About the Director

In March of 2001, Theresa A. Check '74 announced that she was stepping down as Head Women's Basketball Coach after 17 seasons to devote her full-time efforts to her duties as Director of Athletics.

            In her 17 seasons with the Lady Marauders, Check won 387 games while losing only109 games.  In 1993 she was named the Converse/WBCA NAIA Women's Basketball National Coach of the Year.

Coach Theresa A. Check’s strong interest in education began early and was influenced by her parents.  Her mother was a teacher in the Beavercreek School System and her father a Professor of Education at Central State University. Along with her five sisters she learned the many values that athletic participation can build.  Theresa began playing basketball in Cedarville, OH on a hoop in her back yard and she continued to play at Cedarville High School in the Girls Athletic Association program and graduated salutatorian of her class in 1970. Check went to Adelphi University in New York before returning to her home and graduating from Central State University. She played her senior year at CSU for Coach Bev Levison and was named team MVP. She received her M.Ed. from Miami Univ. (OH) in 1979.

            Since becoming the full-time AD, Check's number one project has been the re-establishment of the Central State football program. She was instrumental in developing the plan presented to the Board of Trustees by President Garland in June 2001. This plan is part of a five-year vision of growth for the entire athletic department.

            Besides the re-establishment of football, Coach Check has added men and women's tennis along with men's volleyball as intercollegiate sports. She also oversaw the renovation of Beacom/Lewis gymnasium in 1996 and is busy planning the return of baseball and softball to the Central State varsity lineup along with adding women’s bowling. 

            In 2002, Check was selected to testify about Title IX to the U. S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics in Atlanta, Georgia

            Coach Check has also directed the athletics program in its move to NCAA Division-II status. This is part of her five year program to further expand and elevate the entire athletics program at Central State. Recognized for her insight and leadership abilities, she has been chosen to serve on Women's Basketball Advisory Committee for the Great Lakes Region.

            While she is not on the basketball court everyday, Coach Check has been busy taking the Central State message throughout the Miami Valley speaking to many civic, professional and corporate organizations  promoting Central State and Marauder Athletics.     

            Check is a member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, the American Association of University Women, and the Black Coaches Association. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Xenia Kiwanis.

            In 1996, Coach Check was honored by being inducted in the Central State University Achievement Hall of Fame. In the fall of 2007, she was inducted into the Central State University Athletic Hall of Fame.

            Coach Check was voted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2000 she was inducted into the Cedarville High School (OH), her high school alma mater's Hall of Honor. In 2004 she was inducted into Alter High School's (Dayton, OH) Hall of Fame. Also in 2004 she was inducted into the Greene County (OH) Women's Hall of Fame.

            Check completed the HERS Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education held annually at Bryn Mawr College (PA) during the summer of 2005.

In the fall of 2006, Check was selected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Division 2 Athletic Directors Association. She was also invited to be part of the Symposium " Women of Color in Collegiate Athletics" at the NCAA Convention in January 2008

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