January 23, 2024
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Candace Foster |
Murrah girls’ basketball coach, Candace Foster, has been selected for the 2023-2024 class of the Mississippi Excellence in Coaching Fellowship. The Coaching Fellowship, also known as Tomorrow’s 5 is hosted by the University of Mississippi School of Education in partnership with the Mississippi Association of Coaches (MAC) and the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA). Its mission is to annually select and invest in 25 coaches from across the state who have been deemed an emerging leader in high school and middle school athletics.
All 25 candidates were identified by a selection committee and represent the best the state has to offer. Final selections had to represent the values of the Coaching Fellowship – love of young people and a desire to develop them for life within the context of sports.
Coach Candace Foster, a ÐÓ°É native and Murrah High School alumna, is in her first year as the head girls’ basketball coach of her alma mater with eight years of teaching experience and five years of head coaching experience. She was a member of the Lady Mustangs program that won three consecutive state championships. Coach Foster began her teaching career in JPS at Chastain Middle School, serving as a 7th grade ELA teacher from 2015-2017. After serving one year as the assistant girls’ basketball coach at Brandon High School, Coach Foster was promoted to head coach from 2018-2023, leading the program to a 99–46 record, two district championships, yearly playoff appearances and 13 college scholarship signees.
Coach Foster currently holds both a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Master of Arts degree in Secondary Education from Mississippi State University where she was a student-athlete, earning three All-SEC Academic Team selections and becoming a two-time recipient of the SEC Community Service Team Award. At the end of her playing career, she served as a graduate assistant to Coach Vic Schaefer’s staff.
Coach Foster also earned a Specialist in Educational Leadership from William Carey University. She is excited about the opportunity to return home and restore the legacy of Murrah's girls’ basketball program.
Foster and her colleagues in the Fellowship will participate in a course of leadership development at MAC/MHSAA headquarters and virtually throughout the school year with the program concluding in mid-May 2024.