Left to Right: Antionette Brown, Diamond Price, Rebecca Dever. Photo by Amanda Kennington.
Special to the News: Athletics Department
Just over a year ago, Goose Creek Memorial’s head women’s basketball coach, Jamila Ganter, left the district to work for the Phoenix Suns (yes, the NBA!). As you can imagine, those were some tough shoes to fill, but Coach Diamond Price was up for the challenge, as she proved her worth by making a run for the playoffs, as they tied PN-G for the final spot. This was huge for that program and Coach Price, as they had a young group of student athletes that found themselves ahead of the pack, compared to the other two Goose Creek programs.
Now GCCISD will add two more new faces to the roster with Rebecca Dever (Sterling) and Antoinette Brown (Lee) taking over their respective women’s basketball programs and making a run at regaining district dominance.
Coach Dever is no stranger to the basketball community, as she was recently inducted into the Virginia State University Hall of Fame. Not only was she a standout player from 2000-2004, but she continued to play beyond that for Team USA Elite International women’s team.
After her playing career ended, she decided to go into coaching and began her career at Alice Johnson Middle School in 2012 and eventually to Channelview High School in 2014. She coached at Gentry Junior High from 2019 to 2020. Her attention to detail, rapport with kids, and knowledge of athletics quickly landed her an assistant role at Sterling High
School in 2020. The past few years she has been an integral part of the women’s program and has demonstrated her ability to lead a successful program, thus earning her a spot in the head chair.
Meanwhile across town, the Lee Lady Ganders were also able to scoop up a veteran coach in Antoinette Brown. Coach Brown has many collegiate accolades as a player that include All American and Player of the Year at Murray State Community College, as well as pre-season All Conference and Southland Conference champion at Stephen F. Austin University.
Very similar to Coach Dever, Coach Brown decided to get into education after ending her playing career and started her K-12 career at the Pineywoods Academy in Lufkin, TX. She was given a variety of assignments that included teaching elementary P.E. while coaching both high school and middle school athletics. She was also fortunate to help cultivate the success of a state champion high jumper. Coach Brown’s most recent coaching stop was at Anahuac High School, where she served as the women’s athletic coordinator as well as the head women’s basketball coach. She has certainly utilized her playing and coaching experiences to prove she can successfully grow our student athletes. She can create a new culture for the program at Lee and looks forward to the opportunity and the challenges that await.
We are very fortunate to have all three of our women’s basketball coaches; each bringing a unique skill set with their own experiences to help us grow and develop our student athletes. It’s going to be a fun road ahead to watch these three compete!