Despite being a New Jersey native, Toyelle Wilson has spent most of her coaching career in the Lone Star State and she said location had a big part of her initial interest in the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women’s basketball job.
But when she actually had a chance to talk to administrators at the university, she was struck by the family feel of the athletic department and how committed the school was from the top down to succeeding.
Advertisement
Wilson was formally introduced on Tuesday at the Dugan Wellness Center, bringing out both members of the community and the Islanders athletic department to welcome the fifth women’s basketball coach at the school.
Wilson succeeds Royce Chadwick, who announced his retirement April 2 after 13 years at the school and 41 as a coach.
“The first thing was the location,” Wilson said. “The second thing was the committment to excellence and championships and the third thing was the people. The people are amazing, they are very connected. They love what they do and they have an unbelievable work ethic.”
Wilson said her connection to the state, having been a head coach at SMU for the last four seasons and previously having stops at Prairie View A&M and as an assistant at Baylor, along with the location will help sell the Islanders program to recruits.
Advertisement
“You can sell the location and the beach for ages,” Wilson said. “(Plus) the tradition and the people … I just love everything about it. I think it helps tremendously to have connections with everyone Texas, but this is a place you can recruit internationally, you can recruit from across the country. I’m really excited to spread the word about this amazing university.”
The new coach is inheriting a program that was 15-17 last season, but has won three conference titles since 2019-20, including two regular season crowns and the 2024 Southland Conference Tournament, which sent them to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history, falling to No. 1 seed USC.
More: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi names Toyelle Wilson new women’s basketball coach
Wilson’s first head coaching stop at Prairie View A&M produced high levels of success at a similar level to the Southland Conference in the SWAC, leading the Panthers to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
Advertisement
She feels that experience will pay dividends now that she prepares to coach in the Southland Conference.
“That was my first coaching job, and I was able to be successful by recruiting kids, but the player development is big to me,” Wilson said. “We had to get kids to commit that believed in what we were doing there. That parallels (A&M-Corpus Christi) but I also played at a school (Manhattan) that didn’t have football.
“Basketball was that focal point, and that is what I heard when I first thought about A&M-Corpus Christi.”
In the NIL-driven landscape that dominates college basketball in 2025, Wilson said A&M-Corpus Christi will seek out athletes that want to sign because of the school more than basketball.
Advertisement
“If your first motivation is money, then we are probably not the best school for you,” Wilson said. “In this landscape with revenue sharing and NIL, I think we will grow into that. Right now we may look at kids that were at Power 4 schools that might need the opportunity to put some numbers up and maybe did not play. I think at mid-majors it is all about how you coach kids.”
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: New A&M-Corpus Christi coach Wilson focused on player development
