Original article (Shapiro Ord Receives Contract Extension) on Binghamton University’s athletic website bubearcats.com.
Binghamton University head women’s basketball coach Bethann Shapiro Ord, who recently completed her third season at the helm of the program, has received a contract extension through the 2025-26 season. The announcement was made on Thursday by Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott, Ph. D.
Shapiro Ord steered the Bearcats to a 22-win season in 2019-20 – its highest victory total in 19 years. This past season, Shapiro Ord had a young team with just two upperclassmen battling for fourth place in the America East Conference when its season ended on Feb. 19 due to COVID-19 protocols.
“We are very pleased with the job Bethann has done since arriving here at Binghamton,” Elliott said. “We have had success both on the court and accomplishments in the classroom under her leadership. Bethann and her staff have done great work in developing our players both individually and as a team.”
“I first want to extend a heartfelt thank you to President Harvey Stenger and Pat Elliott for bringing me to Binghamton – and for all their leadership and support of our women’s basketball program and Binghamton Athletics,” Shapiro Ord said. “I am excited to continue this journey with my amazing staff who is in the trenches with me every day to reach all our goals and our incredible young ladies who are relentless in pursuit of success on and off the court. It is our mission to help make each one of our young ladies better in every aspect of their lives, preparing them for future success. I look forward to continuing this process at Binghamton.”
Under Shapiro Ord’s guidance, Binghamton has produced three all-conference players, including the 2020 America East Player of the Year in Kai Moon. In addition, sophomore Denai Bowman was named first-team all-conference this past year – the first Binghamton underclassman to earn that distinction since 2004. Furthermore, the Bearcats have landed a player on the America East All-Defensive Team in each of Shapiro Ord’s three seasons at the helm.
In the classroom, Binghamton has posted an America East All-Academic Team honoree in each of the past two seasons. One of those players – current senior Kaylee Wasco – was also named an America East Presidential Scholar-Athlete in 2020. Including Wasco, four Binghamton players have been inducted into the National College Athlete Honor Society since Shapiro Ord was named the program’s head coach. During the 2019-20 academic year, the women’s basketball team’s overall GPA was a 3.55.
Prior to arriving at Binghamton, Shaprio Ord was the head coach at Weber State from 2011-18. The Wildcats went 57-41 in her final three years, advanced to the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI) in 2016 and 2018 and attained the highest win total in program history (23 in 2016).
Every player who has started and ended her career playing for Shapiro Ord has graduated.
Prior to arriving at Weber State, Shapiro Ord was an assistant coach for 22 years with several successful Division I women’s basketball programs in major conferences. Most notable, she was an assistant coach at Louisville from 2007-11. During that time, the Cardinals advanced to the Sweet 16 three times as well as the 2009 national title game.