By: Michael Pitts
KENNESAW, Ga. – Kennesaw State women's basketball has hired Ke'Sha Blanton as assistant coach, head coach
Octavia Blue announced Friday afternoon.
"Ke'Sha is one of the most dedicated, hardworking and detail-oriented coaches in the business," Blue said. "The experience she brings as a head coach, a developer and an elite recruiter will be of great value to our program. I look forward to getting coach Blanton to the Nest and getting to work!"
With over a decade of coaching experience, she has helped develop two 1,000-point scorers, two all-freshman team selections, a three-time All-Horizon League honoree and the all-time leading scorer at Miami-Ohio.
"I'm grateful for this incredible opportunity that coach Blue has given me to join her staff and the women's basketball family here at Kennesaw State," Blanton explained. "Coach Blue is building something special here and I'm looking forward to adding to what her, the staff and teams have built thus far."
A Toledo, Ohio native Blanton joins KSU after two seasons with Eastern Michigan and served as the interim head coach for part of the 2023-24 campaign.
I'm eager to start making an impact within athletics, the Kennesaw community but most importantly building relationships here in Georgia that will produce some of the best talent here in the women's basketball program," Blanton added. "I'm honored and grateful to continue to serve and live out my purpose of teaching, mentoring and shaping young lives."
She served as recruiting coordinator for the Eagles and implemented a man-to-man defense in December of 2023.
Prior to her time at EMU, she spent three seasons at Oakland University and was named acting head coach in the 2021-22 season. At the helm, she guided Oakland to one win shy of the program's single-season wins record and secured the second Horizon League tournament win in team history. She also guided the Golden Grizzlies to a 65-52 upset win over two-seeded Youngstown State.
From 2017-29, she was an assistant coach at Miami-Ohio where she recruited the top-ranked recruiting class in the Mid-American Conference. The RedHawks posted back-to-back 20-win campaigns and made trips to the WNIT in 2018 and 2019.
Her first coaching stint came in 2012 at the University of Detroit Mercy where she spent five seasons. She was responsible for all areas of recruiting for the Titans and was interim head coach from March-May of 2015. Detroit Mercy won the 2013 WBI crown in her first season and made it to the Horizon League Championship Game in her last season with the Titans.
She worked as a graduate assistant for Florida State for two seasons where the Seminoles accrued 38 wins including a 24-8 2010-11 campaign that earned them a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. During her time at FSU, she worked with All-ACC honorees Cierra Bravard and future WNBA player Natasha Howard.
Blanton is a member of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and graduated Cum Laude from Toledo in 2009. In 2012, she earned a Master of Science in sport administration at Florida State.
