Over the past six seasons as head coach of the Flying Queens, Alesha (Robertson) Ellis has established herself as one of the great young coaches in women's basketball. She's guided the Flying Queens to the NAIA National Championships each season while posting a .747 winning percentage (145-49).
Since her arrival, Ellis' teams have won at least 19 games per season, including 25-plus win seasons the last four years.
In 2018-19, the Flying Queens produced 29 victories, their most in almost three decades, since the 1991-92 team went 29-6 and finished as national runner-up. Wayland won the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament championship for the second time in four years and was ranked No. 7 in the NAIA going into the national tournament where they advanced to the second round.
Ellis made an immediate impact in her first season as head coach of the Flying Queens. Her 2013-14 team turned in one of the program’s most impressive campaigns in years, ending with a 20-12 record and a trip to the NAIA National Championships for just the second time in a decade. Further, it was just the second time in 14 years the Flying Queens won at least 20 games. A team that did not receive any preseason Top 25 votes was ranked as high as 18th before finishing 24th in the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Coaches' Postseason Poll, the first time the Flying Queens were included in the season-ending poll in 10 years. For her efforts, Ellis was voted Sooner Athletic Conference Co-Coach of the Year.
Ellis' 2014-15 team returned to the national tournament and finished 19-12, while her next two teams posted 25-win seasons. In 2015-16, the Flying Queens won the Sooner Athletic Conference regular-season title for the first time ever and the SAC Tournament for the second time as they went 25-5. The next season the Flying Queens again hit the 25-win plateau, going 25-7, leading up to the historic season in 2017-18.
In 2017-18, Ellis guided the Flying Queens to their deepest post-season run this century. Wayland advanced all the way to the Fab Four, marking the Flying Queens' first time in the national semifinals since 1992. The team finished with a 27-7 record, which at the time was the most wins for the program since 1998-99.
After a highly-successful high school and collegiate playing career, Ellis returned to her hometown of Plainview to coach the Flying Queens, becoming the program's 13th head coach. A four-time all-district and all-state selection at Plainview High School, Ellis led the Lady Bulldogs to three straight Class 4A state championships from 2001-03. The 2003 PHS graduate was a Parade, Women’s Basketball Coaches and TABC All-American her senior year.
Ellis went on to play for Coach Marsha Sharp, a former Wayland Baptist Queen Bees coach, and the Lady Raiders at Texas Tech University where she was named to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team and All-Big 12 honorable mention team her first season. Her success continued throughout her career and she was named to the conference honorable mention team her sophomore and junior seasons before being named to the All-Big 12 second team her senior year when she led her team in scoring with 13.1 points per game and rebounding with 8.7 boards per game. Ellis finished her career at Texas Tech eighth in career scoring with 1,571 points and 11th in rebounds with 741.
After graduating from Tech with a degree in exercise and sport science in 2007, Ellis began directing Hoop55, a girls’ basketball organization dedicated to the support of West Texas and Panhandle basketball players, teams and coaches. As the CEO, Robertson-Ellis provides experienced coaching, workouts, games, exposure, private lessons and clinics to aspiring basketball players.
In 2009, Ellis coached at All-Saints Junior High School in Lubbock before going to work at Sharp Academy in 2011. She was a coach and P.E. teacher at Sharp Academy from 2011-13 and coached at Lubbock Christian High School for two years, including winning the TAPPS Class 3A state championship in 2013, prior to joining the Flying Queens.
She is married to Andy Ellis, a former Texas Tech basketball player who was hired as Wayland's women's golf coach in 2019. They have one son, Kingston James, and one daughter, Laiken Jo.
