Beth Dunkenberger - Women's Basketball Coach - Tulane University Athletics

Photo by: Parker Waters

Beth Dunkenberger

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
dunk@tulane.edu
Hometown:
Shawsville, Va.
Alma Mater:
Randolph-Macon, 1988

Beth Dunkenberger begins her ninth season as assistant basketball coach for the Green Wave heading into the 2020-21 season. After serving as the program’s director of operations during the 2011-12 season, Dunkenberger now assists in all facets of the team’s game planning, recruiting and student-athletes’ academic progress.

Under Dunkenberger’s tutelage, Tulane has posted 136 wins in six years, averaging 64.5 points per game. The Green Wave have made the postseason five of her nine years including the program’s first NCAA Tournament at-large bid since 2003 for the 2014-15 season. In addition, the Wave tied their longest run in the WNIT, reaching the third round in 2016 and 2017.

Players have reached the 1,000-career point milestone under Dunkenberger in 2015, Danielle Blagg; 2016, Kolby Morgan; and 2017, Leslie Vorpahl. Morgan became the first in program history to accomplish the feat in her first two seasons and reached 2,200 points at the end of her senior season. Vorpahl became the second player in school history to surpass both 1,000 career points and 500 career assists. All-in-all, Vorpahl finished her career a two-time AAC all-conference selection while Morgan was a four-time honoree.

Tulane has also been a place to shine when exemplifying the term "student-athlete." For an example of that, look no further than 2015 American Scholar Athlete of the Year and Senior CLASS First Team All-American in Jamie Kaplan and 2017 American Scholar Athlete of the Year in Leslie Vorpahl. She also help produce the first back-to-back winner of the award in league history as Sierra Cheatham took home the honor in 2019 and 2020.

Dunkenberger brought a wealth of coaching experience to the Green Wave squad, including head-coaching stints at Western Carolina from 2000-04 and Virginia Tech from 2004-11 where she posted 175 combined victories. In addition, she also served as a graduate assistant and assistant coach with the Hokies from 1988-97 and as an assistant coach at Florida from 1997-2000. All told, Dunkenberger-coached teams have advanced to the postseason on nine occasions, including a pair of NCAA Tournaments and one WNIT bid during her time leading the Virginia Tech program.

As head coach of the Hokies, Dunkenberger guided her team to .500-or-better records five times, including a 21-10 mark in 2005-06 when Virginia Tech advanced to the second round of the NCAAs. She also led her team to the NCAA Tournament in 2005 and to the third round of the WNIT in 2007. Dunkenberger helped four student-athletes claim All-ACC honors: Kerri Gardin in 2005 (honorable mention) and 2006 (third team), Kirby Copeland in 2007 (honorable mention), Brittany Cook in 2008 (second team) and Utahya Drye in 2009 (honorable mention). Andrea Barbour claimed a spot on the ACC All-Freshman Team in 2008.

Several of her players also went on to play basketball professionally, including Gardin – who became the first former Hokie to play in the WNBA when she suited up for the Connecticut Sun from 2008-10 and the Washington Mystics in 2011. Copeland, Nara Diawara and Dawn Chriss all played in Europe, and Diaware was selected to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games for her native country of Mali.

Dunkenberger originally moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, in 1988 and spent the next two years as a graduate assistant before serving as a full-time assistant from 1990-97. As an assistant, she helped the Hokies win the Metro Conference Tournament crown in 1994 and the Metro regular-season title in 1995 as Virginia Tech advanced to the NCAA Tournament both years.

From there, Dunkenberger accepted an assistant coaching position at Florida. From 1997-2000, she helped the Gators earn a combined 73-36 record, including a 23-9 mark and a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1997-98. With Dunkenberger on staff, Florida also made the NCAA Tournament in 1999 and advanced to the 2000 WNIT title game.

Dunkenberger earned her first head coaching spot at Western Carolina in 2000, and over the next four seasons, helped the Catamounts post 65 victories. She was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year following the 2002-03 season when Western Carolina tallied 21 wins – the most by the team since moving to the Division I level in 1981 – and advanced to the finals of the SoCon Championship.

Under Dunkenberger, WCU’s Tiffany Hamm claimed All-Southern Conference honors from 2002-04, earned Player of the Year by the SoCon Sports Media Association in 2003 and was tabbed the league’s Freshman of the Year in 2001. In addition, Ki-Ki Glass earned a spot on the 2002 SoCon All-Freshman Team.

While all of her teams have performed admirably on the court, Dunkenberger’s squads have also stood out in the classroom as well. Her Virginia Tech teams featured a trio of Academic All-Americans, 11 Academic All-District honorees and a pair of ACC postgraduate scholarship recipients. Among those honorees was Laura Haskins who was the first-ever recipient of the Kay Yow ACC Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in 2009.

At Western Carolina, her student-athletes claimed Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar recognition three times – including two-time winner Yoneko Allen – and her 2000-01 team finished sixth in the nation academically with an overall grade point average of 3.313.

A standout student-athlete in her own right, Dunkenberger played collegiately at Randolph-Macon College from 1984-88 where she claimed all-conference and Academic All-District recognition and was tabbed the school’s Top Student-Athlete in 1988. A native of Shawsville, Virginia, Dunkenberger, was the valedictorian at Shawsville High in 1984, graduated cum laude from Randoph-Macon with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1988 and completed her master’s degree in education from Virginia Tech in 1990.