Sharon Dawley (born August 18, 1961)[1] is the former head coach of the University of Massachusetts Amherst women's basketball team.

Dawley attended Pope John High School in Everett, Massachusetts.

[3] Dawley attended St. Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where she graduated in 1983 with a bachelor of arts degree in business.

On top of all that she held down a part-time job at Raytheon as a computer programmer.

[6][7] Dawley was then ready to move on, and applied for the head coaching position at Division I Dartmouth.

The team earned invitations to the NCAA tournament in 1995, 1999, and 2000[7] In 2003, she accepted the head coaching position at the University of Vermont.

After the 2008 season in which the team went 24–9 and made it to the second round of the WNIT she received a call informing her she was being inducted into the New England basketball Hall of Fame.