DETROIT -- University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball head coach Autumn Rademacher announced that Ke'Sha Blanton has joined the staff as an assistant coach.

“Ke'Sha is a product of an outstanding Florida State University women's basketball program, where she had in-depth involvement as a graduate assistant in many areas,” said Coach Rademacher. “Her responsibilities and productivity has prepared her well for the next level as an assistant coach and we are very excited to welcome her aboard.”

Blanton comes to UDM after serving as a graduate assistant coach at Florida State, where her responsibilities included assisting coaches in practice, recruiting, player development, scouting, community relations and extensive film breakdown of opponent's players, plays, and defenses.

During her time with FSU, she helped the program to 38 wins, including a 24-8 campaign in 2010-2011, when the Seminoles earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the second round. Florida State players also earned six ACC honors, while Cierra Bravard was named Honorable Mention All-American and Natasha Howard a Freshman All-American in 2011.

Prior to her arrival in Tallahassee, she attended the University of Toledo while starting her coaching career with elementary, high school and AAU teams. She was an assistant coach at Gesu Catholic School for four years, primarily working with the boy's seventh and eighth grade team. She served as the summer coach for Central Catholic High School's junior varsity and varsity teams for two years and was also an assistant coach for three years for Team Unity (AAU). She spent her last two years in Toledo as the junior varsity coach at Notre Dame Academy, helping the squad go undefeated in the city league for the first time in school history.

“She hails from Toledo and has many ties with high school and AAU coaches which will help us expand our recruiting in Ohio immediately. She is extremely bright, eager, and brings a wealth of knowledge from Florida State that will definitely benefit our women's basketball program,” added Rademacher.

She also gained experience in coaching by working at the Jimmy Jackson and Todd Mitchell Basketball camp for three years.

Off the court and while pursuing her undergraduate degree, she did her internship at WTOL 11 in Toledo and continued to work for them after her internship was completed. While working in television, she was in charge of shooting sports film, editing video and writing scripts. Blanton was also a reporter for UT 10 News and in her senior year became the news producer.

Blanton graduated Magna Cum Laude in communications with a concentration in broadcast journalism from Toledo in 2009. She then earned her master's in sports administration from Florida State.

She joins a Titan squad that is set to return eight letterwinners from a team that won 20 games for the first time since 1997 and earned a postseason bid to the WNIT. UDM was also 14-4 in the Horizon League advancing all the way to the HL Championship game for the first time since 2004.