Coach With 126-29 Record, 3 State-Title Appearances, Let Go With No Reason Provided

Western girls basketball coach Tiffany Silver found out Friday that she would not be returning for a seventh season as the Doves coach.

A 1998 Western graduate and former Doves player, Silver said she was told by Western principal Alisha Trusty that she and her staff were not being asked to come back. Silver said she wasn’t given a “particular reason” for her release “just that we weren’t coming back, that they were going in a different direction pretty much.”

Saying that she was shocked and “crushed,” Silver added, “You devote so much more than just time and you were an alum of that program. It meant a lot more to us. We were not just a fly-by-night coaching staff. We cared about what we did and we did a lot there.”

Silver had a 126-29 record with the Doves, led them to five Baltimore City championships, five regional championships and three state title-game appearances. She said she has also graduated 100 percent of her players and all have gotten into college.

This past season, the No. 11 Doves finished 14-8 and defeated archrival Poly for the city Division I championship, but they dropped a heartbreaker to Catonsville in the regional playoffs and did not get back to the state tournament, where they reached the final in 2006, 2007 and 2010.

The Breezy Bishop Showcase, which Silver started in 2006 at Western, will continue although a new location will have to be found. She said 50 teams have committed to this year’s event, Dec. 9 -11.

Silver, a city schools police officer, said she hopes to coach again soon, but for the rest of the summer, she will focus on the final weeks of her pregnancy. She and husband Nick Usher, who was the Doves JV coach, are expecting their first child, daughter Dorian Chanel Usher, on Sept. 8.