Heather Macy is preparing for her second season as head coach for women's basketball at Francis Marion University.

This past year, she guided Francis Marion to a 21-9 record in 2007-08, which equaled the largest won-loss turn-around in NCAA Division II last year, and the eighth-best ever.  The Patriots captured a share of the Peach Belt Conference regular-season title and earned a bid to the NCAA Division II national tournament, where the program served as the host for the South Atlantic Regional.  FMU led the nation in scoring offense (89.3 ppg) and steals per game (18.5 per game).

Macy, 28, was named to head the program on March 21, 2007, and became the 10th head coach in the storied history of the Francis Marion program, and the youngest new coach since Sherri Tynes took over the coaching reigns as a 27-year-old in 1988.

The Hamptonville, N.C., native came to Francis Marion after two seasons as head coach at Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, N.C.  In 2006-07, she took the Falcons to a 26-5 record, the CVAC regular-season and tournament championships, and an appearance in the NCAA Division II national tournament. She was named the CVAC Coach of the Year, and her squad led the nation in scoring offense (83.8 ppg) at the end of the regular season.

In her first season at Pfeiffer, her squad produced a 14-15 mark after she inherited only four returnees from an 8-20 squad. Her Pfeiffer team represented the United States in the Barbados vs. USA Friendship Basketball Tour during the summer of 2006.

Her coaching resume also includes stints as an assistant coach at two Division I institutions, University of Maryland-Baltimore County and High Point University, and a pair of Division II schools, Lenoir-Rhyne College, and Catawba College. In her six seasons as an assistant, her teams’ combined records were 84-60.

She served as head coach for a USA Athletes International squad that toured Australia in 2004 and won a gold medal with a 7-0 mark at the Australian Youth Games. She is founder of the highly-successful Focused 50 Basketball Camp, which is now held at FMU.

Macy received a B.S. degree in sport and exercise studies (cum laude) from Greensboro College, where she was a four-year letterwinner on the basketball court. She ended her career 11th on The Pride’s career scoring list (707 points) and in the top 10 for assists (207). In 2002, she earned a master’s degree in human performance and recreation from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Upon her graduation, she quickly moved into the coaching ranks, accepting the position at Catawba.

The Francis Marion program has an all-time record of 696-344 in 35 seasons. The Patriots have captured two national championships, the 1982 AIAW Division II title and the 1986 NAIA title, and also advanced to the 1998 NCAA Division II Final Four. The program made five straight NCAA Division II Tournament appearances between 1997 and 2001.

Patriot Women's Basketball Contact Information

Jami Cornwell of Mt. Crawford, Va., is entering her second season as assistant coach for women's basketball at Francis Marion University.

Cornwell’s primary responsibilities include recruiting, on-floor coaching, individual player workouts, pre- and post-season workouts, and helping in the area of academic support for team members.

She helped guide Francis Marion to a 21-9 record in 2007-08, which equaled the largest won-loss turn-around in NCAA Division II last year.  The Patriots captured a share of the Peach Belt Conference regular-season title and earned a bid to the NCAA Division II national tournament, where the program served as the host for the South Atlantic Regional.

Prior to coming to FMU, Cornwell served as an assistant under new FMU head coach Heather Macy for the previous two years at Pfeiffer University. During that time, the Falcons compiled a two-year mark of 40-20, including a 26-5 record in 2006-07 that included an appearance in the NCAA Division II national tournament.  Pfeiffer led the nation in scoring offense (83 ppg) and recorded the fourth-best won-loss record improvement of all Division II women’s programs.

Cornwell also spent one season as an assistant coach at NCAA Division I University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

Cornwell came to Francis Marion with a good knowledge of the Peach Belt Conference.  She earned a B.A. degree in secondary education (cum laude) from USC Aiken, where she was an All-Conference performer in both basketball and softball. She was a two-time All-Region selection on the basketball court, established new school records for points (1,476), assists (568), and steals (317), and ranks in the top 10 on the Peach Belt Conference career lists for all three statistics. In 2004, her No. 20 basketball and softball jerseys were retired by the school.

Cornwell graduated from Turner Ashby High School, where she was a two-time All-State selection in basketball, and was the 1999 Virginia Class AA Player of the Year.