Plant High’s Carrie Mahon receives national prep basketball honor
In a year when her perennially dominant program fell shy of the state tournament, veteran Plant High girls basketball coach Carrie Mahon still exited Lakeland with some of the most prestigious hardware of her career.
Mahon was presented the John Wooden Legacy Award, one of the prep level’s most esteemed honors, during the recent state tournament at Lakeland’s RP Funding Center. Presented in conjunction with the Wooden family and National High School Basketball Coaches Association, the award is given annually to one boys and one girls coach in each state.
The honor recognizes those who have achieved “excellence on the floor, in the classroom and in the community that further embody the characteristics and legacy of Coach John Wooden,” according to the association. The criteria are “rooted in the ideals of education, longevity, character, service and excellence.”
“The south Tampa community is such a supportive and loving group,” said Mahon, who recently completed her 22nd season as Panthers coach. “I have had the opportunity to coach so many special young ladies. From attorneys, coaches, CPAs, graphic designers, emergency-room doctors, moms, teachers, nurses and everything else in between.
“My girls are everywhere. I’m just really blessed to have been a part of a community in Tampa where the girls are so devoted to each other and respectful of their surroundings.”
Mahon spent seven years as coach at NAIA Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri — where she earned All-America honors as a player — before arriving at Plant. A 400-game winner at the school, she led the 2020 Panthers squad to the Class 7A state finals before capturing the program’s first state crown the following year with a 52-40 triumph against Miami High in the 7A championship.
She was lauded by the community in 2014 when — with assistance from a Tampa police officer and school nurse — she administered CPR and an automated external defibrillator on a 15-year-old gym student who suffered cardiac arrest in gym class. The student survived.
“When I was a head college basketball coach in Missouri, all I wanted to do was make it to (Division I),” Mahon said. “I thought it was such a step backwards to go to Plant High School in 2002. ... Now, you cannot drag me away from there.”
Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls
