Entering his 19th season as the head women’s basketball at Limestone College, Corey Fox has guided the program to unprecedented heights during his tenure.
Over the past 10 years, Fox has led the Saints to an impressive 237-62 overall record, a 168-31 conference mark, seven Conference Carolinas Regular Season Championships, five Conference Carolinas Tournament Championships, eight NCAA Tournament appearances, two NCAA Southeast Regional Championships, and trips to the 2014 and 2015 NCAA Elite Eight. Additionally, the team has finished in the national Top-10 twice during that span.
On November 17, 2012, the three-time Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year became the program’s all-time leader in career wins with a 91-62 decision over Coker. He recorded his 300th career win at the helm of the Saints with a 94-83 win over UVa-Wise on November 8, 2019, and with a pair of 30-win campaigns, enters the 2021-22 season with a 330-183 (.643) career record and 11 winning seasons.
Fox most recently guided the Saints through the program’s first season in the South Atlantic Conference in a COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign. Despite playing short-handed throughout the season with a few long stretches between games, Limestone managed to post an 8-8 overall record and a 7-6 mark, including a 72-67 win over nationally 11th-ranked Carson-Newman late in the year, with a young squad.
The 2019-20 team rebounded nicely from a rebuilding season the year before, finishing with a 23-8 overall record and winning the 2020 Conference Carolinas Tournament Championship. The Saints qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in nine years, but the year was cut short with the cancellation of the national championship tourney due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following seven straight 20-win seasons, Fox guided Limestone through a 13-15 rebuilding year during 2018-19. Playing essentially with a brand new team – a young team that featured five freshmen seeing significant minutes – the Saints still managed to finish the season with a 10-10 mark in conference.
During the 2017-18 campaign, the Saints compiled a 23-6 overall record while capturing Conference Carolinas Regular Season Championship for a seventh season in a row with an 18-2 league mark. Limestone secured a berth in the NCAA Tournament for a seven consecutive year, the longest active streak in the Southeast Region.
Fox led the Blue and Gold to a 27-5 overall record and a sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance during the 2016-17 season. Limestone claimed its sixth consecutive Conference Carolinas Regular Season Championship with a 21-1 league record and posted a 21-game win streak down the stretch.
A year after advancing to the national semifinals, Fox led his team to an unblemished regular season for the first time in program history during the 2015-16 campaign. The Saints started the year with 30 consecutive wins to sweep the Conference Carolinas Regular Season and Tournament Championships for a fourth time in five years.
Limestone spent a majority of the season ranked No. 2 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches’ Poll and earned a top seed in the NCAA Southeast Regional for a second consecutive season. The Blue and Gold would finish the year with a 30-1 overall record and No. 11 in the final national rankings.
The Saints dominated the landscape during the 2014-15 season as they posted a 34-2 overall record, a 22-0 mark in league play and a second straight trip to the NCAA Elite Eight. With an impressive 33-game win streak that ran deep in to the postseason, Limestone earned the right to host the 2015 NCAA Southeast Regional as the top overall seed.
After opening the NCAA Tournament with a pair of double digit wins, the Saints laid claim to their second straight NCAA Southeast Regional Championship with a 72-38 win over Anderson in the regional finals. Limestone would then move on to record a come-from-behind 61-58 decision over fourth-ranked Lewis in the national quarterfinals to make the program’s first Final Four appearance.
Limestone spent the entire 2014-15 season in the national rankings, starting the year ranked 11th in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches’ Poll. The Saints fell to No. 15 briefly, but steadily climbed all the way to No. 2 entering the NCAA Tournament. The Blue and Gold finished the year ranked No. 3.
In what was supposed to have been a rebuilding year for the Saints during the 2013-14 season, Limestone went on to win the NCAA Southeast Regional Championship and advanced to the Elite Eight in Erie, Pa. for the first time in team history. The Saints went 27-6 and captured its third straight Conference Carolinas Regular Season Championship with a 16-2 league mark.
In 2012-13, Fox guided the team to a 27-4 overall record and a 21-1 ledger in league play while climbing to No. 8 in the national rankings and recording the program’s first two NCAA Tournament wins. The Saints advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in team history before falling to nationally top-ranked Clayton State in the regional finals.
The achievements of those three seasons came on the heels of a 25-7 mark during the 2011-12 campaign in which the Saints swept the Conference Carolinas Regular Season and Tournament Championships and secured a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in team history. Fox was named the 2011-12 Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year.
The road to success began during the 2010-11 season in which the Saints posted a 19-9 overall record, marking only the second time in team history and the first time in 25 years that the team finished with less than 10 losses in a season. One of the biggest highlights in program history occurred that season when the Saints posted a 74-68 win over Mount Olive live from the Timken Center on CBS College Sports on January 29, 2011.
That win kick started the program as the Blue and Gold has since posted an amazing 181-27 overall record and has been nearly unbeatable at home with an incredible 95-9 mark at the Timken Center over that same time frame.
Fox guided the team to a 17-11 record during the 2009-10 season, the most wins in a season since the 2000-01 campaign, two years after leading the Saints to their first winning season over the previous six years with a 16-15 overall record and an 11-9 conference mark in 2007-08.
Fox’s team won 22 games during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 campaigns. Although the team finished below the .500 mark in both seasons, they collected two more wins than the program had put together over the previous four years combined. In 2005-06, Fox guided the team to a 12-17 record to snap a string of three straight seasons with single digit wins.
In his first full year at the helm of Saints in 2004-05, Fox finished with a 4-23 record a season after posting a 2-12 mark when he inherited the team midway through the 2003-04 season. Before being named head coach of the women’s basketball team, Fox served as an assistant coach on Larry Epperly’s staff with the men’s team for 2 ½ seasons.
During his time at Limestone, Fox has been named Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year three times and has coached three All-Americans in Alicia Brookins, Jasmine Kearse and Keidra Smith. He has mentored four preseason All-Americans, a national preseason player of the year, two national players of the week, two First-Team All-Region selections, two Second-Team All-Region honorees, and a Southeast Region Player of the Year. A total of seven players have been named to the NCAA Southeast Region All-Tournament Team during his tenure while Kearse has twice earned NCAA Southeast Region Most Valuable Player honors.
At the conference level, Fox has coached a two-time Conference Carolinas Player of the Year, a two-time Conference Carolinas Defensive Player of the Year, one Conference Carolinas Freshman of the Year, 16 First-Team All-Conference selections, 10 Second-Teamers, five Third-Teamers, five Honorable Mentions, a SAC All-Freshman Team award winner, 19 conference All-Tournament recipients, five Conference Carolinas Tournament Most Valuable Players, and 33 player of the week selections.
Fox’s student-athletes have been just as successful in the classroom as 23 players have been named to the Conference Carolinas Academic All-Conference Team while 129 student-athletes have earned a spot on the Conference Carolinas Presidential Honor Roll/SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll during his tenure.
Maurissa Lester became the first player in team history to win the NCAA Elite 89 Award at the 2014 Elite Eight and was the program’s first Academic All-American. Lester would end her career as a NCAA Woman of the Year Finalist in 2016.
Prior to joining the Limestone coaching staff, he played one season with Division I Western Illinois and two seasons with Danville Area Community College before suiting up for Limestone his senior year. In just one season with the Saints, Fox broke the single season school record with 187 assists while also setting Top-10 single season marks in three-point percentage (44.4% - 2nd), three-pointers (67 - 4th), points (395 - 5th), and free throw percentage (83.2% - 5th).
He graduated from Limestone College in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies. He currently resides in Gaffney with his wife, Marie, and their children, C.J. and Ryann Elizabeth.
