Eight-time NCAA Championship coach Marsha Beasley has been chosen to lead the Ole Miss rifle program into the future, athletics director Ross Bjork announced Monday.

Beasley brings an impressive resumé of credentials to Oxford from her championship stint as the head coach at West Virginia and her involvement with the Civilian Marksmanship Program and the Atlanta Olympics.

“The Ole Miss family enthusiastically welcomes Marsha as our new head rifle coach,” Bjork said. “This is an unprecedented hire for our program − never before have we welcomed a head coach who has won eight national championships in their respective sport. Our vision for Ole Miss rifle is to win national championships and we determined that we must go out and recruit the best head coach in the country. We’re grateful Marsha sees it the same way and she is now an Ole Miss Rebel. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for our student-athletes and our program.”

“I am honored and excited to be named the head women’s rifle coach at Ole Miss,” Beasley said. “I have wanted to return to college coaching and this is an amazing opportunity. Ole Miss is a great institution, the campus is beautiful, the athletics department is top notch, the rifle facilities are excellent, and I am looking forward to getting started.”

Beasley comes to Ole Miss from Morgantown, West Virginia where she has been serving as a volunteer coach for the Mason Dixon Junior Rifle Club and the West Virginia Junior Marksmanship Program.

From 1990-2006, Beasley was the head rifle coach at West Virginia leading the program to eight NCAA national championships. In her first year as head coach, the Mountaineers won the first of four consecutive NCAA titles (1990-93) and repeated the feat from 1995-98.

Beasley also coached eight individuals to NCAA national titles and 27 student-athletes earned 67 NRA All-America honors during her tenure. Four team members competed in the Olympic Games after leaving WVU.

Success at WVU under Beasley carried over to the classroom, as 25 student-athletes were named All-Academic 55 times by the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association.

Beasley’s coaching awards include US Olympic Committee Coach of the Year (for Shooting) and West Virginia Sports Writers Coach of the Year (all sports).

A graduate of East Tennessee State University, Beasley later earned a master’s in sport management at West Virginia. She competed in smallbore and air rifle while in college and as a member of the U.S. National Team.

In addition to competing and coaching, Beasley has been a leader in the sport. She drafted the bylaws to create the Mid-America Rifle Conference (now GARC) and was a staff member at the (then) national governing body of shooting (the NRA) and the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. She also served 17 years on the Board of the Civilian Marksmanship Program.

Beasley is married to Carl Flowers and they have a daughter, Tavie, who is a freshman at West Virginia and twin sons, Aaron and Daniel.