A new era has dawned as Chelsea Lyles has been named the second head coach in Florida Gulf Coast University women's basketball program history.

"Chelsea Lyles is a longtime Eagle, having played for the team as a student and risen through the coaching ranks over the past 16 years," said FGCU President Aysgeul Timur. "I'm very confident in Chelsea's ability to continue our team's momentum and to take us to the next level."

"It is with great enthusiasm and support that I announce Chelsea Lyles as the second head coach of FGCU women's basketball," said Colin Hargis, FGCU director of athletics. "Chelsea has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to FGCU and the women's basketball program over the last 16 years. She is prepared to lead the Eagles in the next chapter of our women's basketball program and I am excited for our student-athletes to learn from Coach Lyles' leadership."

"I am absolutely excited and prepared to be the next FGCU women's basketball head coach," Lyles said. "I am so grateful to Karl and it was my honor to work for and learn from one of the legends of college basketball. I congratulate him on his success and in his new position leading the Dream. I will be his biggest fan in his future championship endeavors.

"Being FGCU's second head coach, leading the program at my alma mater, is my dream," Lyles continued. "I want to thank Colin Hargis and President Timur for their confidence in me to lead this incredible program. These young women are special, and we are ready to continue the Eagles' legacy, together. I'm excited and ready for the season ahead, and I am focusing on our game against NJIT this Sunday."

Lyles began her coaching career as a student assistant in 2010-11. After a one-year stint in that role, she officially joined the staff as an assistant coach in 2011, serving until being named the recruiting coordinator in the summer of 2014. She was promoted to associate head coach under Smesko in 2019. Lyles entered the 2023-24 season in her sixth year as an associate head coach with a 148-20 record.

Before her coaching career, Lyles spent two years (2008-10) as a player under the direction of Smesko. During that time, the Eagles won an Atlantic Sun Conference regular season championship and earned back-to-back WNIT automatic bids as the team wasn't eligible for the NCAA Tournament until 2011-12.

Overall, Lyles was a two-time First Team All-ASUN selection and led the team to a 50-12 record overall and a 34-6 mark in ASUN play. As a senior, she produced double-digit scoring 21 times. Including her time as a student-athlete, Lyles has been a part of 24 combined Atlantic Sun Conference championships.

Prior to the coaching change, Lyles was in her sixth season as FGCU’s associate head coach after spending the previous five years as the recruiting coordinator. Overall, the 2024-25 season marks her 17th year in Fort Myers as the Colorado native competed for the program from 2008-10 before beginning her coaching career as a student assistant in 2010-11. One year later, she was elevated to an assistant role, and the rest is history.

2023-24
Lyles guided FGCU to its seventh consecutive ASUN Tournament title and its 10th NCAA Tournament berth in program history. The Eagles went a perfect 16-0 in ASUN play for the seventh time in school history, winning its 14th all-time regular season championship.

The Eagles won all 16 conference games by double digits, with the smallest margin of victory being 11 and the largest being 42 points for an average of a dominating 24.5 points. Overall, FGCU went 29-5 as coach Smesko would reach win No. 600 at FGCU. Only FGCU and UConn have won 25 or more games for 14 consecutive seasons. FGCU allowed a league-leading 55.0 points per game and even held Iowa phenom Caitlin Clark to her lowest offensive output of the season.

FGCU narrowly advanced to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year, ultimately falling to fifth-seeded Oklahoma 70-73 at the buzzer as a 12-seed in Bloomington, Indiana. The Eagles notched a home Power Five win over Kentucky and upset No. 18 North Carolina 65-64 in the Gulf Coast Showcase. The Green and Blue received votes in the AP Poll with the win over the Tar Heels and finished the season ranked No. 2 overall in the CollegeInsider.com’s Mid Major Top 25 Poll.

FGCU knocked down 323 3-pointers in just 34 games, ranking sixth in the nation. The Eagles have made 300-plus three for 15 straight years. In a year of streaks, FGCU kept both its home (32) and conference winning streak alive (41). Emani Jefferson earned the ASUN’s Triple Crown, winning the Player, Defensive and Newcomer of the Year Award. No Eagle has ever accomplished the feat.

Jefferson was also named a WBCA All-America Honorable Mention. Uju Ezudu was an ASUN First Team selection, while Maddie Antenucci landed on the ASUN’s All-Academic squad. Dolly Cairns was awarded the CSC Academic All-District honors and as a team, the Eagles posted a 3.47 GPA.

2022-23
The Green & Blue finished the 2023-23 campaign 33-4 in head coach Karl Smesko's 21st season, an effort that included the program's 13th ASUN Conference regular season title, 10th ASUN Tournament Championship, ninth NCAA Tournament berth and fourth NCAA Tournament victory.

The Eagles etched their names into the NCAA record book this season, winning their third game as a 12 seed – the most in tournament history – by defeating fifth-seeded Washington State 74-63. 

FGCU finished the year with 425 3-pointers – just six 3s behind their own all-time record of 431 in 2017-18. The Eagles tripled their opponents' treys total, allowing only 144. FGCU led the nation in made 3s per game for the fourth consecutive season.

