2024 FCSAA Women's Basketball Inductee: Chanda Rigby
Chanda Rigby is one of two former Pensacola State Lady Pirates who are being inducted into the FCSAA Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, March 16th. Carla Williams is the second inductee and will be featured tomorrow.
Rigby had a seven-year run as head coach at Pensacola State, where she compiled a record of 153-64 between 2005-2012. After winning just nine games in her inaugural season, Rigby and the Lady Pirates increased their win total every subsequent year. Her first 20-win season was in 2009 and PSC qualified for the FCSAA Tournament in 2010 and finished with a 24-6 record.
Rigby's final two seasons with the Lady Pirates were outstanding as they won back-to-back Panhandle Conference and FCSAA Championships. She earned two Panhandle and FCSAA Coach of the Year Awards, 64 wins and consecutive third place finishes in the NJCAA Tournament.
In 2011, the Pirates were a perfect 12-0 in the Panhandle enroute to a 34-0 start and the program's first FCSAA Championship in 26 years. Pensacola State fell in the NJCAA Semifinals and eventually ended the season with a record of 35-1.
The following season was quite the encore, as the Pirates repeated as Panhandle and FCSAA Champions and again advanced to the NJCAA Semifinals, ending the season with a record of 29-4.
Rigby's tenure at PSC produced four All-FCSAA performers, four NJCAA All-Americans and WBCA All-Americans.
In 2012, Rigby took over the Troy University women's basketball program and has made the Trojans a perennial Sun Belt Conference Championship and NCAA Tournament contender.
Now in her 13th season as head coach at Troy, Rigby has amassed 228 victories, including seven seasons of 20 wins or more, three Sun Belt Tournament Championships, two Sun Belt Regular Season titles, three trips to the NCAA Tournament, seven postseason appearances, 20 all-conference selections, five Sun Belt postseason award winners, one Sun Belt Player of the Year and Sun Belt Coach of the Year honors in 2021.
Earlier this season, she won her 450th career game as a college head coach, which also includes four seasons at Holmes (Miss.) Community College.
In 2022, the Alabama High School Athletic Association presented Rigby with its Bubba Scott Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing her efforts, both on-and-off the court, to elevate the quality of women's basketball in the Troy community, as well as the state of Alabama.
Rigby is a two-time graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University and earned her doctorate in higher education leadership from Nova Southeastern University in 2017.