In today's episode of This Hits Different, Shelby Cassesse tells the story of Tanya Garner, a former West Mifflin girls basketball standout who is now coaching a boys program in the WPIAL.
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Tanya Garner's basketball resume speaks for itself.
A standout at West Mifflin who later impressed at Penn State, scoring over 1,500 points with the Nittany Lions and setting records for three-pointers made and attempted.
But before all of that, she was a young girl with a hoop within walking distance from her house.
"I knew very young that I enjoyed basketball, and that I wanted to play," she says. "Somebody told me that it's an opportunity to get a free education and go to college. That stuck with me, because I knew my mom couldn't afford it.
"So I worked and I worked hard on my craft to make that happen."
With an impressive playing career behind her and a degree in human development and family studies, Tanya came home after college and immediately began investing in her community. Considering her passion for helping kids, coaching felt like an obvious step.
Almost right away, her coaching tree began to put down roots.
"I started doing some coaching with the West Miffflin girls basketball program with Mr. Phil Share," she says. "And I had the opportunity of coaching Tanisha Wright, who is now a head coach in the WNBA."
Her career took off from there, leading her to Duquesne University in an assistant role. But working with kids remained her calling.
"That's an opportunity through sports for you to connect and teach and train kids ini so many different areas, where those skills, they will take them through the rest of their lives," she adds.
She started coaching boys AAU basketball, and most recently accepted a position very few Pennsylvania women have had, boys basketball coach in the WPIAL.
"I don't see a lot of women on the men's side," she says. "Vice versa, it's different. You see a lot of men coaching on the women's side in all levels and all sports."
She's in her first year as head coach at Nazareth Prep - a 1A school in Emsworth. She says she knows her resume earned her the opportunity, but sometimes, she needs to remind others of that.
"Every now and then you've got to get out there in drills and you've got to show them, 'I'm not just telling you this, I also can do this and have done it," she says.
But it's also a role she doesn't take lightly, knowing her actions now, could lead to opportunities down the road for other women.
"I know I'm in a unique situation," she says. "I do not take it for granted. I also want to make sure that I'm dotting my I's and Crossing my T's, so that my performance, my coaching ability, allows somebody else to get the opportunity that I'm in right now."
