Cetera DeGraffenreid is entering her third season an assistant coach for the Gardner-Webb women’s basketball team.
DeGraffenreid arrived in Boiling Springs in 2015 after spending the previous year working on her Masters Degree at Western Carolina. At WCU, DeGraffenreid worked as a strength and conditioning intern for the men’s and women’s basketball teams and taught two strength and conditioning classes at nearby Cherokee High School. In May 2015, she completed her Masters Degree, obtaining a perfect 4.0 GPA in the program.
The native of Cullowhee, N.C. played collegiately at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill under legendary head coach and women’s basketball Hall of Fame inductee Sylvia Hatchell.
At North Carolina, DeGraffenreid was a three-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection and helped guide the Tar Heels to four NCAA tournament appearances, including the Elite Eight during her freshman season, and the Sweet 16, her senior year. In her four seasons at Chapel Hill, DeGraffenreid became just the fifth player in ACC history to hit 500 free throws and graduated as the school’s all-time leader in career free throws made with 544.
In her freshman season, the freshman guard appeared in all 36 games, making 30 starts, and was named an unanimous ACC All-freshman selection after averaging 11.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, and dished out 3.1 assists per game. She was named the conference’s Rookie of the Week three times during her first season as a Tar Heel and was selected as a Gballmag.com Young All-American.
As a sophomore, DeGraffenreid started career-high 31 games and ranked in the top-10 in the conference in four statistical categories including leading the league in assist to turnover ratio at 1.7. She was named to the conference’s third team and was one of 13 finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award, which is given to the nation’s top point guard.
On December 29, 2009 during her junior year, DeGraffenreid scored her 1,000th point in an 89-44 victory over Kennesaw State.
After finishing her collegiate career, DeGraffenreid went on to play professionally in Israel for two seasons for Ironi Ramat Gan and Habikaa.
DeGraffenreid graduated from North Carolina in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications, amassing 1,562 career points and currently ranks third in Tar Heel history for both assists (589) and steals (371) and also ranks in the top-10 for free-throw percentage (10th-75.6%).
