ATLANTA (March 9, 2023) — Chris Plonsky, executive senior associate athletics director, chief of staff and senior women’s administrator at The University of Texas, is the 2023 WBCA Administrator of the Year, announced today by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
The WBCA Administrator of the Year award is presented annually to an administrator, athletic director, associate or assistant athletic director, or senior woman administrator who has excelled at encouraging the growth and quality of women’s basketball programs and women’s athletic programs overall. The candidate also must have served as a professional role model for student-athletes.
“It is my pleasure to recognize Chris Plonsky as the 2023 WBCA Administrator of the Year,” said WBCA Executive Director Danielle Donehew. “Chris is a talented and wise leader who has given her time and talent to protect and promote the student-athlete. Her resume of contributions is vast and includes every major board and committee that touches the sport of basketball. She is one of the most powerful leaders and champions for the sport.
“All the while, she has made time for the WBCA as a member of our finance committee for many years, providing guidance to the executive committee and executive director. She is a friend to our coaches and the sport. The WBCA applauds Chris for her lifetime of contributions to coaches and the game.”
Plonsky is in her 35th year with intercollegiate athletics at Texas. Since September 2018, she has been chief of staff and executive senior athletics director. She has been UT’s senior woman administrator for NCAA and conference meetings since the late 1990s and previously served UT as women’s athletics director (2001-17), supervisor of athletics external services for men’s and women’s athletics (1993-2017) and as women’s sports information director (1982-86).
Plonsky’s current direct reports are support service supervisors for all 550-plus men and women student-athletes in academics/learning, enrollment management/eligibility, compliance/risk management and sports medicine/wellness. The latter area includes nutrition, behavioral health, strength and conditioning and applied sports science. She assists in supervision of programming provided by Texas Athletics’ 4EVER TEXAS staff, which includes personal/leadership/career development. Plonsky is a USA Basketball board member and an emeritus board member of the National Football Foundation/College Football Hall of Fame.
She is past president of NACDA, NACMA and Women Leaders in College Sports (formerly NACWAA). A native of Pittsburgh and raised in Greensburg, Pa., and northeast Ohio, she graduated in 1979 with a B.S. in journalism from Kent State University. She also has worked at Iowa State University (1979-81) and The BIG EAST Conference office (1986-93).
“Thank you to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association executive committee and membership for their decades of work to advance women’s basketball,” said Plonsky. “To be associated with the master teachers of the game — the coaches —has been a blessing. All of us in collegiate athletics serve coaches and student-athletes. They provide the joy and meaning of our professions.”
The WBCA Administrator of the Year award was first presented in 1985. Visit www.wbca.org/recognize/ to see a list of past recipients.
About the WBCA
Founded in 1981, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association is the professional association for coaches of women's and girls' basketball at all levels of competition. The WBCA offers educational resources that coaches need to help make themselves better leaders, teachers and mentors to their players; provides opportunities for coaches to connect with peers in the profession; serves as the unifying voice of a diverse community of coaches to the organizations that control the game; and celebrates those coaches, players and other individuals who excel each year and contribute to the advancement of the sport. Visit WBCA.org for more details about the association.
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