Women’s volleyball and basketball’s 2024-25 season marks the 50th anniversary of the programs on the hilltop. Both sports were introduced in 1974, along with women’s tennis — which ceased to exist due to the COVID-19 pandemic — just two years after Title IX was passed. This federal law, which prohibits gender based discrimination and provides equal opportunity for women, allowed for women’s athletics programs to be introduced and taken more seriously within college campuses. St Edward’s was quick to add women’s sports, but the transition was not easy in the programs’ early years.

“When I first got here as an assistant coach (in 1972), we had no women’s sports,” said John Knorr, Ph.D. – former assistant and head baseball coach, athletic director and current kinesiology professor. “I got the call to come back in 1977 when things were a little better. Basketball was an experimental sport for the first year or two because we still didn’t know what it was going to take. But volleyball and tennis, we got into it right away.”

In the beginning of his career, Knorr fulfilled the roles of administrator, coach and faculty member – three full-time jobs at once. Eventually, he stepped out of the coaching position to concentrate on his administrative role as well as teaching. As athletic director, he focused on supporting teams and promoting their growth. He oversaw the construction of the Recreation and Athletic Center and the softball and soccer fields, as well as the introduction of new programs. Knorr takes “a great deal of pride” in promoting the growth of women’s sports, creating fundraising initiatives and allowing for more funding and opportunities within the programs. When they were introduced, Diane Daniels, Ph.D – whom the softball field is named after – held the head coach position for all three sports.

“In a couple years, we were able to ask Diane, ‘pick a sport that you don’t want to coach, and we’ll hire our next coach for their women’s sport’ and ‘she said ‘I don’t want to coach basketball anymore,’” Knorr said, recalling that all three sports overlapped at some point during the year and that Daniels also taught three courses. 

A few years later, Daniels chose to step down from being volleyball head coach as well, beginning a new era for women’s sports at St. Edward’s. Once Daniels’ position opened following her wish to only coach tennis, Chris Mayhew came to the hilltop as volleyball head coach in 1986. Mayhew had a short lived coaching career at St. Edward’s, only holding the position for four years. After the 1989 season, Mayhew resigned and Debbie Taylor – who had a successful career as a player at Southwestern University – was hired.

“When I arrived for the 1990 season, we only had 10 players on the roster – but we made it work,” Taylor said. “The players were dedicated and put in the work needed to finish that first year with a record of 23-14.”

Taylor went on to have an outstanding career at St. Edward’s. From her 34 years on the hilltop, she spent 12 as head volleyball coach and still holds the record for most career wins, with a total of 428. Taylor went on to be named athletic director once the position opened in 2002. She recalls feeling extremely fortunate during her coaching years, when she had the chance to work with not only “quality athletes,” but “quality human beings.” The teams she led won three Heart of Texas Conference Championships – 1991, 1996 and 1997 – and had four National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) tournament appearances.

Taylor’s teams were the last to play in the NAIA, ending St. Edward’s membership with memorable seasons. Before becoming affiliated with the NAIA, women’s volleyball and basketball were part of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) since the NAIA and

NCAA did not sponsor women’s athletics. In 1999, the change from NAIA  to NCAA marked a pivotal moment for the women’s programs, since their expansions and transitions between athletic associations were proof of the impact that women’s sports had in college athletics and of the importance of supporting women’s sports.

“I think that the thing I am most proud in was leading the charge from NAIA to NCAA and that three year provisional, doing everything we could to make sure that we were ready to compete in Division II, and we never looked back,” Knorr said 

As part of the change in leadership in the post-Daniels era, Sharon McIlroy was hired as basketball coach for the 1980-1981 season. Four years later, David McKey was hired to lead the team, following a lawsuit against McIlroy and her resignation right before the beginning of the season. McKey was head coach when the team had four consecutive Heart of Texas Conference titles from 1990 to 1994, with an overall 115-14 record. One of the biggest contributors to that success was Taj McWilliams – only Hilltopper with a retired jersey – who holds the single game scoring record with 50 points, as well as the overall scoring record with 1,837 total points. She went on to have a successful career in the WNBA and was inducted in the St. Edward’s Hall of Fame in 1999.

Along with the impressive record and the transition to NCAA DII, the 1990s introduced one of the most important figures of St. Edward’s women’s basketball. For almost three decades, dedication and passion have been central to current head coach J.J. Riehl career on the hilltop. She has held the position since 2012 and “couldn’t imagine” doing anything other than coaching, but her history with the program dates back to 1998.

“Walking around campus, I just got this feeling that this is where I was supposed to be,” Riehl said. “And all those years after — ups and downs, good and bad and indifferent — that feeling has never left me.”

Riehl first came to the hilltop in the fall of 1998, after having played basketball in high school. Being a coach’s daughter, she grew up around the sport and “fell in love with it.” Basketball allowed her to come to St. Edward’s to play at the collegiate level, and she hasn’t left since. Riehl has now been a part of the program for 26 years — going from player, to assistant coach in 2002, to head coach since 2012  — and has seen it evolve through half of its existence.

“My path in life was St. Edward’s,” Riehl said. “What’s made me stay is the people. That is what makes St. Edward’s special, and that’s probably why I’ve stayed for as long as I’ve stayed.” 

Throughout her 26 years with Hilltoppers’ women’s basketball, Riehl has seen it all. Her freshman season – when the team made it to the NAIA national tournament –  was the last before transitioning to NCAA DII, the division in which she played for three years as a starter. She became assistant coach immediately after graduating and had to navigate the change in power dynamics, since she now coached some of her old teammates. She recalls it being one of the “hardest transitions of her life.” However, as difficult as coaching was in the beginning, the most important part for Riehl are the relationships that come from it. Her dedication to the program produces results on the court, but also creates lasting impact on her as a person and a coach.

“We had never done that (won an NCAA championship), and we’ve been fortunate and lucky enough to do that twice,” Riehl said. “Those memories stick, but it’s more about the relationships. It’s more about the bonds and the love that we share commonly for each other, our program and then for St Ed’s. I think those are the biggest accomplishments, the things that I really remember.”

Those bonds are what allowed assistant coach Khiani Clark and graduate assistant Shakera Barnes to come back to the hilltop. Clark and Barnes played together from 2015 to 2017 and won a Heartland Conference championship in their senior year and reached NCAA Regionals. Once they graduated, both went on to play overseas in Australia until the COVID-19 pandemic began. Clark came back to the hilltop for the 2021-2022 season in search of an assistant coach position – and Riehl welcomed her back. Barnes came back as a suggestion from Clark for the following season, and now both work alongside the person that gave them the opportunity to play at the collegiate level in the first place. 

“I was looking for a coach and a program that would allow me the opportunity not only to play basketball, but to fall back in love with basketball,” Clark said, recalling why she chose to transfer to St. Edward’s during her sophomore year. “I knew this is where I wanted to come and it ended up being one of the best decisions I have ever made.”

The last 50 years on the hilltop are marked by the determination, dedication and passion from those that shaped the history of women’s athletics and paved the way for the programs that followed. The hardships and challenges are not the things that define these programs, but the resilience, community and culture around them. Women’s sports have come a long way at St. Edward’s University, proving that when women athletes are given enough opportunities, they can create their own legacy. 

In celebration of this important milestone for the trailblazers of women’s athletics on the hilltop, the women’s volleyball team will host a commemoratory 50th anniversary game against Lubbock Christian during Homecoming on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 1 p.m. Meanwhile, the women’s basketball team will jumpstart their 50th season during the DII Canadian Tip-off Classic against Simon Fraser University on Friday, Nov. 1.