In nine seasons (2002-03 to present) as the head coach at Davenport University, Mark Youngs has compiled a 238-62 overall record (.793 winning percentage) and reached seven National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division II national championship tournaments, including the title game in 2011, the Elite Eight in 2009 and the Sweet Sixteen in 2008 and 2010.
Most recently, Youngs led his team to a program record 37 wins as the Panthers suffered their only loss in the 2011 NAIA national championship game to finish the season with a 37-1 mark.
Having led the Panthers to their first Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Tournament title in 2005-06, Youngs and Davenport have captured the past five WHAC regular season titles and the last two conference tournament championships.
In 2009-10, Davenport became the first team in the WHAC to be ranked No. 1 in the NAIA Division II coaches’ poll, and the Panthers were in the top five nationally all season.
Youngs’ first trip to the national tournament came in 2005, following a 21-13 record in his third season.
He has been honored as the 2006, 2010 and 2011 WHAC Coach of the Year, the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan’s Women’s Coach of the Year in 2010 and the Russell Athletic Midwest Region Coach of the Year in 2009.
Recognized as the WBCA National Grade point Average Champions with a team GPA of 3.613 in 2006, his teams also listed fifth nationally in 2007 and sixth in 2008.
Youngs is a 1999 graduate of Hope College (Mich.). As a prep athlete in Michigan, he quarterbacked Belding Highs School’s football team to the 1994 Class B state championship.
He was the boy’s basketball coach at his alma mater, leading Belding to a 26-25 record in two seasons, and he coached AAU boy’s basketball while a student at Hope College.
Mark lives in Caledonia with his wife Amber and son's Trey and Eli.
Coach Youngs on Davenport: "Davenport University has allowed me to have full control over how I feel a college basketball program should be run. They have always provided my teams with what they have needed to be successful. The support that the school has given our athletic programs is un-matched at our level of competition."
Coach Youngs on his players: "First of all, great people and great players make great coaches. I think that the people that we have in our program are some of the nation's elite student athletes. They are goal-oriented, hard-working young women who have a passion for the game of basketball as well as the game of life. You cannot help but to be successful when surrounded with these types of athletes."
Coach Youngs on his philosophy: "I feel to be successful, you have to out-recruit your competition. Once that is accomplished, you have to make sure you adapt what you run to your personnel. We are a difficult team to guard because we always have five girls on the floor that can score from both the perimeter and around the basket. We attempt a lot of three point shots and we create a lot of mismatches. We like to attack both offensively and defensively for forty minutes."
|
Year |
W |
L |
PCT. |
WHAC |
NAIA |
|
2010-11 |
37 |
1 |
.973 |
1st |
NAIA Runner-Up |
|
2009-10 |
31 |
3 |
.911 |
1st |
Sweet 16 |
|
2008-09 |
31 |
3 |
.911 |
1st |
Elite 8 |
|
2007-08 |
28 |
6 |
.823 |
T-1st |
Sweet 16 |
|
2006-07 |
25 |
8 |
.757 |
1st |
1st Round |
|
2005-06 |
29 |
5 |
.853 |
2nd |
1st Round |
|
2004-05 |
21 |
13 |
.617 |
--- |
1st Round |
|
2003-04 |
19 |
14 |
.575 |
--- |
--- |
|
2002-03 |
17 |
9 |
.653 |
--- |
--- |
|
Overall |
238 |
62 |
.793 |
|
|
