Episode 343: Coach Rhonda Farney (The Twilight Zone Press Defense)

Championship Vision Basketball Podcast

RHONDA FARNEY—Coach Farney has the most career victories of any active girls’ coach in Texas and the nation with a record of 1,283 victories and 371 losses (.770 winning percentage) and sixth on the all-time career list as compiled by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

She has been a high school head coach for 49 seasons. In 36 years at Georgetown High School, her teams have posted 36-consecutive 20-win seasons and 35-straight berths in the UIL state playoffs, including seven appearances in the state tournament—highlighted by a Class 4A state title during the 2012-2013 season that was climaxed by a come-from-behind 65-60 victory over Dallas Lincoln in the finals to finish with a 34-4 record.

She has had more than 86 players compete on the collegiate level, however; her most prized accomplishment is helping over 64 former players to enter the coaching profession. The Howard Payne summa cum laude graduate—still as a teenager—also has served as the head coach at Goldthwaite and Ozona. She was the only girls’ basketball coach on the Goldthwaite staff and coached the seventh, eighth, junior varsity and varsity. Farney also coached track at both schools.

Farney has earned numerous coaching honors, including receiving the prestigious John Wooden Legacy Award presented by the National Association of Basketball Coaches in March 2022. In addition, she was honored as the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Pat Summitt National High School Coach of the Year in 2017 and the National Federation of High Schools 2013 National Coach of the Year as well as being inducted into the Howard Payne University Hall of Fame, Texas Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She served as a head coach for the 2003 Women's Basketball Coaches Association/Nike All-America Game in Hartford, CT, in addition to being active in USA Basketball on both the coaching and committee levels. Recently, she was named the Texas High School Coaches Association Female State Coach of the Year for 2022 and was inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in Omaha, Nebraska, in July 2023.

Also on the national scene, Farney has chaired the USA Basketball Cadet and Youth Committee, helping select players and coaches for the Summer Youth Development Olympic Festival. In summer 2001, she was one of two high school coaches named by the USA Basketball Women’s Collegiate Committee to serve as floor coach for the USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team Trials in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She was assistant coach for the 2005 USA Basketball Women’s Youth Development Olympic Festival, where her team won the gold medal.

Farney was named head coach for the April 2003 WBCA/Nike All-American game in Hartford, Connecticut. Previously, in April 1996, she traveled to Philadelphia as assistant coach for the WBCA/Nike All-American game. Farney served four years on the WBCA and NFCA Board of Directors and completed a term on the NFCA Basketball Rules Committee. In addition, she was the first female to serve as the president for the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Association, the largest male and female basketball organization in the nation as well as serving as president of the Texas Girls Coaches Association.

Coach Farney also holds the position of girls’ athletics coordinator at Georgetown and is married to Dr. Bill Farney, retired executive director of the University Interscholastic League, the ruling body of extra-curricular activities in Texas.

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