Linda Kay Sharp (born March 14, 1950)
Early life and education
Born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma and raised in Cypress, California, Sharp attended John F. Kennedy High School in Los Angeles and played at point guard on the basketball team.
Coaching career
College
After graduating from Cal State Fullerton in 1973 with a physical education degree, Sharp taught part-time at a local Catholic school and also did substitute teaching before landing a full-time teaching and coaching position at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. Sharp taught American literature and physical education and coached girls' basketball, volleyball, and softball in addition to launching tennis and track programs. After one year, USC promoted Sharp to head coach. In twelve seasons from 1977 to 1989, Sharp accumulated a 271-99 won-loss record.
From 1989 to 1997, Sharp compiled a 138-85 record in eight seasons at Southwest Texas State (now Texas State).
For seven years, Sharp served on the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee.
In 2001, Sharp was hired as the head coach of the women's basketball team at Concordia University Texas, a Division III school. She coached the team for seven years and to an 87–87 won-loss record. On September 10, 2008, Sharp resigned from Concordia.
Sharp's career head coach record is 496–271 after 27 years coaching NCAA women's basketball.
WNBA
In 1997, she became the first head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association. Sharp later assisted her former player at USC, Cheryl Miller, with the Phoenix Mercury in 2000. Then in 2002, Sharp became the interim head coach for the Phoenix Mercury after Cynthia Cooper resigned from the position. Sharp had a 9–24 overall record as a WNBA head coach.
Sources for Texas State:
Source for Concordia (TX):
WNBA
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| style="text-align:left;"|Los Angeles
| style="text-align:left;"|
| 11||4||7|||| style="text-align:center;"|(replaced)||—||—||—||—
| style="text-align:center;"|—
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
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| 22||5||17|||| style="text-align:center;"|7th in West||—||—||—||—
| style="text-align:center;"|Missed playoffs
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 33||9||24|||| ||—||—||—||—