Warren native Carroll LaHaye, a former basketball and volleyball standout at the University of Maine at Machias and a member of its sports hall of fame, recently announced her retirement after 38 seasons as the head women’s basketball coach at NCAA Division III Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va.
LaHaye compiled a record of 647-376 (.632 winning percentage) and ranks 55th in career victories across all divisions of women’s basketball. She is one win ahead of former University of Maine head coach and current Duke University coach Joanne P. McCallie.
“First and foremost, I have a significant amount of gratitude to Randolph-Macon College and their belief in me all these years,” LaHaye said. “I have said on numerous occasions and at every opportunity I have, there is no way I or we would have accomplished what we have in women’s basketball without the strengths, abilities, and commitment of those young women that I have been blessed to share memories with through all the seasons.”
“I am truly grateful and will always cherish my time with them,” she added.
The Yellow Jackets made 12 NCAA Division III Tournament appearances under LaHaye and reached the national quarterfinals twice. That included a berth in the 2005 national championship game, when they lost to Millikin University 70-50.
Randolph-Macon won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference title this season and upset No. 9 Transylvania in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to No. 8 Oglethorpe in the second round.
LaHaye posted a 418-161 record in the conference, which the Yellow Jackets joined in 1989, and she is the conference’s all-time winningest coach, for men or women. Randolph-Macon won 10 league championships.
She was the league’s coach of the year four times.
The Yellow Jackets registered 26 winning seasons among her 38 and netted 20 or more wins 14 times.
Randolph-Macon President Robert R. Lindgren said LaHaye had a truly legendary run at the school.
“Her distinguished career not only includes her becoming the (Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s) all-time winningest coach, she has had an enormous impact on all those with whom she interacted here, especially the women she has coached in her remarkable 38 years,” Lindgren said. “Those Yellow Jackets unequivocally left Randolph-Macon better basketball players and teammates, but even better human beings as a result of her profound leadership and example. Her enthusiasm, poise, and class will be greatly missed.”
LaHaye has also served as the women’s athletic coordinator and head women’s soccer and lacrosse coach at Randolph-Macon. Her 1982 lacrosse team finished fifth in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women’s national tournament.
She is a director of physical education and associate professor of physical education at the institution.
“I think of all of the obstacles associated with starting a women’s basketball program in 1982 and marvel at her ability to endure, overcome, and achieve at such a high level,” Randolph-Macon Director of Athletics Jeff Burns said.
LaHaye is a 1973 graduate of Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro and graduated cum laude in business management-recreation from the University of Maine at Machias.
She was inducted into the Midcoast Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.