CHARLESTON, S.C. - Charleston Southern University Head Women's Basketball Coach Fred Applin has named Rodney Minggia as recruiting coordinator. He becomes the second member of Applin’s staff for the 2012-2013 season.
Minggia joins assistant coach Erika Lambert on Applin’s staff for his first year at CSU. He was named the Lady Bucs’ Head Coach on May 1.
“Coach Minggia will be a great asset to our women’s program,” said Coach Applin of his newest hire. “He has coached ranging from the high school level all the way up to the professional levels. He has been an assistant and a head coach. Coach Minggia brings a wealth of knowledge and experience and is a first-class person.”
Minggia comes to CSU with almost four decades of success in the professional, college, AAU, and high school coaching ranks. Most recently, he served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Stetson University where he aided in the mentoring and development of Tierra Brown, an Atlantic Sun Conference All-Freshman team guard.
Minggia has coached many players that are playing in the WNBA such as Maya Moore (Georgia Metros AAU), now with the Minnesota Lynx. Moore was the 2011 WNBA Rookie of the Year and won the 2011 WNBA Championship.
“I am truly excited about joining the Charleston Southern University family and working with Coach Applin,” Minggia said on Thursday. “I’ve known Fred for quite awhile and have always been impressed with what he brings to college basketball. I’m looking forward to working with the entire staff as we try to reach future goals.”
Minggia’s previous stops at the collegiate level have endowed him with a variety of experiences, bringing a great deal to the table at Charleston Southern University. He served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Northeastern Illinois (‘96-‘97).
Before that, he served as head women’s basketball and head volleyball coach at Paine College (‘91-‘96), where he was honored as the 1994 SIAC Coach of the Year. He was also on the staff at The University of Alabama Birmingham as an assistant women’s coach, (’90-’91), and was the head women’s and assistant men’s coach at Georgia Perimeter College (’85-’90)
Minggia has worked with students in the Newton County Schools Crossroads Psycho-Educational Program in Covington, Ga., and is coming off stints as head coach of the Tennessee Fury and Atlanta Justice of the National Women’s Basketball League.
While teaching, he also spent time coaching the Georgia Metros AAU team, which finished with three top-four national performances during his time there, including AAU National Championships in 2006 and 2007. He previously coached the Metros from 1984-1989, winning the national title in 1985. His experience and success in AAU earned him induction into the Georgia AAU Hall of Fame in 2005.
Minggia got his start as a successful high school coach and educator. At Gordon High School in the DeKalb County school district from 1979-1985, he coached the boy’s basketball team, which earned back-to-back runner-up finishes in the region (1981-82), while the track & field teams he coached won state championships in 1982 and 1985 with five regional titles and four other top-three finishes in the state. During his tenure as an assistant football coach, GHS went 24-4. Minggia taught at another DeKalb County school, Stephenson High School, from 1997-2003.