Jonathan Williams - Women's Basketball Coach

Jonathan Williams

Title:
Assistant Head Coach
Email:
jonathan.r.williams@usm.edu

Experience
2025-present	Southern Miss - Assistant Head Coach
2024-25	Charlotte - Assistant Coach
2021-24	Jackson State - Assistant Coach
2018-21	Mississippi Gulf Coast CC - Associate Head Coach (2019-21) - Volunteer Assistant (2018-19)
2016-19	Stone HS - Boys Assistant Coach
Hometown
Wiggins, Miss.
Education
A.A. Pearl River Community College, 2004
B.A. (Business Administration) Faulkner University, 2011
M.S. (Business Administration) William Carey University, 2013
Playing Career
1999-02	Stone High School (Wiggins, Miss.)
2002-04	Pearl River Community College (Poplarville, Miss.)

Jonathan Williams, a native of Wiggins, Miss., returns to his home state as the Lady Eagles’ assistant head coach for the 2025-26 season. Williams’ resume includes a wealth of championship experience as well as deep roots to South Mississippi.

A product of Stone High School and native Mississippian, Williams returns home to the Magnolia State after one season in Charlotte, N.C., where he served as an assistant coach on the 49ers staff. In one season in the Queen City, Williams helped Charlotte establish its foundations in the first season under Tomekia Reed. The 49ers posted an 11-21 record in Reed’s first season but rallied in the American Athletic Conference Tournament and advanced to the quarterfinals – including an upset of five-seed Tulsa – before falling to Temple.

Under his tutelage, junior guard and Wiggins, Miss., native Hayleigh Breland stepped up her game to lead the 49ers with 11.4 points per game. Additionally, four 49ers were selected to the College Sports Communicators All-District Team.

Williams came with Reed to Charlotte after three seasons at Jackson State. While in the state capital, Williams helped Jackson State improve upon its already illustrious stretch under Reed. His first season with the Tigers, Jackson State posted its best season since 2003-04 with a 23-7 overall record and undefeated 18-0 showing in conference play en route to the SWAC regular season crown.

Jackson State finished a perfect 3-0 in the SWAC Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., to complete the regular season and tournament championship sweep. The team’s 23-6 regular season record earned Jackson State a 14 seed in the 2022 NCAA Tournament and sent the tigers to Baton Rouge, La. In the first round against home-standing LSU, the 14th-seeded Tigers nearly pulled off the upset over the third-seeded Tigers on their own floor before falling 83-77 to LSU.

Ameysha Williams-Holliday was named SWAC Player of the Year as well as Defensive Player of the Year with Williams-Holliday and Dayzha Rogan earned All-SWAC honors on the first and second teams, respectively. Williams-Holliday was the 25th overall selection in the 2022 WNBA Draft after being taken by the Indiana Fever with the first pick of the third round, marking the first WNBA draftee out of an HBCU since 2002. She was also Jackson State’s first draftee in program history.

Year two in Jackson saw the Tigers post another 20-win season with a 21-10 record and 17-1 SWAC ledger, earning Jackson State four consecutive SWAC regular season titles. JSU fell in the tournament semifinals but earned a bit to the Postseason WNIT where they fell at Memphis. Angel Jackson was named SWAC Defensive Player of the Year while Jariyah Covington earned second team All-SWAC laurels.

The 2023-24 Jackson State Tigers rewrote the record books in The City with Soul as they posted the program’s best record with 26 wins and seven losses. Another undefeated 18-0 campaign in SWAC play netted the Tigers their fifth-straight SWAC regular season title. Angel Jackson earned second team All-SWAC honors and was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. Miya Crump and Ti’lan Boler also earned first team All-SWAC.

Another 3-0 performance in the SWAC Tournament saw JSU earn a berth to the NCAA Tournament as a 14-seed. The Tigers were sent to Storrs, Conn., where they fell to three-seed UConn. Angel Jackson heard her named called in the 2024 WNBA draft as the 36th overall selection. The Las Vegas Aces took her with the 12th pick of the third round.

All-in-all, Williams’ three seasons in Jackson saw Jackson State post a combined 70-24 (.744) overall record with a 53-1 (.981) record in SWAC play. The Tigers brought home five trophies with three regular season titles and two tournament crowns while making the postseason in all three seasons. Two of his student-athletes were taken in the WNBA Draft while Alexis Roberts won the gold medal at the Deaflympics in Brazil.

