Shannon Osborne begins her second year leading the Menlo women's basketball program after coming within a whisker of getting the Oaks into the NAIA Championships in her first go round. A two-time All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference player at Pomona-Pitzer (1991-95), Osborne returned to the West Coast to be the second women's basketball head coach in Menlo College history last year. In her first year as an Oak, her team went 19-8, finishing second in the California Pacific Conference regular season and tournament. Menlo fell to nationally ranked Holy Names by one point in the Cal Pac Conference title game.
Osborne has been a successful assistant at the prep, AAU, and collegiate levels, having coached most recently at NCAA Div. I Fordham University prior to taking over the reigns of the Oaks program. She has also had stints at fellow NCAA Div. I schools Kansas, San Jose State, and Texas-Pan American.
As an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., Osborne helped rebuild the program, taking it from a five-win team in her first year to a 17-11 record her final season. Osborne's additional duties at Lynn included coordinating all aspects of recruiting, perimeter player development, scouting, as well as fundraising and organization of summer camps. Osborne was responsible for recruiting and developing three All-Sunshine State team selections and two All-Rookie team selections while helping the Fighting Knights to their highest conference finish in school history.
Osborne spent the 2001-02 season at San Jose State as an assistant coach where she helped the Spartans to a program-best fourth-place finish in the Western Athletic Conference. From 1999-2001, she was an administrative assistant with the University of Kansas. The Seattle-area native also spent one season as an assistant at Texas-Pan American and served as an assistant girls basketball coach at her alma mater, Redmond (WA) High, from 1996-98. Osborne also gained experience on the AAU circuit, directing the Seattle-area Players Only squad in the summer of 1998.
