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Saturday, August 9, 2025

Reinson Named New Head Women's Basketball Coach

Reinson Named New Head Women's Basketball Coach

Four months after stepping in to serve as interim head coach for the Longwood University women's basketball team, Bill Reinson has officially been assigned to the full-time job. According to Athletic Director Troy Austin, the decision was made last Thursday and was announced to the Longwood community Tuesday morning.

"It has been a lifelong dream of mine to be a Division I head coach," said Reinson in an interview Tuesday afternoon, "and to finally have it come to fruition, especially here at Longwood, it's terrific."

The enthusiasm is shared by Austin, who suggested that the ideal candidate for the position was someone who not only had an extensive knowledge of the game, but who could positively represent the university in every aspect: "Coach Reinson is extremely bright. [...] He has committed to Longwood for the past eight years and has a good feel for our organization and the program points needed to advance women's basketball. [...] He is driven, and brings an intensity to the program and has great basketball knowledge as well and a strong appreciation for Longwood and its culture. It's his time. It's his chance to get an opportunity to lead the program."

According to Austin, who submitted Reinson's official recommendation to President Patrick Finnegan last week, the decision was announced to the team on Friday, a day after Reinson received the committee's approval. The committee was composed of Dr. Deneese Jones, dean of the College of Education and Human Services, Finnegan, women's basketball players Mina Jovanovic, Brittanni Billups, and Brittany Jones, as well as Austin.

Reinson had been serving as head coach for the women's basketball team on an interim basis since Coach Kristin Caruso was, according to Austin, "removed" from the program in December. The team finished with a record of 7-23 on the season, earning six of their victories during Reinson's stint as interim head coach.

It did not take long for Reinson to accept the interim position when Austin first offered it to him. "I thought it would be a great opportunity going forward," said Reinson, "and when it happened, we just kind of hit the ground running and did the best we could for the last 23 games of the year."

Austin, aware of Reinson's "unenviable task of taking over a program mid-year," spoke very highly of his program's new head coach and the interesting situation the he was appointed to mediate. "There was some obvious turmoil just from the fact that the head coach was removed mid-year. I asked him, for all intents and purposes, to steady the ship and navigate it through the rest of the year. To his credit, I think he did a fantastic job. The girls played at a high level, we won some games that we weren't favored to win, and they really played hard overall."

After coming to Longwood in 2002, Reinson has held several positions within the university's hoops program. He served as an assistant to Coach Shirley Duncan in the 2002-2003 season, the program's final year of Division II eligibility, during which the team won the CVAC Tournament and advanced to the second-round of the NCAA Tournament. He described the successful season as one of his "favorite years coaching."

This was Reinson's second time applying for the women's head coaching job, as he was narrowly beat out by Caruso for the position in 2007. Reinson has also had a hand in many aspects of men's basketball operations, including serving as an interim head coach for two games in his first year at Longwood. Up until he was appointed to the interim position with the women's team earlier this season, he had been an assistant to men's basketball head coach Mike Gillian.

According to Austin, no decisions have been made thus far regarding the vacant assistant coaching position, but he has received "a bunch of interest." He also stated "at this point [Coach Gillian's] big priority is deciding how to divvy responsibilities among his current staff and what the third position will be doing."

In a related matter, Reinson said he would not be making any changes to the women's basketball assistant coaching positions. "Gayle Coats and Wanisha Smith and I got along very well this year and they'll be staying on staff," he said. "There will be one other position to fill, but at this time it hasn't been determined.