BALTIMORE – Josh Cooperwood, a coach with nearly 15 years of NCAA Division I sideline experience, has joined the Loyola University Maryland women's basketball staff as an assistant, Head Coach Danielle O'Banion announced today.
 
Cooperwood comes to Loyola after spending the last two seasons at Memphis where he worked with a pair of American Athletic Conference players and led the recruiting for the highest-ranked player in program history.
 
"Loyola University Maryland continues to attract top talent," O'Banion said. "Josh is regarded as a strong basketball mind, diligent recruiter, and player development tactician. We are pleased to welcome Josh and his family to the Evergreen campus."
 
Prior to joining the Tigers' staff in his hometown, Cooperwood was a member of coaching staffs at Winthrop, Georgia Southern, Louisiana, Mississippi Valley State, North Carolina Central and his alma mater Tennessee State.
 
Cooperwood spent the 2022-23 season at Gardner-Webb where he helped lead the Bulldogs to a 29-5 overall record, a perfect 18-0 mark in Big South Conference play, the league title and a first-round appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
 
After he wrapped up his college and professional playing career, Cooperwood got his start at Tennessee State where he was the director of women's basketball operations for a year before being promoted to assistant coach in 2012. By his penultimate year at the Nashville school, Cooperwood helped the Tigers win the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) crown in 2015 and reach the program's first NCAA Tournament since the 1993-94 season.
 
Overall in his career, he has coached 13 all-conference selections, the 2023 Big South Player and Defensive Player of the Year and two conference tournament most valuable players.
 
Cooperwood began his collegiate playing career at Chattanooga State where he was the Tennessee Junior College Athletic Association (TJCAA) Player of the Year and earned NJCAA All-America honors in 2001.
 
He then transferred to Tennessee State and earned All-OVC recognition in 2003. After playing professionally in Europe for nine years, Cooperwood received his bachelor of criminal justice and corrections from Tennessee State in 2013.