The University of Central Arkansas officially turned the reins of the Sugar Bears basketball program over to Checola Seals on Friday.
Seals, 33, takes over for Coach Ron Marvel, who announced his retirement Monday after 24 years as head coach of the team. Seals, a two-time All-American for Marvel, has been his asistant coach for the past five seasons.
?I?m proud that Checola is getting this opportunity,? said Marvel, who
retires as the winningest women?s college basketball coach in Arkansas. ?She has been a key part of the Sugar Bears program both as a player and an assistant coach. I?m tickled to death that she?s the new coach.?
Seals, from England, holds nearly every offensive record at UCA, including career points (2,459), points in a season (935) and field goals in a game (20). She twice scored 46 points in a game during the 1991 season and that record still stands.
Seals graduated from UCA in 1992 as one of the most decorated players in school history. She earned NAIA and Kodak All-America honors in both 1991 and 1992 and was a three-time All Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference player and was AIC Player of the Year in 1991.
Seals averaged an amazing 30.2 points per game as a junior, which is 7.3 points higher than the second-best average in school history, which also belongs to Seals. She also averaged 12.5 rebounds. Both those marks are still school records.
While at UCA, Seals? teams won a combined 78 games and made four consecutive postseason appearances, including an NAIA National Tournament trip in 1991.
Since Seals returned as an assistant coach, the Sugar Bears have a combined 110-41 record, three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and the school?s first-ever trip to the NCAA Elite 8 a year ago.
?It?s really one legend replacing another legend,? said UCA athletic director Vance Strange. ?Checola was a legend on the court for the Sugar Bears and Coach Marvel is definitely a legend among his peers.?
Seals was an assistant coach at West Alabama and St. Louis University, and was head coach at Paschal High School in Fort Worth, Texas, prior to returning to UCA in 1999. She married David Horton in December 2003.
-Steve East