Ranked No. 24 in the final USA Today/Coaches Top 25 poll, the Green & Blue emerged as the only non-Power 5/Big East team to be ranked in the final poll – and is the only mid-major with four straight Top 25 rankings.

The No. 24 FGCU women's basketball team earned a multitude of awards from the ASUN Conference, as fifth-year guard Tishara Morehouse earned the ASUN Women's Basketball Player of the Year and earned a spot on the ASUN Women's Basketball First-Team list for the third consecutive season.

Graduate guard Sha Carter, who was named the ASUN Women's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, was also named to the ASUN Women's Basketball First-Team All-Conference list. Junior guard Alyza Winston was named to the Third-Team list.

For just the third time in FGCU women's basketball history, Morehouse was honored as a 2023 NCAA Division I Coaches' All-America honorable mention selection by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Morehouse joined former Eagle standouts Kierstan Bell and Keri Jewett-Giles as the only FGCU players to earn such an honor in the program's illustrious history.

Sha Carter was also named to the 2023 I-AAA Athletics Directors Association Scholar-Athlete Teams -- the 14th Eagle to earn such honors.
 
2021-22
This past season, Lyles helped guide FGCU to a 30-3 record, including a 15-1 conference slate and an ASUN-record sixth-consecutive tournament championship, which helped the program qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in 11 seasons. Once there, they knocked off No. 5 Virginia Tech in the opening round. Along the way, the Eagles reeled off a 15-game winning streak, captured Coach Smesko’s 600th career victory, earned a national ranking for the fourth time in five seasons and became the third team in program history to finish the campaign ranked in both the AP and Coaches Polls.

A SEASON LIKE NO OTHER (2020-21)
Lyles helped guide FGCU to a 26-3 record, including an unblemished 16-0 ASUN slate and a tournament championship, which helped the program qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in 10 seasons despite losing over 90 percent of the team’s scoring from the previous year while also dealing with Covid-19. The Eagles reeled off a 25-game winning streak, captured the program’s 500th victory, earned a national ranking for the third time in four seasons and became the second team in program history to finish the campaign ranked in both the AP and Coaches Polls. The season also represented the fourth in which the Fort Myers squad went undefeated in ASUN regular season play and captured the tournament championship, which is a feat that only happened one other time in the history of the league (FIU, 1992-93). On top of that, the Eagles became the first team in ASUN history to capture five consecutive tournament championships while making their 10th consecutive appearance in the title game.
 
A trio of newcomers led the Eagles in scoring - Kierstan Bell (24.3 PPG), TK Morehouse (17.7 PPG) and Aaliyah Stanley (9.6 PPG). Bell and Morehouse, who became the highest-scoring duo in program history, finished 1st and 3rd in the ASUN in scoring. While Morehouse was tabbed first-team all-conference, Bell became the first player in conference history to be named both the ASUN’s player and newcomer of the year. She finished fourth in the country in scoring, was named the national mid-major player of the year and captured Honorable Mention All-American status from the AP, WBCA and USBWA. Another newcomer, Seneca Hackley, was named to the conference’s all-freshmen team.

ANOTHER BANNER YEAR
In 2019-20, Lyles helped lead the Green and Blue to a 30-3 record, which included the program's conference-record breaking 10th ASUN regular season championship. The team was slated to take on Liberty in the conference title game before Covid-19 ended the season prematurely. Due to that, FGCU was named co-tournament champs, becoming just the second team in ASUN history to claim four straight such titles. Along the way, the Eagles knocked off Notre Dame, Duke, South Florida, South Dakota State and UCF. They appeared in the USA Today Coaches Poll a program-record 10 times before finishing the season at No. 24.

ELEVATING THE PROGRAM THROUGH RECRUITING
In the five years Lyles spent as the recruiting coordinator, the FGCU women’s basketball program compiled a 149-28 record overall and a 69-3 mark in ASUN play. In fact, over that stretch, the Green and Blue were one of only seven Division-I teams with three 30-win seasons, had the most victories of any mid-major and ranked eighth in wins among all Division I teams.

On top of that, the Eagles made four trips to the NCAA Tournament in that stretch (2014-15, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19). The 2015-16 season resulted in a WNIT runner-up finish that witnessed the team knock off B1G power Michigan in the semifinals. In the 2014-15 NCAA Tournament, the Eagles defeated Oklahoma State in the opening round for the program’s first-ever win in the tournament. In 2017-18, they upset No. 5 seed Missouri in the opening round.
 
In fact, the 2017-18 team had one of the best seasons in program history as the Eagles finished 31-5 overall, won the ASUN regular season and tournament championships and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the past three appearances. Along the way, the team knocked off No. 21 DePaul, No. 20/23 Kentucky and No. 17/15 Missouri to produce the program’s first-ever wins over ranked opponents in the Division-I era. And if that isn’t enough, the team made an NCAA record 431 3-pointers and finished the season at No. 25 in the USA Today Coaches Poll for the second time in program history.

