Bio

DeeDee Gipson was named South Mountain Community College women’s basketball head coach in October 2023.

Gipson comes to SMCC with extensive coaching experience. She is currently the general manager and Interim head coach for the Phoenix Lady 1’s, a women’s professional minor league basketball team. She also served as a player-coach for three seasons for the team, and is also the CEO of Deefined Hoops, an organization that supports young student-athletes on and off the court.

Gipson served as associate head coach at Phoenix College in the 2021-22 season, and was an assistant varsity coach and JV head coach at Centennial High School in 2017-18. She also worked at South High School as an assistant varsity and freshman head coach and helped lead the varsity squad to the 5A state championship. 

Gipson is a former Cougar who played at SMCC for two seasons: 2009-10 and 2010-11. She averaged 10.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game as a sophomore, finishing with seven double-doubles while scoring in double-figures 16 times.

After SMCC, she transferred to Armstrong Atlantic University (2011-12) where she finished among the league leaders in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots. She then transferred to Cal Baptist University (2012-13) where she helped lead the team to a conference championship.

She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Biology with a concentration in physical therapy from Grand Canyon University in 2020. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from GCU.