Cheryl Sorensen

Cheryl Elaine Sorenson (born March 18, 1980) was the women's basketball head coach for the Portland Pilots. In March 2019, Sorenson and the University of Portland parted ways.

Early life Sorenson was born to Linda and Charles Sorenson in Portland, Oregon, and she was the youngest of two children. She attended Clackamas High School where she competed in varsity basketball, volleyball, and track on the varsity team. While at Clackamas, Sorenson would be named to the Street and Smith's Honorable mention All-American basketball team during her junior season and the USA Today Honorable Mention team during her senior season. Sorenson would finish with 1,968 points, a 20.0 points per game average, and would leave holding seven school basketball records at Clackamas.

Sorenson would receive a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Washington, the same university both of her parents had attended. Sorenson would be a key figure for the Huskies from 1998 to 2003. While a freshman Sorenson would play in 28 games off the bench and averaged 10 minutes a game. For the season she would go 12–16 from the foul line with 33 assists and 10 steals. The Huskies would make it to the second round of the WNIT. Sorenson would graduate from Washington with degrees in both psychology and communications.

Coaching After graduation Sorenson began working as a sales representative for Baden in Federal Way. She also became the varsity girls head basketball coach for at Eastside Catholic High School in Bellevue, Washington. After one season at Eastside Sorenson would be hired as the head coach position at Bellevue Community College, where she would coach Bellevue from 2004–2007. The first season (2004–05) at Bellevue would be difficult as the team would win only 4 games (4–24). By her second season, the team had adapted Sorenson's ideas. Bellevue would jump up to 22 wins (22–7), and in 2006–07 they would go 26–5. Sorenson would be named the NWAACC North Division Coach of the Year in both the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Sorenson would act as the team's second assistant coach. While as an assistant, the Pilots Pilots would post a record of 37–56, but improvement would be made each season (12–20 in 2011–12, 11–20 in 2012–13, and 14–16 in 2013–14).

On April 17, 2014, Sorenson would be named the Pilots fifth head coach in the programs 34-year history. Sorenson and the Pilots parted ways in 2019.

Division I Head coaching record