Some of the other highlights during her tenure as recruiting coordinator included:

• Nasrin Ulel capturing ASUN Player of the Year recognition as a junior and finishing her career as the seventh-leading career scorer in program history. On top of that, Tytionia Adderly captured back-to-back ASUN defensive player of the year awards before finishing her career as the only player in ASUN history with at least 800 points, 1,000 rebounds, 300 assists and 200 steals. Both players were recruited by Lyles.
   
• The Eagles becoming just one of four teams nationally to win at least 25 games for the ninth-straight season in 2018-19 and capturing their ninth ASUN regular season championship in 11 years in dominant 16-0 fashion. It was the program’s fifth-ever undefeated conference slate and pushed their ASUN regular season winning streak to 23 dating back to Feb. 3, 2018.
   
• The 2016-17 team rallying from a 2-5 start to capture its seventh-straight 25-win campaign, which culminated in the team’s fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in six seasons. FGCU finished 26-9 overall and made 338 3-point field goals, which was third-most in the nation. They suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Stetson in the regular season finale inside Alico Arena but bounced back to hand the Hatters a heartbreaking defeat of their own on their home court in the ASUN championship game. In that matchup, the Eagles rallied from a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter behind the clutch play of two-time ASUN tournament MVP China Dow. The team’s season ended in a controversial 62-60 loss to Miami (Fla.) in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
   
• The WNIT semifinal victory over Michigan in 2016 drawing a program-record crowd that sold out Alico Arena for the first time in women’s basketball history. That year’s team won 33 games, establishing the program’s Division-I era standard for most in a season.
   
• Whitney Knight, the 2016 ASUN Player of the Year, becoming the program’s first player drafted in the WNBA as she was selected with the 15th pick by the Los Angeles Sparks following her senior year. Rosemarie Julien also signed an WNBA training camp contract with the Atlanta Dream in 2018.
   
• The 2014-15 team compiling a 26-game winning streak en route to a 31-3 season and another undefeated conference slate. They actually won 29 of 30 during one stretch with the only loss coming in double overtime to Ohio State in the U.S. Virgin Island Paradise Jam event. The team earned the program’s first-ever Division-I national ranking, elevating as high as and finishing 21st in the nation in both the AP and Coaches Polls.

A SUCCESSFUL TRIO
After a one-year stint as a student assistant, Lyles officially joined the staff as an assistant coach in 2011 and served in that role until being named the recruiting coordinator in the summer of 2014. During that three-year era, she helped lead the team to a 72-18 record, including an astounding 53-1 record in ASUN play.

In 2011-12, Lyles helped FGCU finish 29-3 overall and become just the third team in ASUN history to win the tournament championship in its initial season of eligibility. The Eagles knocked off Stetson 67-39 in the championship game to also become just the second team in conference history to post an undefeated regular season (18-0) while also winning the postseason tournament.

The following season, Lyles and the Eagles became the first school to go undefeated in ASUN play in back-to-back seasons, finishing with the most victories (27) of the 13 Division-I schools in the state of Florida and capturing the program’s third-consecutive ASUN regular season title. The team advanced to the WNIT for the fifth time in program history while once again leading the nation in 3-point field goals made per game (9.4) and ranking in the nation’s top 40 in 13 different NCAA statistical categories.

In 2013-14, FGCU compiled a 26-8 record (17-1 in ASUN play) with Lyles on staff. The Eagles won a fourth-straight ASUN regular season title and captured the conference tournament for the second time in three seasons. The team advanced to the NCAA Tournament, where they fell to No. 5 seed Oklahoma State in overtime. The season marked the 10th straight in which the program won at least 20 games.

FGCU PLAYING CAREER
Prior to her coaching career, Lyles spent two years as a player under the direction of Coach Smesko from 2008-10. During that time, the Eagles won an ASUN regular season championship and earned back-to-back WNIT automatic bids (the team wasn’t eligible for the NCAA Tournament until 2011-12).

Overall, Lyles was a two-time First Team All-ASUN selection and led the team to a 50-12 record overall and a 34-6 mark in ASUN play. As a senior, she produced double-digit scoring 21 times and finished in the top 15 in eight different ASUN statistical categories. She was also the recipient of FGCU’s Female Outstanding Athlete Award.

Following her basketball playing days, Lyles spent one season as a graduate student on the volleyball team in 2010. She started all 26 matches as a middle blocker, finishing the campaign as FGCU’s leader in blocks (66), kills (205) and hitting percentage (.301). Following the season, she joined the basketball team as a student assistant and helped lead FGCU to a 28-4 record overall, a 17-3 mark in ASUN play, an ASUN regular season championship and the program’s fourth straight WNIT automatic bid, where they advanced to the second round.

PRIOR TO FGCU
Lyles was a two-sport athlete at Western Nebraska Community College from 2006-08. She was a member of the 2007 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I national championship volleyball squad and was named First Team All-Region IX in basketball and volleyball while pacing the Cougars in scoring and rebounding in her second season. She also led the volleyball team to a national runner-up finish in her freshman campaign.
 
A three-sport athlete in volleyball, basketball and track at Harrison High School, Lyles was a high jump state champion, a Second Team All-Colorado volleyball player and the 2006 Colorado Springs Player of the Year in basketball.

EDUCATION
Lyles is a 2010 graduate of FGCU where she received a bachelor’s degree in communication.