Head Coach Royce Chadwick enters his 13th season at the helm of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball program for 2024-25 and 41st overall year as a collegiate head coach.
The winningest coach in Southland Conference history, Chadwick topped the league's record book with 211 career conference wins following the regular season finale in 2021-22. He surpassed James Smith’s mark of 210 from 1987-04 at Northwestern State. Chadwick’s career SLC record is now up to 236-108 including 13 wins at Sam Houston, 111 at Stephen F. Austin and 115 at A&M-Corpus Christi.
Chadwick also reached the 700-win total in his career in 2021-22 and currently hoists a 750-289 record.
In 2023-24, Chadwick finally made his return to the NCAA Tournament after leading the Islanders to their first-ever Southland Conference Tournament Championship with a 68-61 win over Lamar. It marked the program's first trip to the Big Dance, but Chadwick's eighth after guiding SFA to the postseason seven times. He is the last coach to guide a Southland Conference team to a win in the NCAA Tournament after leading No. 11 SFA to a 73-72 victory over No. 6 Xavier in Baton Rouge, La. in 2000.
It also marked the third championship in five years for the Islanders, all coming under Chadwick's direction, after the program won its second regular season championship in 2022-23 with a 14-4 SLC record. It led the team to its first postseason appearance since 2005 as the Islanders earned the league's automatic bid to the WNIT at Wyoming.
Between the last two seasons, it is the first time the program has ever had back-to-back championship seasons or made a postseason tournament appearance in consecutive years.
He coached the 2022-23 SLC Player of the Year in Alecia Westbrook, who also repeated at the league's Defensive Player of the Year that season. It marked the first time in program history that an Islander was named Player of the Year, as well as the first time a player repeated a superlative. Westbrook and Makinna Serrata were both named to the All-Conference First-Team, marking the first time the Islanders had a player be named to the First-Team multiple times, let alone two.
The 2022-23 season also saw the Islanders extend its home winning streak to 18 games after the program posted its first undefeated home season in 2021-22. The streak got up to be the second longest home-winning streak in the nation.
Under Chadwick's direction, the Islanders posted their first undefeated home season in program history with a 14-0 mark in 2021-22, which topped their 13-1 record in 2019-20. A&M-Corpus Christi held the sixth longest active home winning-streak in the nation and outscored the opposition 960-703 at home after the season.
Chadwick coached the 2021-22 SLC Student-Athlete of the Year in Makinna Serrata. She was one of two Islanders on the All-Conference First-Team along with SLC Defensive Player of the Year Alecia Westbrook, and it marked the first time in program history that the program landed two student-athletes on the First-Team. It was also the first time they had a pair on the SLC All-Defensive Team as Westbrook and Paige Allen made it on.
Chadwick coached two SLC Defensive Player of the Years in three seasons after Alexes Bryant won in 2019-20.
The 2019-20 season proved to best in program history for A&M-Corpus Christi, as the Blue and Green finished the regular season with a 23-7 overall record and a program best 17-3 mark in SLC play. The Islanders claimed their first regular season conference title in program history and earned the No. 1 seed in the Southland Conference tournament in Katy, Texas. A&M-Corpus Christi did not get the opportunity to compete for an NCAA Tournament bid after the SLC Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.
Chadwick was named the 2019-20 SLC Coach of the Year for the second time with the Islanders following his 2013-14 selection. Chadwick became the first coach in program history to win 100 games on the Island, as he collected his 100th win against UTRGV on Nov. 23, 2019.
After the Islanders won the 2020 regular season SLC Championship, Chadwick became the only women's basketball coach in conference history to win a regular season championship at two SLC different institutions.
The Islanders finished the 2018-19 campaign with a remarkable run in the SLC Tournament. A&M-Corpus Christi entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed and upset the No. 3 and No. 2 seeds before falling to eventual champion ACU, 69-68 in the finals.
The 2017-18 season proved another positive year for the Islanders as Chadwick guided the squad to a 19-12 (11-7 Southland) mark, falling to eventual champion Nicholls State in the second round of the conference tournament.
Chadwick led the Islanders to a memorable semifinal run at the Southland Conference Tournament in 2016-17, earning a pair of victories over Northwestern State and New Orleans before narrowly missing out on an upset of eventual champion Central Arkansas.
On Nov. 18, 2015, Chadwick became the 44th coach in women’s college basketball history to reach 600 career wins, topping Rice 60-55 at the Dugan Wellness Center. The Islanders wrapped up the remainder of the 2015-16 season with a 9-20 overall record.
In his first three seasons at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Chadwick output a 38-51 record, including an 18-win season in 2013-14. The Islander head coach picked up his second Southland Conference Coach of the Year honor (first came during tenure at Stephen F. Austin) and set the record for longest duration between awards.
Chadwick, was named the fourth head women’s basketball coach in A&M-Corpus Christi history on April 11, 2012. The Floydada, Texas, native crafted a strong career record of 561-301 (.650) prior to accepting his current position with the Island University, making stops at Marshall, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston State, Oklahoma Panhandle State and Howard Junior College. In 29 years at the Division I level, Chadwick has made seven NCAA Tournament appearances.
Much of Chadwick's success came at Southland foe Stephen F. Austin, where he led the Ladyjacks for seven seasons. Throughout his tenure at SFA, the team went 173-44 (.797) and advanced to the NCAA Tournament each season. The 1996 team reached the Sweet Sixteen, and Chadwick was named the Southland Coach of the Year one season later in 1997.
On his career, Chadwick owns a 4-7 NCAA Tournament mark with five of those losses coming to top-four seeds and all of them to programs seeded eighth or better. Throughout his time in Nacogdoches, Texas, he secured the Southland Conference Tournament title six times and compiled a sparkling 111-13 (.894) mark in league play. Further, Chadwick's teams won five Southland regular-season championships.
Chadwick led Marshall to seven winning seasons during his time in West Virginia, the most of any coach in program history. He compiled 161 victories for the Thundering Herd, including a 19-win season in 2004-05 that saw the team go 12-4 in Mid-American Conference play and win the MAC East for the first time in school history. From his third year at Marshall on, Chadwick managed 14 wins or more every season with the exception of one (when his team was decimated by injuries).
He also played a major role in the upswing of attendance at Marshall games. Chadwick saw a school-record 7,017 fans come through the turnstiles for a matchup with SEC foe Kentucky in 2004, marking the fourth consecutive season that the Herd had the highest-attended game in the conference. In his first season at Marshall, the team saw a 251 percent increase in attendance.
His first collegiate head coaching assignment came with Panhandle (Okla.) State, where he led his Aggie teams to 19 and 20 wins, respectively, across two seasons. At Sam Houston State, his next stop, Chadwick guided a school that had never posted a winning season to an 18-9 mark during the 1987-88 campaign, just one year removed from a 9-18 season.
In his five seasons at Howard Junior College, Chadwick compiled a record of 148-21, won four Western Conference titles, advanced to the NJCAA Tournament twice and was named National Coach of the Year in 1992. A multifaceted talent, Chadwick also served as Howard’s athletic director. In 1983, Chadwick broke into the coaching ranks at Olton High School in Texas where he led the Mustangs to a 21-5 record and their first district championship in nine years.
Chadwick earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Southwestern Oklahoma State in 1980 before returning for his master’s degree in business education two years later.
Chadwick is the proud father of two daughters, Kasi and Kelsi.
