Shea Mead Tabbed To Ferris State Women's Basketball Staff

Big Rapids, Mich. - Ferris State University women's basketball head coach Colleen Lamoreaux-Tate has announced the appointment of West Michigan native Shea Mead as the program's full-time assistant coach.

Mead has spent the last two seasons as a graduate assistant coach in the women's basketball program at NCAA Division I Central Michigan.  The Chippewas made the school's first NCAA Tournament appearance in 29 years this past season and won the Mid-American Conference Tournament while registering their third-straight 20-plus win campaign under head coach Sue Guevara.

Mead was heavily involved with many facets of the CMU program, including facility operations, on-floor coaching, organizing scout team players, running summer camps, overseeing team managers, coordinating study and exam schedules and more.

"I've known Shea for a long time and he's a very loyal person who's familiar with our style," said Lamoreaux-Tate.  "He'll be a tremendous asset to our women's basketball staff and will bring a great work ethic to our program.  He's learned a lot under Sue Guevara and we're excited he's joined the Bulldog family."

Along with his graduate assistant coaching duties at CMU, Mead also served as a graduate assistant in the physical education department for the past year where he taught students the fundamentals of basketball and evaluated direct class activities.

A Grand Rapids native, Mead competed on the prep level at Grand Rapids Catholic Central High School during Lamoreaux-Tate's stint as the Cougars' head girls coach.  He went on to receive a bachelor of applied arts degree in sports studies with a minor in business administration and coaching from CMU in 2011.  He recently earned his masters degree in sports administration in May.

"This is a great opportunity at Ferris State to work with an outstanding group of student-athletes," Mead said. "The future is bright and I'm excited about working with Colleen as she builds a championship program."

During his time as an undergraduate student, Mead served as the seventh and eighth grade head boys and girls basketball coach at Beal City Public Schools.  He was also an intern in the marketing department at Central Michigan where he helped promote the Chippewas' athletic events, conducted women's basketball in-game promotions and assisted with day-to-day operations.

In the summer of 2011, Mead also served as an intern for the WNBA's Indiana Fever in Indianapolis.  He helped coordinate talent bookings and mascot contracts, assisted in coordination of on-floor activities, took part in game operations/marketing meetings and worked extensively on assigned projects.

As a member of the Central Michigan Sport Management Association, Mead volunteered with CMU Athletics for numerous events and composed an article for the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan (BCAM).  He also competed in fundraising challenges and attended conferences.

While at Central Michigan, Mead also worked on several educational projects in the sports industry.  He served as a research consultant for Fan Central Data Consultants where he created a survey for fan and game day experiences and presented findings to CMU's senior athletics staff.  He also worked as an event planner for Hoops for Funger which enabled him to coordinate and supervise a team of 12 volunteers that collected and distributed over 51,000 pounds of food for local food banks.  Finally, he spent time as a Director of Research on a Fathead Company Project in which he used social media to market Fathead products to college students while communicating with company executives.

Mead will take over the full-time assistant coaching role from Charlette Muller, who stepped down to spend more time with her family but will remain with the Bulldog staff in a part-time role.

This past season, the Bulldogs posted a 13-13 overall mark during Lamoreaux-Tate's first season at the helm despite battling injuries most of the year. FSU finished with a 12-10 mark in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) play while reaching the conference tournament for the 14th time in program history.