Marsha Beasley - Rifle Coach - Ole Miss Athletics

Photo by: Ole Miss Athletics

Marsha Beasley

Title:
Head Coach
Year at Ole Miss:
Fifth
Email:
beasley@olemiss.edu
Phone:
662-816-0687
Alma Mater:
East Tennessee

Eight-time NCAA Championship coach Marsha Beasley has taken the Ole Miss Rifle program to new heights in seven seasons at the helm, earning her 200th win against UT Martin this season.

Beginning her Ole Miss tenure in 2016 after a decorated coaching career at West Virginia, Beasley has turned around the Rebel program, leading them to national success with three straight NCAA appearances in the last three years, including a third place overall finish at the 2021 NCAA Rifle Championship.

Beasley, a two-time College Rifle Coaches Association Coach of the Year with Ole Miss, has guided seven Rebels to All-American honors and 12 to All-GARC honors. The success on the range has also translated well to the classroom as 21 of the athletes during her tenure have received 49 SEC Academic laurels.

The Rebels made it back to the NCAA Championships and finished top four for the third straight season. Along with the fourth place finish, Ole Miss secured second in the smallbore event which is the highest in school history, shooting a 2336. Freshman Emma Pereira and junior Lea Horvath advanced to the smallbore final and placed seventh and fifth. Senior Kristen Derting led the team with an 1182 aggregate score, which was good for fifth overall with three other competitors. The Rebels started the 2022-23 season, topping their program match score record, scoring a whopping 4743 at Memphis while also tying the smallbore match record with a 2361 score. The impressive score led to the Rebels receiving the number for the third time ever and the first time since 2020. The team finished with a 9-2 overall record and a 5-2 conference record.

Kristen Derting and Lea Horvath each earned three more CRCA All-American awards. The duo has combined for 16 All-American accolades in their Rebel careers. The two also earned All-GARC honors along with freshman Julianna Hays. Horvath became the first ever women in NCAA history to fire a perfect air rifle score three times.

Building on the success of the previous year, Beasley and the Rebels qualified for the NCAA Championships for the second straight season, once again placing in the top five with a fourth place finish. Junior Kristen Derting placed seventh in smallbore and fourth in air rifle. Derting' fired an 1185 aggregate score to tie for fifth overall. Ole Miss tallied a 6-1 record in the fall helped by many top scores, including a the fifth highest by the program in a 4725-4635 win over NC State. The momentum carried into the spring, firing a program record 4737 against Army. The very next day, the team shot the second highest program match score of 4735 in a win over John Jay College. The Rebels finished with a 10-3 record and crowned GARC Co-Champions with a 7-1 conference record.

Three more Rebels earned a combined five CRCA All-American accolades. Claire O'Neel joined a short list of Rebels with her first All-American First Team award in air rifle. Lea Horvath once again shot a perfect air rifle score on her way to three First Team All-American honors in all three events. Six Rebels also received All-GARC honors with Horvath taking home the GARC Shooter of the Year award.

After much uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Beasley and the Rebels were able to compete in 13 matches and completely rewrite the record books in 2020-21. Ole Miss qualified for the NCAA Rifle Championship in 15 years, earning the No. 2 seed, and went on to place third overall, their highest finish in school history. Freshman Lea Horvath also earned a pair of third place finishes in smallbore and air rifle. The Rebels opened the season with a bang, firing an NCAA record smallbore score of 2361 and the top score in program history by over 40 points on October 10. In doing so, Ole Miss received its first No. 1 ranking in the CRCA poll in school history. In January, the Rebels topped defending GARC Champions, No. 2 Kentucky, at home 4727-4713. After posting an 11-1 record, Ole Miss also earned a share of the GARC regular-season title along with Kentucky and West Virginia, marking the most conference wins for the Rebels in school history (seven) and their first conference championship.

Beasley led a program-record four Rebels to a combined nine All-American honors from the CRCA. Horvath was a unanimous first team All-American and garnered Rookie of the Year honors after she first the first perfect air rifle score in Ole Miss history and the 12th ever in NCAA history. After the historic season for the Rebels, Beasley was named Coach of the Year by the CRCA for the second time in her career.

During the 2019-20 season, Ole Miss turned in seven of the top 10 aggregate scores in program history, including a program-record air rifle mark of 2372, outshooting her former team, the Mountaineers, in the event on Nov. 2, 2019. The Rebels made noise, climbing as high as No. 5 in the CRCA Poll for four weeks and spent the entire season inside the top 10. Overall, Ole Miss finished the season with a 5-6 record and a sixth-place finish in the Great America Rifle Conference.

