Vanderbilt’s Shea Ralph named AP Coach of the Year – WSMV

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – On Thursday afternoon, Vanderbilt women’s basketball head coach Shea Ralph was named AP Coach of the Year.
Ralph is the first Vanderbilt head coach to win AP Coach of the Year award.
The fifth-year head coach led the Commodores to their most successful regular season in program history and their first Sweet 16 appearance in 17 years. Ralph took a team that returned just one starter to an 18-0 record at Memorial Gymnasium, the first perfect home season in program history.
Ralph developed one of the best backcourts in college basketball with the SEC Player of the Year Mikayla Blakes and SEC Freshman of the Year Aubrey Galvan.
“I’m a basketball coach because I love basketball, but I get to lead women. I get to impact lives positively. That’s my real job,” Ralph said. “We have a great community of people here who lift women up, who know when to lead and know when to follow. We came here to win; that’s the name of the game. But at the end of the day, if we can help them learn how to be winners, how to handle adversity, how to be strong women, what it looks like to be part of a community and part of a team, then we’ve done our jobs.”
Related: Ralph wins Naismith Women’s Coach of the Year award
The AP honor gives Ralph a clean sweep of all major national coach of the year awards for 2025. She was also awarded honors from the WBCA and the USBWA, and was selected as the 2026 Naismith Women’s Coach of the Year. In total, Ralph has been named coach of the year from seven different outlets during the 2025-26 season.
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“I take it very seriously, the job of leading young women,” said Ralph. “There is always going to be some new distraction. There is always going to be something that gets in the way of what you are supposed to be doing, but if I didn’t have people that kept me on the straight and narrow when I was younger, I don’t know where I would be right now.”
Ralph went on to say, ” I think it’s still our job as coaches to protect the student-athlete mold and model. They’re still kids, they still need direction, they still need to learn how to overcome adversity.” Ralph added, “We still have to remember our core job is to mentor and lead young women.”
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