Hinton native Roger Hodge named new WVU Tech women's basketball coach

Jul. 26—Roger Hodge, a Hinton native who has over 200 career wins as a head coach at the NCAA level, has been named the new head women's basketball coach at WVU Tech.

Hodge replaces Anna Kowalska, who resigned last month to take the head coach position at Life University.

He will be introduced at a press conference and meet-and-greet Monday, Aug. 2, at 1 p.m. at the Barrett-Kelley Athletics Hall of Fame.

"We are beyond excited to formally announce the appointment of Roger Hodge as our new women's basketball coach," WVU Tech Director of Athletics Kenny Howell said. "The opportunity to get someone with Coach Hodge's experience and quality track record doesn't come around often. While previous success at quality programs are a given when you look at Roger's history, the fact WVU Tech gets to bring him back home to southern West Virginia makes this even sweeter.

"We are confident in Coach Hodge's ability to build on our successes over the last decade, and compete for RSC and national championship opportunities each season. It's obvious our student-athletes are in good hands."

Hodge is a graduate of Hinton High School, where he eventually landed as an assistant girls coach and helped lead the team to three state championships. He was on the staff when the school became Summers County High School and also had stints as an assistant at Mercer Christian and Savannah Country Day School in Savannah, Ga.

Hodge will coach Summers County graduates and twin sisters Brittney and Whittney Justice in their final seasons.

He started his collegiate coaching career as an assistant at Liberty University, where the Flames made three trips to the NCAA Division II National Tournament as Big South Conference champions.

He moved on to take the head coach position at Armstrong Atlantic State, where he stayed eight seasons and became the school's all-time winningest coach (138-97). He was named the Peach Belt Coach of the Year and South Atlantic Region Coach of the Year in 2003.

Hodge left Armstrong Athletic to become assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at East Carolina. He stayed there for three seasons before being named head coach at Lincoln Memorial.

He was there before moving on to be the head coach at Coastal Georgia, where he spent the last five seasons. He leaves the school with a combined record of 80-63.

Hodge's career head coaching record is 262-199.

Kowalska resigned after going 61-26 in three seasons and taking WVU Tech to three straight national tournaments. She was the River States Conference Coach of the Year each of her first two seasons after guiding the Golden Bears to consecutive RSC regular season championships. Tech won the RSC Tournament in Kowalska's first and third seasons.