He recruited and coached multiple future professional players including two WNBA draftees Ameysha Williams-Holliday and Angel Jackson as well as Tilly Boler (Chicago Sky), Miya Crump (Norrköping Dolphins, Sweden), Dayzsha Rogan (ŽKK Spartak Subotica, Serbia; Essex Rebels, England) and Daja Woodard (Patriotas de Lares, Puerto Rico).

Before making the move to the Division I level, Williams worked three seasons under Coach Hope Adams at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston, Miss. As associate head coach, Williams was a driving force in the Bulldogs’ turnaround year one to year two of the Adams era. His first season in Perkinston saw Gulf Coast go from 6-17 the year before to 16-10 in 2018-19. The 2017-18 squad did not win a conference game, finishing 0-14 in MACJC play, but the 2018-19 team with Williams posted a 9-5 MACJC ledger.

The Bulldogs finished 1-1 in the MACJC Tournament and advanced to the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament Final before falling to Missy Bilderback’s Jones County squad. MGCCC’s 2019-20 squad posted another winning season and advanced to the MACJC Tournament semifinals. In 2019, two players earned various honors with Breannah Mccullah earning 2019 All-MACJC and 2019 All-Region 23 Tournament Team honors and Kayla Simmons brining home 2019 All-MACJC, All-Region 23 and All-Region 23 Tournament laurels.

Fifteen Bulldogs moved on to the next level with eight signing at Division I programs, including eight that signed with Division I programs. His efforts as an assistant coach also helped Gulf Coast head coach Hope Adams earn MACJC Coach of the Year honors in 2019. Daphane White earned NJCAA All-American honors in 2020 as well as All-MACJC and All-Region 23 honors before signing with Houston.

Before taking over as a associate head coach of the Bulldogs, Williams worked the 2018-19 season as a volunteer assistant at Missisisppi Gulf Coast while finishing his duties as a boy's varsity assistant at Stone High School in Wiggins, Miss., just up Highway 49.

In his three seasons in Wiggins, the Tomcats combined to win 58 games and made marked progress each year. His first season saw the team finish 15-15 but by year two the team had improved to 24-6 overall. The 2017-18 squad put it all together and exploded for that 24-6 record and perfect 6-0 showing in district play. The Tomcats captured the regular season title and tournament title in Class 5A’s District 8 and earned a bye in the Class 5A State Championship tournament. Stone defeated Pearl River Central to advance to the quarterfinals at the Big House in Jackson, Miss., before falling to Callaway. In his final season with the Tomcats, Stone posted a 19-9 campaign where they once again advanced to the MHSAA Class 5A Tournament before falling to North Pike in the first round.

Prior to his coaching career, Williams worked across the business management industry at AT&T, Antonelli College, at the Island View Casino Resort and at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino. Williams earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Faulkner University in 2011 and his master’s in business administration from William Carey University in 2013.

A standout high school athlete, Williams helped Stone to 65-plus wins in four seasons with the varsity team and was recognized as a top 50 player in his senior year. He signed to play at Pearl River Community College (Poplarville, Miss.) out of high school where he helped the Wildcats to back-to-back MACJC state titles and ranked finishes in both of his seasons in Poplarville.

In the prep circuit, Williams founded and owns Elite Sklz Basketball Training, one of South Mississippi’s premier basketball development programs. Through Elite Sklz, Williams helps to train professional, collegiate, high school and amateur basketball talent for success at the next level.

Previous talent to come through Elite Sklz include former Lady Eagles Shonte Hailes, Alarie Mayze and Kennedy Gavin as well as Hayleigh Breland, Charlotte’s leading scorer in the 2024-25 season. On the men’s prep circuit, he has worked with former Magnolia State standouts Tristan Walley (Jones County JC & Arkansas State), Roderick Sikes (Southwest Mississippi CC & South Alabama) and Dominick Stewart (Penn State).

Williams is the son of the late Robert and Annie Williams of Wiggins, Miss., and he has one son, Cortez Dennis, who plays baseball at New Orleans. Cortez also previously played at Meridian Community College (Meridian, Miss.) and Pearl River Community College.