Seventeen consecutive seasons of 17 wins or more and 19 straight years of Patrick Cunningham leading the program to success. Now in year 20, he's the only coach the program has ever known, having been hired away from Yavapai College in Prescott (where he was a longtime men's and women's assistant basketball coach) in 1999 to build the program from the ground up. Since then, it's been nothing but success for the cardinal & gold under Cunningham, with a pair of 30-win seasons, 3 ACCAC Regular Season titles, 8 Region I Finals appearances, 13 playoff berths, and one Region I Championship (in 2002) and the trip to the NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament that went along with it (which included the Lady Mats' first-ever national tournament win). Cunningham has never led a Matador team to a losing record, and that sustained success has brought sustained national respect as the Lady Mats are perennial residents of the NJCAA Women's Basketball Poll, having risen as high as #2 at one point. They also finished with a national ranking of 8th, 17th, and 11th over a three-year stretch from 2002 to 2004. During their 20 years of existence, the Matadors have produced 13 NJCAA All-American players, 5 State Farm WBCA All-Americans, 5 NJCAA All-Academic Honorees and have sent more than 25 student-athletes to Division I programs. Cunningham knows about job security, since his coaching resume' spans nearly 20 years but only involves two programs: AWC & Yavapai. Cunningham is currently a Professor for the Business and Liberal Arts Division (BLAD) at AWC in addition to his coaching duties. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Economics from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and a Master's degree in Business Administration from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. He's also been a bank manager and financial administrator in the professional world. Cunningham resides in Yuma with his son, Logan, wife Nellie, and her daughters, Nadia and Sabrina.
