Marsha Sharp’s legacy in the game of women’s basketball has been cemented for many years.  In 1993 Coach Sharp guided the Texas Tech Lady Raiders basketball team to a National Championship win over Ohio State. The Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer and all time winningest coach in the history of Lady Raider basketball has been away from the game for eleven years, but her passion for the game she grew up loving has never waned. Sharp grew up in Tulia, Texas and was granted what she says at the time was one of very few opportunities to play high school girls basketball.  Sharp then moved just about twenty-five miles south to Plainview and a chance to play for two more women’s basketball coaching legends Harley Redin and Dean Weese.  She served as the freshman coach during her junior and senior years at Wayland which played a vital role in her decision to ultimately become a head coach.  Sharp’s first head coaching job came in 1976 leading the Lockney Lady Longhorns to three district titles over the next six seasons.  Then in 1982 Coach Sharp made the jump to Texas Tech first as an assistant and then head coach where she would remain until her retirement in 2006.  Coach Sharp took the Lady Raiders to eighteen NCAA tournament appearances, multiple Southwest Conference and Big 12 regular season and conference tournament titles.  She was named the National Women’s Coach of the Year in 1994 and was named to the the National Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.  Since 2012 Coach Sharp has been serving as the Associate Athletic Director for Special Projects at Texas Tech.  Coach Sharp and Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt have been key leaders of the Talkington Leadership Academy which helps provide college athletes with the essential tools to be successful once they leave Texas Tech.   Coach Sharp helped to found the Kay Yow Cancer Fund or Play4Kay.  The organization was founded to honor the memory of Coach Sharp’s friend North Carolina State Coach Kay Yow who passed away in 2009 of breast cancer.   One accomplishment Coach Sharp says was definitely “a God thing” was the start of the Sharp Academy which helps to provide educational opportunities to students from a just beginning school to graduation who have dyslexia.  Coach Sharp still very much enjoys watching the game these days…especially seeing her former players who are now successful coaches in their own right.  “I love to watch their mentality on the bench.  How hard they work with their players.  And know how much of an impact they’re having on their lives.  You know basketball is a piece of it.  But certainly the lasting impact that coach can have is really special for me to watch and get to enjoy and create.”