In 2025-25, Michele Sung (nee Hynes) enters her 12th year as head coach of the Bison women's basketball team (14th overall including a co-head coach role with Randy Kusano from 2012-14). It hasn't taken Sung long to turn the Bisons into a championship contender. In the 2017-18 season, the squad made the playoffs for the first time in nine years, and they've returned to the dance in six of the following seven years. The 2021-22 campaign also saw Sung's Bisons advance past the first round for the first time in her tenure.
Overall as head coach, Sung has won 62 regular season games, the third most in program history. Her 14 total seasons as coach are also the second-most in school history, just three shy of Coleen Dufresne, while her 361 total games coached are also second-most for the Herd.
Under Sung's watch, veteran guard Taylor Randall was named a conference all-star for three straight seasons (2017-19), while rookie guard Lauren Bartlett and fourth-year forward Addison Martin also took home hardware following the 2019-20 campaign. Bartlett was named to the All-Rookie team, while Martin was the recipient of the Tracy MacLeod Award which celebrates courage in overcoming adversity. Martin became the first player in team history to receive such an honour, with Bartlett receiving the award in 2023-24.
A product of Millgrove, Ontario -- a hotbed for women's basketball in Canada -- Sung attended St. Mary High School, which is widely known as a basketball factory. After a successful career at St. Mary, Sung chose the U of M for her post-secondary basketball career beginning in 2006.
Sung played five years with the Bisons, completing her university basketball career in 2010 while also obtaining a Bachelor of Kinesiology degree. During her time with the team, she racked up an impressive resume. She was an Academic All-Canadian as a freshman in 2006-07, as well as team captain for three consecutive seasons, beginning in 2007-08. One of her biggest accomplishments as a Bison occurred following the 2009-10 season, when she received the Sylvia Sweeney Award – presented to a player who demonstrates outstanding achievement in basketball, academics, and community involvement.
Pam Danis, Sung's head coach during her time as a student-athlete, also helped to instill a passion for community outreach within the team. Danis was just starting her work with Aboriginal communities at the time of Sung's commitment and the squad would have a number of team events at Skownan First Nation, with Sung helping as a mentor coach during her entire Bisons tenure.
Following her playing days as a Bison, Sung spent a year with ZKK Partizan Basketball Club in Belgrade, Serbia, but was drawn back to the U of M because she wanted to finish her second degree (in engineering). It was during this time that a number of coaching opportunities were presented to her in the province. One of Sung's earliest coaching opportunities was with the U17 female provincial team, where she was an apprentice coach for two years under former Bison women's basketball head coach and U of M Athletic Director Coleen Dufresne, as well as Don Thomson. The 2013 edition of the provincial team won bronze at the Canada Summer Games.
Sung also added national team experience to her resume shortly afterwards, becoming an assistant coach with Team Canada's Paralympic Basketball Team in 2014, as well as a performance analyst with Team Canada's Development Team. In 2024, she was appointed head coach of Canada’s senior women’s wheelchair basketball national team, and she was also named to the U17 women's national team that represented Canada at the FIBA World Championships in 2016.
Twitter: @bisonswbb/@coachMichSung
Instagram: @bisonswbb/@coachmichsung
