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Tip-off vs. Pikeville ---- 11-25-1980
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Coach Mitchell talks to team during AAC Tournament -- 3-3-1992
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2005-06 Women's Basketball AAC Champions
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Timeout huddle vs Newberry --- 1-30-26
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Women's basketball is the second-oldest women's sport at UVA Wise and is the oldest that has been continually played since it's inception. With the national resurgence of women's sports in the late 1960s. Clinch Valley College professors Doris Kilgore and Judy Giolitto teamed up to start several women's programs at the college. Women's basketball proved to be the easiest to start, mainly because it was played at local high schools and the only equipment really needed was uniforms and balls.Â
The first team was formed in the Fall of 1968, with the first practice happening on January 16, 1969 with eleven players. Coach Kilgore set up an eight game schedule and the team began play on February 3rd when they hosted Emory & Henry in Greear Gym in the school's first-ever women/men basketball doubleheader. In that game, both teams began slowly, with the Wasps holding a 4-2 lead after the first quarter. The Highland Cavalier newspaper didn't record who made the first basket in UVA Wise women's basketball history, but from the scoring it is almost certainly one of four players, Margaret Gibson, Linda Bobroski, Shirley Baker, or Sandy Chapman. The Cavs outscored the Wasps 11-8 in the second quarter and 11-8 in the third to have a 22-16 advantage going into the fourth quarter. Emory & Henry rallied back to take a 29-28 lead with 16 seconds left. The team then worked the ball in to Bobroski, who scored the game-winning basket as time expired to give Clinch Valley the 30-29 win in their inaugural game. Margaret Gibson led the team with 14 points. The team went on to have a 2-5 record (the result against Milligan is missing if the game was played) and the stage was set for future teams.
The team played in January-March until 1974, when they added games before Christmas for the first time. They played in a state-wide "conference" ran by the Virginia Federation of Intercollegiate Sports for Women (VFISW) under rules established by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), reaching the State Championship Game in 1977, led by Appalachian Region Player of the Year Kathy Kilgore. The team later saw successful runs under Coach Preston Mitchell, who led the team in their first years in the Tennessee-Virginia Athletic Conference (later renamed the Appalachian Athletic Conference); and former player Rachel Clay-Keohane, who led the team to their only national tournament appearance to date. The team later transitioned to the Mid-South Conference (2009-13) before making the move to the NCAA where they were a founding member of the Mountain East Conference (2013-19) before moving to the South Atlantic Conference in 2019, where they remain today.Â
Today, the team is led by Coach Jamie Cluesman, who is from nearby Lee County and has guided the team to multiple SAC tournament appearances over the last few seasons. As of the end of the 2025-26 season the program has a 606-855 record (accorfing to available records -- as far as we can determine we are only missing four results from 1972) and is poised for future success at both the conference and national levels.
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