Under Beasley, junior Abby Buesseler had one of the best seasons of her career, becoming the sixth All-American in program history. Buesseler earned a trio of All-American nods, including NRA Smallbore First Team honors. In addition to those laurels, Buesseler earned GARC Second Team for both smallbore and combine as well as Honorable Mention for air rifle. She also qualified as an individual for the canceled 2020 NCAA Rifle Championships in smallbore.

The Rebels finished the 2018-19 season with six wins, two GARC Honorable Mention performers in Jillian Zakrzeski and Hayley Carrol, and a fourth-place regular-season finish in conference. Ole Miss spent three weeks at No. 7 in the CRCA rankings after firing the second-highest score in program history on Jan. 13 with a 4685. Additionally, a record 94 fans packed the Ole Miss rifle range in the Rebels’ 4665-4651 regular-season finale victory against Nebraska on Feb. 2.

In just her second season with the Rebels, Beasley was named the CRCA National Coach of the Year and GARC Coach of the Year after leading Ole Miss to its best season in program history. The Rebels fired a program record score of 4687 on Jan. 19, 2018, at Alaska Fairbanks en route to an eight-win season, the most in program history. Ole Miss also wrapped up its season, finishing third overall in the conference. For the second straight year under Beasley, an individual qualified for the NCAA Championship. Freshman Kamilla Kisch earned an at-large bid in air rifle and went on to finish 40th overall.

Beasley arrived in Ole Miss from Morgantown, West Virginia, where she most recently served as a volunteer coach for the Mason Dixon Junior Rifle Club and the West Virginia Junior Marksmanship Program. In her first season with the Rebels, 2016-17, Beasley picked up three victories and helped senior Ali Weisz finish as the GARC Air Rifle Runner-Up and earn her fourth consecutive ticket to the NCAA Championship as an individual, later leading to her second career All-American honors.

The Rebels have found success in outside competition during the Beasley era. Weisz became the first former Rebel to qualify for the Tokyo Summer Olympics as a member of the USA Shooting Team in women’s air rifle. In 2022, Weisz
earned the title of World Champion and a Team USA Olympic quota for Paris 2024 after winning the gold medal match in Women's 10m Air Rifle at the World Championships in Cairo, Egypt. She also took home a national title at the 2017 USA Shooting National Championships, and gold medals at both the 2018 Winter Airgun Championships and 2019 Pan American Games. In addition, Kristen Derting was selected to USA Shooting’s National Futures Team in 2021. Randi Loudin also secured bronze in smallbore in 2017 and 2018 at the USA Shooting National Championship.

Beasley began a three-year term in September of 2019 as a member of the NCAA Rifle Committee. She will work with the committee to further develop policies and procedures governing the administration and conduct of the NCAA Rifle Championships and verify qualification of teams for the championships. Her coaching awards also include US Olympic Committee Coach of the Year (for Shooting) and West Virginia Sports Writers Coach of the Year (all sports).

From 1990-2006, Beasley was the head rifle coach at West Virginia leading the program to eight NCAA National Championships. In her first year as head coach, the Mountaineers won the first of four consecutive NCAA titles (1990-93) and repeated the feat from 1995-98. At WVU Beasley also coached eight individuals to NCAA national titles and 27 student-athletes earned 67 NRA All-America honors during her tenure. Four team members competed in the Olympic Games after leaving WVU. In the classroom, 25 Mountaineer student-athletes were named All-Academic 55 times by the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association. She was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.

A graduate of East Tennessee State University, Beasley later earned a Master’s in Sport Management at West Virginia. She competed in smallbore and air rifle while in college and as a member of the U.S. National Team.

In addition to competing and coaching, Beasley has been a leader in the sport. She drafted the bylaws to create the Mid-America Rifle Conference (now GARC) and was a staff member at the (then) national governing body of shooting (the NRA) and the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. She also served 17 years on the Board of the Civilian Marksmanship Program.

Beasley is married to Carl Flowers, and they have a daughter, Tavie, and twin sons, Aaron and Daniel.

FORMER CHANCELLOR FOR INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS ROSS BJORK ON THE HIRING OF MARSHA BEASLEY
“The Ole Miss family enthusiastically welcomes Marsha as our new head rifle coach. This is an unprecedented hire for our program - never before have we welcomed a head coach who has won eight national championships in their respective sport. Our vision for Ole Miss rifle is to win national championships and we determined that we must go out and recruit the best head coach in the country. We’re grateful Marsha sees it the same way and she is now an Ole Miss Rebel. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for our student-athletes and our program.”