Lenise Stallings enters her seventh season as Chowan’s head women’s basketball coach after continuing to elevate the Hawks program into a consistent contender within Conference Carolinas.
The 2025-26 season marked another historic campaign for Chowan, as the Hawks posted a 19-9 overall record and a 14-6 mark in conference play. Chowan finished third in the East Division and sixth overall in the KPI rankings while advancing to its first-ever appearance in the Conference Carolinas Women’s Basketball Championship finals in Spartanburg, S.C. The Hawks also secured postseason play for the fifth consecutive season under Stallings’ leadership. Nyeisha Savage earned Conference Carolinas Defensive Player of the Year honors and was named to the All-Defensive Team after averaging a team-best 9.6 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game. Savage, alongside Desiree Askew, also earned All-Tournament Team recognition, while Stallings collected her 108th career coaching victory and 94th at Chowan by season’s end.
During the 2024-25 season, Stallings guided the Hawks to a 19-6 overall record and a 15-5 finish in conference play. Chowan earned its sixth straight appearance in the Conference Carolinas Championship and was ranked eighth in the D2CSC Women’s Basketball Poll. The Hawks also established themselves as one of the nation’s top defensive and rebounding teams, ranking first in field goal percentage defense and rebound margin, second in offensive rebounds and rebounds per game, fifth in scoring defense, 18th in bench points per game, 34th in winning percentage, and 35th in steals per game nationally. Yasmine Brown earned Second Team All-Conference honors, while Meara Carter was selected to the All-Defensive Team.
In the 2023-24 season, Stallings led the Hawks to a 13-10 overall record and a 13-5 mark in league play. Chowan made its fifth consecutive appearance in the Conference Carolinas Championship, while also producing a First Team All-Conference selection.
The 2022-23 season , saw a second straight 18-win season going 18-11 overall and 12-8 in league play. The Hawks made their second straight trip to the Conference Carolinas Semifinals and fourth straight appearance in the Conference Carolinas Championship. Stallings would aid in the progress of Destiny Robinson as Robinson would be named Conference Carolinas Defensive Player of the Year as the forward led the league in blocks (66) and rebounds (251). Robinson would also be named First Team All-Conference while achieving 1,000 career points and broke the Chowan DII record in career rebounds and double-doubles.
For the 2021-22 season, the Hawks posted an 18-10 overall record and an impressive 17-7 record in league play. Chowan would make their first-ever trip to the Conference Carolinas Semifinals. Destiny Robinson would garner Conference Carolinas Second Team All-Conference honors.
During the 2020-21 season, Stallings led the program to a 7-8 overall record and a 7-7 mark in Conference Carolinas play. The 7-7 league record was the best mark during the Hawks' transition into the Conference Carolinas. Chowan averaged 67.3 points per game, up nearly six points per game from 2019-20 and the most since the 2017-18 season. Stallings helped guide Monique Jones to a Third Team All-Conference selection.
Stallings comes to Chowan after a season at Wiley College (NAIA) in Marshall, Texas. During her stint with the Wildcats, Stallings orchestrated a winning season for the first time in three seasons. The Wildcats went 14-13 overall and 11-7 in the Red River Athletic Conference and an appearance in the RRAC semifinals. Stallings would help Brianna Tolliver to a First Team All-Conference selection, and Kyani Moore to being named RRAC Freshman of the Year and Second Team All-Conference.
Under Stallings, the Wildcats saw drastic changes on both sides of the court. Wiley averaged 8.9 more points per game, while lowering their opponent’s points per game by 2.3. Defensively, the Wildcats improved from seventh to second in field goal defense. The most improved change came on the glass as the Wildcats under Stallings went from the worst rebounding margin (-4.37 in 2018-19) to the league’s best (6.85 in 2019-20).
Prior to Wiley, Stallings spent two seasons as the assistant coach at Tennessee State following former Mississippi Valley State head coach Jessica Kern to TSU. Lenise helped the Tigers secure the program’s largest recruiting class and a spot in the top-25 most improved Division I women’s basketball programs.
Stallings started her coaching career at Mississippi Valley State in 2016-17 as an assistant coach after serving as a graduate assistant from 2014-2016.
The Hattiesburg, Miss. native played her collegiate career at Mississippi Valley State. During her playing career, Stallings appeared in 124 career games, amassing 739 points, 198 made three-pointers, while shooting 35.1% from behind the arc. Stallings and the Devilettes were named SWAC Regular Season Champions and received a bid to the WNIT in 2011-12, and appeared in the SWAC Conference Championship game in 2012-13. During the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, Stallings led the SWAC in three-point field goal percentage.
Stallings earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from MVSU in 2013 and master’s degree in Bioinformatics in 2016.
Lenise resides in the Murfreesboro area with her husband and two daughters, Kyia and Brooklyn.
