Lady T-Birds basketball team of East High School in Anchorage, Alaska Coach and Assistants

Coach Dorena Bingham

Lady T-Birds Varsity Coach

Meet the T-Bird Varsity Coach, Dorena Bingham. Her coaching takes on many styles adapting to the girls' different level of skill.

While her team's offense varies, they can all be counted on to play up-tempo defense. In Coach Bingham's nine years as the Lady T-bird coach, she has amassed a record of 279-43. She has led her team to the Alaska State Tournament all 9 of her coaching years, finishing second at State in 94-95 and 95-96. Her teams also have placed third at State in 1996-97, and fourth at State in 1997-98 and 2002-03. Her 1997-98 team went undefeated in the regular Region IV Conference season with a record of 10-0. She won eight Region IV Championships and received Alaska Region IV Coach of the year in 1994-95, and Alaska State Coach of the Year in 1994-95 and 2001-02. Two years ago Coach Bingham's dream came true as the Lady T-Birds went 25-4 and won their first Alaska State Title. Her team repeated as the Alaska State Champions in 2000-01 with an undefeated season of 27-0. In 2001-02 her team three-peated as the Alaska State Champions behind a 27-2 record. The Lady T-Birds gained national and regional recognition as a potential powerhouse; they were ranked as high as #28 in the country.

Coach Bingham is a graduate of East Anchorage High School, class of 1981.

She graduated from Seattle University in 1985 earning a Bachelor of Education Degree. She began teaching in the same year; she taught third through fifth grade at Huffman Elementary for eleven years. She earned her Masters of Arts in Teaching from Alaska Pacific University in 1990, and began teaching at Wendler Middle School in 1996. She taught Language Arts and is currently teaching physical education at Wendler Middle School. She has eighteen years of teaching in the Anchorage School District.

Coach Bingham is a member of the Alaska Youth Basketball Association; she is known for her All-State Tour Teams, which travel to tournaments in the Lower 48 to compete in national tournament competitions in front of college recruiters and coaches. Some of the girls that have received scholarships are University of Nevada Reno's (formerly Ohio State) Laura Ingham (East Anchorage), University of Nevada Reno's Trista Langdon (East Anchorage), Jusdson College's Krista Heartwell (East Anchorage), University of Alaska-Fairbanks' Kamilah Webb (East Anchorage), Eastern Oregon's Sara Mackin (East Anchorage) and Gigi Patton (West Anchorage), Iowa's Leah Magner (Colony) and Beatrice Bullock (Service), University of Southern Colorado's Jennifer (Bubba) Rhoads (Palmer), Bemidji State's Kara Nicolet (Bartlett), Vanguard University's Laura Lee (Palmer), and Stanford's Azella Perryman (East Anchorage). Most recently, Coach Bingham had five seniors graduate last year, and all of whom received scholarships to various programs around the country, most notably Natalie Jones, a Parade All-American and Adidas All-American who is currently a freshman on the basketball team at the University of Arizona. Her East Anchorage teammates include San Jose State's Tenecia Macon, Winston-Salem Sate's Janessa Webb, Barton Community College's (Kansas) Christa Wilson, and Centralia College's (Washington) Sharee Robinson. She is recognized statewide for her ability to help the youth of Alaska acquire academic and athletic scholarships.

In April of 2003 Coach Dorena was honored by receiving a Light of hope Community Recognition Award.

East High girls coach Dorena Bingham was one of the three coaches at USA Basketball's U-18 women's national team trials in Colorado Springs, CO. The trials, June 16-19, featured 34 players and was used to select a 12-member squad to play in the FIBA Americas U-18 Championship in Colorado Springs.