Deont'a McChester begins his third season with the Georgia Southern women's basketball program in 2022-23. He was elevated to associate head coach in June of 2022 and serves as the recruiting coordinator for the Eagles as well. McChester joined the Eagles from Tennessee State University, where he served as an assistant coach for the previous three seasons.
Under McChester, the Eagles have compiled a 29-23 record in two seasons and have ranked among the nation's leaders in turnovers forced and steals per game. He also had a hand in recruiting not only the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year in 2020-21 (Terren Ward) as well as helping the Eagles in four-star freshman Paris Miller, who will join Georgia Southern for the upcoming 2022-23 campaign.
Prior to joining Tennessee State, McChester was the head coach at Claflin University for four seasons from 2013-17. He compiled an overall record of 60-51 with the Panthers, leading Claflin to a .500 record or better all four seasons, including a third-place finish in the SIAC in 2015-16. That team also earned the SIAC's highest team GPA award, an honor the team repeated in 2016-17. During his time at Claflin, McChester signed five NJCAA JuCo All-Americans and three All-SIAC performers.
McChester also spent three seasons with the Flint Lady Monarchs organization of the Women's Blue Chip Basketball League (WBCBL). He joined the then-Lady Flames as an assistant coach in 2010 and midway through the season was promoted to associate head coach.
He began his collegiate coaching career in 2007-08 as a men's basketball assistant coach at Guilford College. McChester moved to Winston-Salem State in 2008-09, spending a season as the director of basketball operations for the Rams, then spent the next two seasons as an assistant coach at SUNY-Cobleskill.
A native of Flint, Mich., McChester graduated from Keuka College with his bachelor's degree in business management, concentrating on sports management, in 2007. He received his master's degree in education, with a concentration in sports administration, from Tennessee State University in May of 2020.
A member of the WBCA, the Black Coaches Association and Alpha Phi Alphi fraternity, McChester served as the chairman of the SIAC Women's Basketball Coaches Association from 2014-17 and also was a member of the NCAA's South Regional Advisory Committee for two years, from 2015-17. He served as the NCAA South Region representative for the 2017 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Championships.
