The University of Southern Mississippi announced on Tuesday that longtime women’s basketball head coach Joye Lee-McNelis will be retiring at the conclusion of the 2024-2025 season.

Like her former coach and mentor Kay James, McNelis is a name that will forever be synonymous with women’s basketball in Hattiesburg.

A high school basketball standout during her prep career in Hancock County, McNelis was a four-year letterwinner for James during her playing career, finishing with the second most points in program history.

After coming back to work as an assistant for James on some of the greatest teams in Southern Miss history, McNelis was hired as head coach at then Memphis State in 1991 as a 28-year-old.

Four times she took Memphis to the NCAA Tournament in 13 seasons. In 2004, McNelis was hired to lead her alma mater as she has guided Southern Miss through periods in both Conference-USA and the Sun Belt Conference.

One thing that McNelis has done during her career is inspire countless individuals as she continued to coach during four different battles with lung cancer.

Winners of many awards during her career, McNelis was picked for the Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award from the United State Basketball Writers Association in 2024. She was inducted into the Southern Miss Legends Club, which hangs in the rafters of Reed Green Coliseum, earlier this year.

Southern Miss athletic director Jeremy McClain will head up the search and there are multiple coaches with ties to the program that should be in consideration.

Current Appalachian State head coach Alaura Sharp is a former Southern Miss assistant and current Southern Miss assistant coach Brooks Donald Williams is a former Division I head coach at McNeese State and Louisiana-Monroe.

Current Louisiana-Monroe head coach Missy Bilderback is a Southern Miss alum who had ultra successful stints coaching at Presbyterian Christian in Hattiesburg at the high school level and Jones College in Ellisville at the two-year level before taking the ULM job.

Also, Pauline Love, who was an all-time great player for McNelis during her career and later worked on the staff in Hattiesburg, is an assistant coach at the University of Alabama who’s been lauded as an elite recruiter during her career which also includes a stop at the University of Arkansas.

McNelis will be honored at halftime of the men’s basketball game against Troy on Friday in Hattiesburg.