Shanele Stires served for four seasons of her second stint at San Francisco before accepting a position as head coach at Cal State East Bay. Stires was hired by head coach Jennifer Azzi in the summer of 2012, and promoted to associate head coach in the summer of 2014. Previously, Stires coached on the Hilltop from 2006-08.
After her departure from the Hilltop in the spring of 2008, Stires spent time coaching at San Diego State University, Stetson University and the University of Nebraska – Omaha. During the span, Stires helped to lead her teams to three conference championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances.
Stires spent a year with Nebraska-Omaha, where she was in charge of recruiting, scouting and the development of UNO's post players as the Mavericks transition to Division I. Stires also played a crucial role with the program UNO double their win total from eight in 2011 to 16 in 2012.
During the 2010-11 season, Stires served as an assistant coach at Stetson, helping head coach Lynn Bria to the second-best turnaround in Division I. The Hatters went from six wins in 2009-10 to 20 victories in the 2010-11 season. Stetson went on to win the Atlantic Sun conference tournament for the first time since 2005 and earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
While at Stetson, Stires led the effort in producing the top-ranked 2011 class in the Atlantic Sun Confernece, which included three players listed in ESPN.com's Top 300. The class was ranked 63rd in the nation by recruiting analyst Dan Olson.
A collegiate standout at Kansas State and a WNBA veteran, Stires coached at San Diego State under Beth Burns for two years before joining Stetson's staff. During her time at SDSU, the Aztecs won two Mountain West Conference championships and appeared in two NCAA Tournaments, reaching the second round in 2009 and defeating both No. 17 Texas and No. 9 West Virginia to reach the Sweet 16 as a No. 11 seed in 2010.
Prior to her first stint on the Hilltop, Stires assisted Bria at Ohio from 2003-06. She tutored two All-MAC post players and a MAC All-Freshman Team honoree in her three seasons in Athens, Ohio. Other past coaching experiences include time spent at NCAA Division III Augsburg College as well as Salina (Kan.) South High School, which made the Class 5A state finals while she was on staff in 1997.
Stires was a standout college basketball star at Kansas State from 1992-95, where she scored 1,344 career points, grabbed 701 career rebounds and earned Kodak All-America honorable mention, First-Team All-Big Eight honors and runner-up in Conference Player of the Year voting as a senior in 1995. She left the school ranked fifth all-time in career rebounds and sixth all-time in scoring.
From there, Stires moved on to a professional basketball career, winning two American Basketball League titles with the Columbus Quest from 1996-99. After the ABL folded, Stires joined the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, where she played 49 games in the 2000 and 2001 seasons. During the WNBA offseason, Stires took her game across the Atlantic Ocean, playing professionally in Greece, Portugal and Sweden.
Stires received her bachelor's degree in social science from Kansas State in 1995, and a master's degree in collegiate athletics from USF in 2016.
