Head Coach Ebony Tanner is entering her third season at the helm for the Falcons in 2023-2024. With five returning players and 9 new Falcons joining the roster, Coach Tanner is as optimistic as ever for where the Falcons will go this season after finishing 8-17 last year and bowing out of the first round of the CIAA.
The Falcons won 10 games in Coach Tanners first season – as she navigated the program out of the Covid cancelled season a year prior. The last time SAU posted a winning overall record was the 2010-11 season, still Tanner liked what she saw from the Falcons in their head-to-head match ups against Shaw. The last two seasons, SAU ranked among the top 25 Division II teams in forcing turnovers.
Prior to being selected as the head coach of the Falcons, Coach Tanner was the top assistant coach at cross-town Shaw University since 2017. With a one season stop at the University of Hartford in 2016-2017, she spent seven seasons at Richmond, her alma mater, as an assistant from 2009 to 2016. During her time there, Richmond reached the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) four out of seven seasons and posted multiple 20-win seasons, including a 24-10 record which was the most wins since 2009 and the fewest losses since the 2004-05 season.
Before returning to the sidelines at Richmond, Tanner had a prior stint at Shaw from 2006 to 2009, where as an assistant she guided them to the 2007-08 CIAA Championship and a bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Tanner starred on the collegiate and professional levels before entering the coaching ranks. She played professionally for both Ashdod, Israel and Panserraikos, Greece. She was a two-time All-Atlantic 10 player at the University of Richmond from 1999 to 2003, where she tallied over 1,000 points and 500 rebounds during her career. Tanner is among the school’s top 10 all-time shot blockers. In 2003, Tanner graduated from Richmond with a Bachelor of Arts in Interpersonal Communication and Speech Rhetoric.
Standing 6-foot-3, she was a talented and athletic center who made her name right here in the Raleigh area having played for both South Johnston and Ravenscroft School. By her senior season at Ravenscroft she would leave her mark in the record book ranking among the top 10 in rebounds while guiding the Ravens to the 1999 state championship. She was ranked among the best players in the state of North Carolina.
