Tonya Hunter builds basketball programs.

For the past 26 years Hunter has coached girls basketball, first as an assistant before finding her calling as a high school head coach.

Hunter led programs at Shades Valley and Hewitt-Trussville to new heights, but it was time for a change. Hunter accepted the position as assistant athletics director for Trussville City Schools, ending 21 years of high school head coaching.

“I’m excited about the change because I feel like I’ve done a great job at the places I’ve been, feel like I gave it everything I had,” Hunter said. “When you do that and you work extremely hard and decide to make a change, do different things, if you did it the right way, you feel good about it.”

Hunter has been successful at every stop with a long list of accomplishments, including a career record of 464-180 in 21 seasons.

She won a state championship as a shooting guard at Eufaula in 1994 and was named the Class 5A tournament MVP before playing at West Georgia where she was an All-Gulf South Conference player.

Hunter’s first job out of college was as an assistant at BTW-Tuskegee where the Golden Eagles earned their first area and regional crowns and a spot in the Final 4 in 2000. She spent the next five seasons as an assistant at Auburn-Montgomery, helping the Warhawks to the NAIA national runnerup 2000-2001 along with NAIA national tournament appearance 2001-2004.

That’s when Shades Valley hired Hunter to rejuvenate its program. During 10 seasons, Hunter compiled a 227-86 record that included the 2014 Class 6A state championship — the first for the Mounties. Shades Valley advanced to the elite 8 three times with six trips to the final 16 and six area championships.

Taking over at Hewitt-Trussville prior to the 2014 season, Hunter guided the Huskies to their first Final 4 and won to the Class 7A championship game three times. The Huskies also had six area championships along with three regional titles and six Elite 8 appearances.

She’s the winningest girls basketball coach in school history, compiling a 237-94 record in 11 seasons.

Daughter Jordan — she was named the 2024 ASWA Class 7A Player of the Year along with AL.com’s Birmingham Area Player of the Year — was a senior on the 2024 team that lost to Hoover in the championship. She now plays at Memphis.

Jordan and brother Jaxon were key to Hunter’s deciding the move to administration was right.

“Families navigate their kids’ journey and it’s time for me to help my kids,” Hunter said. “My daughter said ‘I can’t believe I’m getting my mom entirely’ when I told her. She’s been sharing me and of course I had to work, but I feel like at this point where I’m at, Jordan is going a little farther away to Memphis and my son is in San Antonio, so the times I have available I need to be headed their direction.”