The 2012-13 season begins with Coach Cal Cochran’s fifth year at the helm of the Daytona State College Lady Falcon program. Coach Cochran was named 2011-12 Head Coach of the Year in the Mid-Florida Conference for the second consecutive year. He enters this season at DSC with a 69-47 record. The Lady Falcons finished the 2011-12 season as Mid-Florida Conference Champions. This was the first back to back conference championship since 2002-03 for the women’s basketball program. The Lady Falcons reached the FCSAA (Florida Community College Activities Association) Final Four for the first time in Coach Cochran’s tenure. The team finished ranked 5th in the final FCSAA Coaches Poll. It also marked the third consecutive FCSAA State Tournament appearance for the Lady Falcons.
The Lady Falcons will add eleven new faces in a rebuilding year, as the program had six sophomores received scholarships to universities at the next level. Shiquita Williams, the lone returning sophomore was a 2011-12 Mid-Florida Scholar Athlete Award recipient and a FCSAA “All-Academic Team member and Philadelphia, PA native. Freshmen include: Chelsea Adams, 6’3 center - Chamblee HS, Stone Mountain, GA; Andrea Ayala 6’1 center - Lincoln Park Academy, Fort Pierce, FL; Abigail Asoro 6’1 forward - Stockholm, Sweden; Kamari Talley 5’11 forward - Camden, New Jersey; and local Diajah Davis 5’10 forward – Flagler Palm Coast HS, Palm Coast, FL round out the frontcourt. The corps of guards include: Kyla Muhammad 5’6 – Pensacola HS, Pensacola, FL; Paden Smith 5’6 – Chamblee HS, Snellville, GA; Martika McDaniel 5’5 – Central HS, Fort Pierce, FL; Ka’ya Johnson 5’8 Castlemont HS, Union City, CA and Jeena Potts 5’8 Harrisburg HS, Harrisburg, PA.
Under Coach Cochran’s four seasons at the reins, twelve players have received 1st Team All Mid-Florida Conference honors; four players have received FCSAA All-State honors; twenty players have received Mid-Florida Conference Scholar Athlete Awards. Eleven players have received FCSAA “All-Academic” Team. Two players have received NJCAA Academic All American; one has received Daytona State College Hall of Fame honors (the first one in the history of the athletic department). One student athlete has received the 2011 Sandy Miller Award, the highest award given by FSCAA for Women’s Basketball. In his term at DSC, Coach Cochran has initiated several new programs. Included are the Jr. Falcon Reading Program at the DSC Early Childhood Development Learning Center and the Peer Tutoring Partners (PTP, an academic support strategy for student athletes).
Daytona State College Lady Falcons, where, “Doing the little things right…WILL MAKE THE BIG THINGS HAPPEN
