Chelsea Newton
is an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the University of Georgia women’s basketball program. She has coached an impressive list of 14 WNBA players and 17 allconference selections in 12 seasons of college basketball coaching with Georgia and Rutgers.
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A standout player at Rutgers under legendary coach C. Vivian Stringer, Newton was a fouryear starter, and as a senior in 2005 was named Big East Defensive Player of the Year. The Sacramento Monarchs made her a second-round selection in the 2005 WNBA Draft, and she helped them win the WNBA championship later that year.
By Jason Romano
Before the conclusion of her playing career — which included overseas stops in Israel, Poland and Italy — Newton moved into coaching, first serving as the director of player development at Rutgers during the Scarlet Knights’ NCAA runner-up season of 2006-07. But after she officially retired from playing in 2010, she joined Stringer’s staff full time. Newton left for Georgia coach Joni Taylor’s staff in 2015. We recently talked to Newton about the pivot she’s had to make in recruiting during the pandemic, how she defines success, playing and learning from Coach Stringer, and how her faith in Christ guides her. LET’S START WITH RECRUITING. YOU’RE A COACH BUT ALSO THE RECRUITING COORDINATOR. WHAT DID RECRUITING LOOK LIKE THIS PAST YEAR DURING THE PANDEMIC? When everything shut down, I had literally just come from doing an in-home visit in New York and we were going on spring break. We didn’t really know there would be a shutdown, but then the first tournament game got canceled and everybody was like, “What is happening?” We still weren’t quite sure what was going on and we were in the midst of trying to sign a huge class for 2021. We needed to do on-campus visits, we
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Photo by Cassie Wright
CHELSEA NEWTON NEVER SAW HERSELF AS A COACH, BUT THROUGH THE INFLUENCE OF TWO ELITE COACHES, NEWTON IS RISING THROUGH THE RANKS. SHE’S GROWING IN HER FAITH AND LIVING IT OUT AS SHE IMPACTS LIVES AND HELPS GEORGIA WIN GAMES.
