Ali Ford embarks on her first season as a member of the UNCW women's basketball staff after being named as an assistant coach in June, 2018.
Ford reunites with Head Coach Karen Barefoot after serving as a graduate assistant at Old Dominion the last two years. The Morganton, N.C., native also played for Barefoot at Elon from 2009-13 and played an important role in the success at ODU and building the Elon program.
"Bringing Ali onto our staff is a home run hire in a number of ways," said Barefoot, who embarks on her second season at UNCW in 2018-19. "She knows what I am like as a coach and how hard I want our players to work and represent our program. Ali is the ultimate team player and has a tremendous work ethic in addition to being very loyal.
"Ali really impressed me during her interview and made me believe she was the right fit because she knows that we have a lot of work to do to reach our ultimate goal and getting to the next level. She has an outstanding reputation in North Carolina and takes a lot of pride in the state."
A 2013 graduate of Elon, Ford was a four-year letter winner for the Phoenix and finished her career as the second-leading scorer in school history with 2,020 points. She was a four-time First-Team All-Southern Conference selection and was named 2009-10 SoCon Freshman-of-the-Year.
Ford concluded her career as the Phoenix's all-time leader with a .826 free throw percentage, while her .338 career three-point percentage ranks fourth in program history. She was a three-year team captain and garnered Academic All-Conference recognition all four years.
"Ali took a chance on me when I was building the program at Elon," said Barefoot. "She wanted to build something special and was a huge reason why we had the first 20-win season and reached the postseason for the first time at the Division I level."
In addition to her talents on the basketball court, Ford spent three seasons on Elon's softball team, starting 95-of-104 contests. She earned Academic All-Conference honors twice and served as team captain during her senior campaign.
