championships both years.
She and her husband, Michael, have a 12-year-old son, Jarryd.
