East Central Community College will host its annual Basketball Tip-Off Banquet on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025, at 6 p.m. in Brackeen-Wood Gymnasium on the Decatur campus. The event will feature Joni Crenshaw Taylor, head coach of the Texas A&M University women's basketball program, as the evening's guest speaker.

Tickets are $35 per person, with sales opening Oct. 10, 2025. The banquet serves as a kickoff to the upcoming basketball season and will include introductions of the 2025-26 ECCC men's and women's basketball teams, dinner, and remarks from campus and community leaders.

Taylor, a Meridian, Mississippi, native, brings an inspiring story of leadership, perseverance, and success at the highest levels of collegiate and international basketball. She became the eighth head coach in Texas A&M history in 2022, following the legendary Gary Blair, and has since guided the Aggies to remarkable achievements—highlighted by a 10-win improvement between her first and second seasons, the largest jump in SEC women's basketball in more than four decades.

In 2024, Taylor was named an assistant coach for the USA Basketball Women's National Team, helping lead Team USA to a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, marking her fifth career gold medal with USA Basketball. Most recently, she was honored as the 2025 Carol Eckman Integrity in Coaching Award recipient by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association.

Before her success in College Station, Taylor spent seven seasons as head coach at the University of Georgia, where she recorded 140 wins, four NCAA Tournament appearances, and a 2021 trip to the SEC Championship Game. She was named SEC Coach of the Year and a Naismith National Coach of the Year finalist in 2021.

A graduate of the University of Alabama, Taylor was a standout player for the Crimson Tide and the 1997 Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year at Meridian High School. She and her husband, Darius, are the proud parents of two daughters, Jacie and Drew.

Buy tickets for the event by clicking HERE.