Former Gamecock to be first girls basketball coach at ALA Blythewood
Tina Roy was a building block for the South Carolina women’s basketball program. Now, Roy will be able to build her own program.
The former Gamecock will be the first girls basketball head coach at American Leadership Blythewood, the state’s newest charter school that will open for the 2026-27 school year.
Roy played a part of the early years under coach Dawn Staley, who described her as a “steal” when she signed out of Kaplan High in Louisiana where she scored more than 2,000 points. Roy played for Staley and USC from 2011-16 and left the Gamecocks with the most games played (139) in school history. She was known for her three-point shooting and was one of the top 3-point shooters during the 2015-16 season.
Roy was a member of the school’s first three Southeastern Conference regular season championship teams from 2014-16 and part of two SEC Tournament title teams.
After USC, Roy received a WNBA training camp invite with the Atlanta Dream and most recently played with the Athletes Unlimited league a few years ago. She also spent time working for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, managing body cameras.
Roy also tried her hand in singing and songwriting. She wrote the song “RCSD Proud” for the Richland County Sheriff’s department in 2019. Staley appeared in the video for the song with her former player.
Roy was head coach at her alma mater, Kaplan High School in Louisiana the last few years and was the region’s coach of the year in 2023. She also was an assistant at The Galloway School in Atlanta, Ga.
Roy is one of the latest hires for ALA Blythewood, which is expected to announce its boys basketball and softball hires next week. Other recent hires include Bill Bacon as head boys soccer and assistant football coach . Bacon was the head boys soccer coach and football assistant at Westwood this year and held the same position at Lugoff-Elgin recently.
Most of ALA’s teams will play junior varsity schedules but boys and girls basketball will play varsity schedules. The school is an at-large member of the South Carolina High School League in 2026-27 and will apply for full-time membership after that.
This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 11:14 AM.
