LaTonya Watson is in her third season as the head women’s basketball coach at New Haven. She brings nearly 15 years of Division I coaching experience to the Chargers’ sideline.
In her first year as head coach, Watson led the Chargers to a 15-13 record and a berth in the Northeast-10 Championship semifinals, matching the deepest run in the tournament the team has ever enjoyed. She mentored a pair of All-Conference honorees in Briana Bradford and Lauren Hebert. Additionally, Bradford garnered Honorable Mention All-American accolades from D2Bulletin and was a CoSIDA Third Team Academic All-American.
Watson spent 12 seasons in two stints as an assistant coach at the University of Colorado. While there, she helped coach six teams that qualified for the NCAA tournament including the 2002 squad that advanced to the Elite Eight. She had 10 student-athletes continue their careers professionally, including Mandy Nightengale, who was the university’s 2002 Sports Woman of the Year and a third round selection in the WNBA draft.
She was also the academic liaison for the team, which achieved a top-25 ranking in the 1999 WBCA Honor Roll while 92-percent of women’s basketball players graduated during her time in Boulder.
Watson has made two stops in the Patriot League, starting with a three year stint at American University. While with the Eagles she helped to mentor the team to back-to-back league championship games in 2010 and 2011. She also guided eight student-athletes to All-Conference honors including Michelle Kirk, the 2010 Patriot League Player of the Year.
Most recently, Watson spent a season at Bucknell University as an assistant coach and the recruiting coordinator. She helped lead the Bison to an 18-12 record in 2014-15 and a berth in the Patriot League Championship tournament, while mentoring 2015 Patriot League Rookie of the Year, Jacquie Klotz.
While at Bucknell, she also was a coach facilitator for the Bucknell Bison Leadership Academy, an extension of the Patriot League initiative to develop student-athletes as effective leaders, both on and off the field of play.
Watson is a 1992 graduate of Eastern Michigan University with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. She was a four-year member of the women’s basketball team for the Eagles where she appeared in 108 games and currently ranks fifth all-time in assists (446), sixth in steals (235) and 14th in points (1,296).
