TX State Women’s Basketball Announces Addition Of Paige Love As A Graduate Assistant

By, Jen Lawson

UNC Asheville Paige Love Feature

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State women’s basketball team has announced the addition of Paige Love as a graduate assistant for the Bobcats beginning this fall. Love joins the Bobcats after spending the last four seasons as a member of the University of North Carolina at Asheville women’s basketball team.

“I am very excited to add Paige to our staff,” said head coach Zenarae Antoine. “Her impact on our program will be tremendous. She has just completed her career as a student-athlete that led her team to a conference championship and the NCAA Tournament.”

“I am beyond excited to join the Texas State family and the Sun Belt Conference,” said Love. “I have been blessed with such a great opportunity to learn and develop as a coach under an experienced and supportive staff. I was attracted to the Texas State women’s basketball program due to the culture Coach Z and her staff have established and continue to work toward.”

While at UNCA, Love helped lead her team to the 2015-16 Regular Season and Tournament Championship. During the season, Love was a winner of the William and Ida Friday for Service to Community award as well as a nominee for the WBCA All-State Good Works Team, the John Wooden Citizenship Cup and the NCAA Woman of the Year award.

At the conclusion of her senior year, Love was named the UNCA Female Big Dog of the Year and she also earned the UNCA Bulldog Service and Leadership Award. Love was the team captain for the last three seasons.

After the 2013-14 season, Love was named to the Big South All-Conference Honorable Mention Team after averaging 10.1 points and a team-high 5.6 rebounds per game in conference play. To start off the 2013-14 season, Love hit a half-court shot at the buzzer to defeat Furman. Her shot earned Play of the Day honors on ESPN the next day.

A natural leader on and off the court, Love gained a significant amount of leadership experience in her four years at UNCA. In addition to being an active member of the UNCA Student-Athlete Advisory Council all four seasons, Love has attended the NACWAA Women’s Leadership Symposium and was a co-leader of the Athlete Outreach Bible Study at UNCA.

For the past two years, Love has been a Special Olympics Buddy Coach. In 2015, she was involved in the Shiloh Community Association where she volunteered her time by taking care of the local landscape as well as facilitated in the surveying of residents about their experience in the community.

Love has spent the last four years as a camp counselor for the UNCA women’s basketball program where she had the responsibility of supervising over 100 youth by leading basketball drills and helping with the development of fundamental skills.

“When I met and interviewed for the graduate assistant position, I could immediately see and feel the focus on growth on and off the court, emphasis on the process, and the importance of family and team,” added Love. “I couldn’t imagine a better atmosphere to work in or a better team to learn and grown with!”

Love graduated from UNC-Asheville this past May with a degree in Health and Wellness Promotion where she focused her undergraduate research on the “Impact of a College Course on Body Fat and Body Image on Weight Bias in Health Majors”. Love presented the topic at both the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and the Southeast Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (SEACSM). Love will be completing her master’s degree in Exercise Science at Texas State.

“Effort and attitude are habits that I have always tried to focus on as a player and as an individual,” said Love. “I look forward to transitioning from a player to a coach over the next year and focusing on bringing these two important habits to the team on a daily basis. I have had the opportunity to be at Texas State this summer to work camp and it has made me more excited about the team, the staff, and all of the accomplishments ahead.”

“Paige’s positive attitude is contagious,” added Antoine. “Paige wasn’t just a great leader on the floor, she was equally matched in her abilities off the floor and that is evident with her numerous accolades.”