INDIANAPOLIS AND ROCK HILL, S.C. - Coker University women's basketball graduate Raya Coley will represent the South Atlantic Conference as the league's NCAA Minority/International Woman of the Year, announced today (Monday, July 25) by the NCAA.
Coley played in 76 games in her Coker career, making 26 starts. She totaled 324 points, 163 rebounds, 45 assists, 20 steals and seven blocks. She was also named the SPC Credit Union Student-Athlete of the Month in January 2021. Academically, she has been named to the South Atlantic Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll three times and received the D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award twice while also being named to the President's List all four years and graduating as the top student in the Physical Education program with a 4.0 GPA. Coley was active on and off of the court in the Coker community. She volunteered at Coker Enactus where she served as a project leader of the Women's Empowerment Project which specifically led to the promotion of female-owned businesses, highlighting, sponsoring and sponsoring one local business in particular during the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was also involved in the Student-Athletes Advisory Committee, Coker Emerging Leaders, Hartsville Soup Kitchen, Coker Writer's Studio and many other extracurricular activities.
The Raleigh, N.C. native is the daughter of Charles and Krishnee Coley, and graduated from Coker with a bachelor's degree in physical education with a concentration in exercise science and a minor in psychology. Since graduating Coley will start PT school at Elon University in January of 2023 to continue her research and work of ensuring the next generation of athletes remain healthy.
Coley is one of 39 nominees from Division II. From the total pool of 577 nominees submitted by NCAA member schools, 547 were sent to conferences to select their nominees for consideration for the NCAA Woman of the Year award. The remaining 30 nominees (PDF) compete in a sport that is not sponsored by their school's primary conference or compete for an independent school. The nonconference/independent nominees are being reviewed by a committee, and on Aug. 4, five will be named to move forward in the process to complete the conference-level pool of 156 nominees.
The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose 10 nominees from each division to make up the national Top 30 honorees. The Top 30 honorees will be announced in October. From there, the selection committee will narrow the pool to three finalists from each division. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will select the 2022 Woman of the Year from the nine finalists.
At January's NCAA Convention in San Antonio, the national Top 30 honorees will be celebrated, and the NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced.
The NCAA Woman of the Year program is rooted in Title IX and has recognized graduating female college athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership since its inception in 1991. For more information about the program and previous winners, please visit ncaa.org/woty.