Tomekia Reed
OTHER EDUCATION:
- University of Southern Mississippi
- Hinds Community College
- Georgia Southwestern State University
Coach Tomekia Reed is a native of Jackson, Mississippi, and a 1999 graduate of Murrah High School. After graduating from Murrah, she began her collegiate basketball career at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. She helped lead the program to a WNIT appearance before transferring to Hinds Community College for the 2000-2001 season.
At Hinds, Reed led the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) in rebounds per game and was also second in the conference in scoring. She was chosen as an All-State first-team selection. Reed transferred to Georgia Southwestern State University after her time at Hinds, where she led the team in scoring (finishing second in the conference) and earned the team’s most valuable player award. She earned an associate’s degree in sports medicine from Hinds in 2001 and a bachelor’s in exercise science from Georgia Southwestern in 2003.
Reed began her coaching career at South Georgia Technical College, where she served as assistant women’s basketball coach for three seasons. Reed also had assistant coaching stops at Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, and New Orleans, serving as recruiting coordinator at each school during her respective stints.
Named Jackson State University head coach in 2018, Reed joined JSU following a successful three-year stint as coach of the Hinds Community College women’s basketball team. Hinds CC won a combined 47 games under Reed, including consecutive winning seasons in 2016-17 and 2017-18. Reed led Hinds CC to the NJCAA Region 23 title game in 2017.
In four seasons as JSU’s head coach, Tomekia Reed has led JSU women's basketball to the top of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. She has guided JSU to four consecutive berths in the SWAC Tournament semifinals, three straight berths in the conference tournament finals, three straight SWAC regular-season titles, and two straight SWAC tournament titles and NCAA appearances. This year's mark of 23 wins is the highest in program history, including a historic 18-0 record in SWAC play, surpassing a program-best 16 wins in 2020. This season, Jackson State ranked in the top three in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in nearly every major category.
Reed is a two-time SWAC Coach of The Year (2020, 2022). Before becoming the head coach, Reed was Jackson State’s women’s basketball recruiting coordinator from 2006-2009. She served as the top assistant, worked with post players, and served as the team’s academic liaison. Other responsibilities included strength and conditioning liaison, player development, community service coordinator, and summer basketball camp coordinator. During that time, the Lady Tigers claimed the SWAC regular-season championship (2007), made WNIT appearances in 2006 and 2007, and won the SWAC tournament championship in 2008, making it the program's fourth NCAA Tournament appearance. Reed has the unique distinction of being a part of every JSU women's basketball national tournament appearance since 2006, including being on the coaching staff of three of JSU's six NCAA Tournament games.
After nearly upsetting LSU in a first-round NCAA Tournament game on March 19, 2022, Coach Reed was asked what her message to her team was following the tough loss:
"Honestly, my message after today's game was, we have to continue to fight for our institution. Our conference. We have to continue to fight for our culture. We have to continue to knock on walls to get respect. We're knocking on walls. You've accomplished some things that hadn't been accomplished in this program and in this conference, but now it's time to come back and knock the walls down. We have to make a strong statement in the preseason next year. Another strong statement. And we're gonna keep knocking until the respect is there.”
