Texas Woman's University Athletics

Copeland is one of the finest coaches in the history of the TWU Athletics program.

From 1969-76, she served as the bench boss for the TWU Volleyball team. Under her direction, the Pioneers placed second for four straight years at the TIAW state volleyball tournament and qualified for the AIAW National Tournament on five occasions. The Pioneers’ best showing at the national tournament came in 1973 when they defeated BYU, Kansas, the College of Wooster, and UCLA to advance to the championship match where they eventually lost to Long Beach State.

In 1974, Copeland pulled double duty for the Pioneers. In addition to coaching the volleyball team, she also was in charge of the TWU basketball team. Her one-year stint proved to be successful as she guided TWU to an 18-11 record, the District II title and a berth in the state tournament where they finished fourth.

Copeland coached Hall of Fame member Cheryl Benoit, who was the volleyball team’s setter and co-captain. Benoit was inducted in April 2004.

“Dolores Copeland is definitely a Hall of Fame caliber coach,” said Benoit. “One of the main reasons for her success is because she genuinely cared about us as individuals as well as athletes. She truly got to know and understand each one of us, and she knew our limits perhaps better than we knew our own. DC, as we sometimes called her, was a master at getting the most out of each of us while also building team spirit and camaraderie.”

In addition to coaching at TWU, Copeland also taught numerous physical education and sports activity classes in the University’s physical education department.

Copeland is a resident of Denton.