WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – William & Mary head women's basketball coach
Ed Swanson announced the hiring of
Chelsie Schweers as the Director of Basketball Operations on Monday afternoon.
"We are so excited to welcome Chelsie to our program for the 2017-18 season," Swanson said. "Chelsie was an extremely accomplished player both on the collegiate and professional level, and I can't wait to see how that transitions into this position. I'm glad she has joined the Tribe to start her college coaching career."
Schweers joins the Tribe after wrapping up a successful professional career overseas for the past six years that spanned four countries and two continents. She started her career in Athens, Greece where she averaged 19.0 points per game during her rookie season. Schweers career then moved to Australia where she played for four years. She opened her career with the Toowoomba Mountaineers, before playing two seasons with the Ipswich Force. With Ipswich, she named tabbed the 2015 league MVP. In 2015-16, Schweers spent a season with Haukar in Iceland where she started every game averaging 31.5 points per game and helped her team to the league championship game. She wrapped her pro career last season playing in Portugal where she was the starting point guard with Cab Madeira.
"I want to thank Coach Swanson for giving me my first collegiate women's basketball position," Schweers said. "I'm excited to be a part of his winning culture here at William & Mary. I've had a great journey on the playing side and I am hoping for the same success on the sidelines."
One of the best players to don a Christopher Newport uniform, Schweers graduated as the program's leading scorer with 2,869 points. She earned All-America honors following every season of her collegiate career, and was named the NCAA Division III National Player of the Year following her senior season. With 415 made three-pointers, she hit more than any Division III player in history, and ranks second in the NCAA across all three divisions. Her name litters the NCAA record book, including the most three-pointers in a single season (133), fourth and 17th most points in a single season (870 & 759), and eighth all-time in career three-point shooting percentage (.461). Most impressively of all, Schweers finished second all-time in career points at NCAA Division III, with 2,869 points. She is only the second player to eclipse the 2,800-point plateau. She has since been named to the 2017 Class of both the Christopher Newport Hall of Fame and the USA South Hall of Fame.
Along her professional career, she picked up valuable coaching experience along the way. Schweers has organized her own elite camps and worked at various others, including Hickory High School in Chesapeake. She also gained head coaching experience in her time as pro coaching the U-21 women's teams in Australia and Iceland.
During the 2011 Final Four, Schweers participated in the very prestigious WBCA "So You Want to be a Coach?" program. The program, which is very limited, is for graduating college women's basketball players that want to get into the coaching profession. The curriculum goes over professional coaching development, career advancement through education, coaching skills enhancement, tools to becoming a successful recruiter, and goes through the NCAA's rules and regulations. Also during her senior year, she was a member of the 2011 CNU Women in Leadership Program. That program helps inspire high-performing women leaders towards accelerating their leadership abilities.
The Chesapeake, Virginia native earned her degree in communications from Christopher Newport in 2011.
W&M won 20 games in the 2015-16, which equaled a school record. The Tribe won its first CAA Tournament game since 2009, and advanced to the CAA Semifinals for the first time since 2001. The Green and Gold returns eight players from last year's roster, and Birdsong becomes the sixth new player on the Tribe's roster for 2017-18.
