Amy Williams is set to begin her fourth season as the head women's basketball coach at the University of South Dakota. Williams has won 64 games through her first three seasons. Her team is 35-7 inside the DakotaDome and has advanced to the finals of the Summit League Tournament in all three years.
Williams, a native of Spearfish, S.D., and a 1998 Nebraska graduate, led the Coyotes to their first Summit League regular season championship during the 2014-15 season. That came one year after leading the Coyotes to the NCAA Division I basketball tournament for the first time. South Dakota has competed in a postseason tournament in all three seasons under Williams.
Entering 2015-16, Williams holds a 7-2 record in the Summit League Tournament after winning the tournament title in 2014 and posting a runner-up finish in 2013 and 2015. USD won 19 games in each of Williams' first two seasons. The Coyotes posted a 26-8 record (15-0 at home) in 2014-15.
Before coming to USD, Williams was an assistant coach for several years at the Division I level, including serving as the top assistant/recruiting coordinator at Oklahoma State from 2001-05, and holding the same position at Tulsa from 2005-07.
In March of 2007, Williams was named the first head women's basketball coach at Rogers State University and built the program from scratch into an NAIA national contender. In five seasons at Rogers State, Williams recorded a 97-65 record. Last year, the Hillcats were 22-12 and advanced to the NAIA Final 8 for the first time in school history. She led the Hillcats to back-to-back NAIA national tournament appearances.
Williams joined the Hillcats after successful coaching stints as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator at The University of Tulsa and Oklahoma State University. She previously worked as an assistant at the University of Texas-San Antonio and was a graduate assistant at the University of Nebraska-Kearney.
At Tulsa, Williams helped the Golden Hurricane claim its first Conference USA regular-season and tournament championships in 2006. The Hurricane also earned its first ever trip to the NCAA tournament and logged its first win in the field of 64, finishing the season with an impressive 26-6 record.
Before joining Tulsa, Williams served as the top assistant at Oklahoma State from 2001-2005. She compiled a number of accolades as the recruiting coordinator at OSU, including being named the 11th ranked recruiting coordinator in the nation based on impact to program and signing the Big 12 Conference Newcomer of the Year in 2003. Her 2003 recruiting class was ranked 19th in the country according to All-Star Girls Basketball Report.
Williams served as an assistant coach at Texas-San Antonio from 2000-01, where she was involved with scouting, practice preparation, recruiting and preseason conditioning workouts.
Williams was a four-year basketball letterwinner at Nebraska, where she graduated with a degree in biology and mathematics in 1998.. She earned Academic All-Big 12 Conference honors as a senior in 1997-98 and was named a Phillips 66 Student-Athlete of the Week in 1997.
After graduating from Nebraska, Williams joined the University of Nebraska-Kearney staff as a graduate assistant, where she earned her master's degree in sports administration in 2002.
Williams' family includes her husband, Lloyd, and daughters Kennadi and Bentli.
