Head coach Shereka Wright instructs her players during a practice Oct. 9 at College Park Center. This will be Wright’s seventh season coaching at UTA.
On Tuesday, the UTA women’s basketball team will take the court at College Park Center against California State University, Sacramento, to open its season. When fans see the team for the first time, it will look almost entirely different from last season’s, with only two returning players.
But at its helm, there’s some familiarity with head coach Shereka Wright, who’s entering her seventh season.
Wright joined UTA in 2020, and last year, signed an extension keeping her in Arlington through 2030. The extension keeps a coach with decades of basketball experience in the locker room.
At each step of her career, from Purdue University to playing in the WNBA, Wright said, she has learned and grown to be the coach she is today.
A native of Copperas Cove, Texas, Wright attended Copperas Cove High School, where she won 2000 National Player of the Year. Her high school game led her to Purdue.
Wright spent four and a half years at Purdue. She said her time there taught her how to prepare for life after basketball.
“The academic standard, the expectation as a student at Purdue is that you show up, you push yourself to be the best version of yourself when you’re being challenged,” Wright said.
Wright has a health and fitness degree from Purdue. She said the professors and students she spent time around helped her be confident in any environment and to think outside the box.
She took that confidence and her impressive resume — a two-time Big Ten Tournament most outstanding player, the only three-time All-American and the most career offensive rebounds in Purdue women’s basketball history and more — to the heights of professional basketball.
In the 2004 WNBA Draft, Wright was selected 13th overall by the Detroit Shock, the team that eventually became the Dallas Wings, but her rights were shipped to the Phoenix Mercury in a draft-night trade. She then spent her entire professional career with the Mercury.
During her time in the WNBA, Wright said, she felt like her hard work had finally paid off because she was on the same level as the greats of the sport.
“When you get to that level, you know that you have done something to be able to belong, because at that time it wasn’t a lot of players that was able to play in the W,” Wright said.
In 2004 the WNBA had 13 teams rostering around 168 players. In the 2026 WNBA season, 236 players were on rosters.
“That experience showed me that all my hard work, once I put that in, paid off to be able to play against the best of the best,” Wright said.
In her time at UTA, she has amassed a 94-83 record, won the 2022 Sun Belt tournament championship and made it to the NCAA tournament as the 14th seed.
Wright said she took the job and wanted to ignite the team’s pace, giving the fans something fun to watch. Her philosophy is to allow her players to play freely, be competitive and be gritty.
“I’m fiery. I was that way when I played,” Wright said.
As a player, she didn’t lead verbally, instead leading by example. She said coaching has flipped that as she leads the next generation.
Redshirt junior forward Miraya Perkins has played under Wright for three seasons, learning who she is as a coach and as a person.
Perkins said Wright is a loving and caring person who’s always checking up on the team. She likes to build personal connections with players, so she knows how they need to be coached.
“She knows how to talk to me, knows how to coach me, knows how to get on me and use her tone of voice,” Perkins said. “I appreciate that from her. It kind of allows me to play freely more.”
But, Wright knows how to flip a switch and get the team locked in when it’s time for work.
“When we come in the gym, we know we’re ready to play,” Perkins said. “She’s very tough on us, so I feel like it’s a good balance between on and off the court.
She added that having a coach who has played at the highest level is inspiring and instills a belief in the team that the next level is possible.
The relationships don’t stop at the players. Wright has to be tapped in with her staff to run the team.
Aubrey Reid spent two seasons on the team at UTA, with her last being the 2024-25 season, and is now the special assistant to the head coach, helping with strength and conditioning. On any given day, she’s doing anything from working with player data to setting up the workouts and sharing her perspective on the mental side of basketball to the team.
She said Wright’s philosophy runs deep because the entire team is an extension of her.
“If she shows up every day being the best version of herself — always loving, always caring, always holding everyone accountable — that translates to everyone doing the same thing,” Reid said.
Reid has watched as Wright leads with tough love and patience. She said Wright always emphasizes putting people first.
“At the end of the day, it’s just basketball. Everyone is a person. Everyone is on their own journey,” Reid said. “Having a leader who is that compassionate and understanding, it goes a long way.”
News editor James Ward contributed to this story.