Southwestern Oklahoma State University has a new leader for the women's basketball program selecting Fresno State assistant Kelsi Bond as the school's new head coach. The 29-year old Bond takes over for Shelly Pond who resigned earlier this year after 10 seasons at the Weatherford school.
An Oklahoma native, Bond is returning to her home state where she played and starred at Canton High School and later at Cameron University.
SWOSU Athletics Director Todd Thurman said he and members of the selection committee were looking for a young and energetic coach with a strong background in the state to take over the women's program. SWOSU has won five NAIA National Championships in the 1980's and most recently were Lone Star Conference North Division Champions in 2005-06.
At Fresno, Bond was part of a staff that posted consecutive 20-win seasons that included winning both the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) regular-season title and post-season tournament in each of the last two years. This season Fresno finished with a 24-9 record and advanced to the NCAA Division I Tournament before being eliminated by California in the first round.
Bond has once before been a head coach returning to her hometown of Canton to lead the high school girls team in 2005. Bond spent two seasons at CHS and had her team in the Class A regional tournament in 2006-07 before finishing with a 16-9 record.
Bond played collegiately at Cameron where she was a four-year starter for the Aggies from 1998-2002 at point guard. She set school records in career three-point average and assists while remaining a President's Leadership scholar at the school. Her final season in 2001-02, the Aggies set a school record for most wins (25) and made their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II National Tournament.
Bond's family has a strong basketball background. Her mother, Pam, was a longtime head coach at Canton High School. Her younger sister, Kenzi, was a star on Oklahoma City University's NAIA Women's National Runner-up team in 2003, 2004 and 2005.