Women's Basketball helped out during the Woodlands Assisted Living 2011 Fall Festival
Eva Patterson-Heath is currently in her fourth season as the head coach of the Fayetteville State women's basketball program.
In her previous three seasons at the helm of the Lady Broncos, she has compiled a 37-46 overall record and 22-31 mark in CIAA play.
Patterson-Heath's first season as head coach of Fayetteville State was nothing short of a success. The Lady Broncos went 20-10 overall and 13-7 in the CIAA, advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs for the sixth time and won the school's third CIAA Championship. Fayetteville State beat every team in the CIAA in 2009-10, including three wins over Johnson C. Smith.
Patterson-Heath joined Maceo Smith and Eric Tucker as the only coaches in school history to win a CIAA Championship while becoming, along with Smith, the one of two coaches in FSU history to win 20 or more games in their first season.
She followed the 2009-10 season by going 6-21 and 4-13 in the conference, and then last season posted a five-win improvement as the Lady Broncos went 11-15 overall and 5-11 in CIAA action.
Patterson-Heath has coached three CIAA All-Conference Team members at FSU in Deja Middleton (2009-10), Tiffany Haywood (2009-10) and Bria Robinson (2011-12). Middleton also earned CIAA Defensive Player of the Year honors that season and Haywood was named CIAA Tournament MVP. Haywood received CIAA All-Conference recognition again in 2010-11. Robinson earned CIAA All-Rookie Team honors during her freshman campaign. Five players have also been named CIAA Preseason All-Conference during Patterson-Heath's tenure in Erica Gilley and L'Oreal Price (2009-10), Haywood and LaQuasha Jordan (2010-11) and Akysia Resper (2012-13).
For 24 years before arriving in Fayetteville, Patterson-Heath was the Head Girl's Basketball Coach at Red Springs High School in Red Springs, North Carolina.
She led the Red Devils to a 503-128 record. Her teams won 17 conference titles, 11 conference tournament championships, had 23 state playoff appearances and played in the state championship game twice.
Patterson-Heath developed 21 collegiate student-athletes, seven North Carolina East-West All-Star players, three Robeson County Players of the Year and one Cape Fear Region Player of the Year.
In September of 2012, she was inducted into the North Carolina A&T State Athletics Hall of Fame, which is her alma mater. In 2009 she was in the Inaugural class inducted into the Robeson County Sports Hall of Fame and, in 2006, was chosen as the North Carolina High School Athletic Association's Female Coach of the Year. Patterson-Heath organized the Inaugural Lady Devils Holiday Invitational Tournament in 1991. That led to the establishment of the Robeson County Girls Christmas Classic which has become a major tournament for the area. In 1994 she established the boys and girls cross country teams at Red Springs and in 2004 co-founded the Robeson County Cross-Country Championships. She led her cross country teams to 10 conference championships after 1994.
She was a four-year starter for the North Carolina A&T State women's basketball program from 1974-77, and was a team co-captain during each of those four seasons. She led the team in scoring during the 1975-76 season and then was the team-leader in rebounding the following season. Patterson-Heath was part of two North Carolina Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women District III championship teams (1975-77), and was presented the Senior Award that culminated all of her accomplishments while at North Carolina A&T State.
Though active in sports, Patterson-Heath has an intense passion for education and community service. She served on the Board of Directors for Communities in schools and has been a volunteer coach for the Robeson County Special Olympics.
In 2005, she received the Lumberton Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Award for Community Service. She was a two-time Red Springs High School Teacher of the Year and, in 1999, was awarded the Educator of the Year Award by the Robeson County Black Caucus.
Patterson-Heath's career began in 1977 as an activities coordinator with the Robeson County Parks and Recreation Department. She later became an athletic director, which led to her coaching careers in basketball, cross country and track.
Patterson-Heath is a 1977 graduate of North Carolina A&T State where she received a Bachelor's of Science in History with a concentration in Education. She later received her certification from FSU in Special Education and her Master of Arts Degree in Education from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
She is married to Tim Heath, who is the running backs coach for the FSU football team. They have one daughter - Rekha Patterson - who is a member of the women's basketball coaching staff at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
Patterson-Heath Year-By-Year Record At Fayetteville State
