Buffie Burson enters her 15th season as head coach of the North Georgia College & State Univeristy women's basketball team.

In the 2006-07 season, her second year in NCAA Division II, Burson recorded her 300th career coaching victory with an 82-55 victory over Claflin University on December 30.

During the 2005-06 season , in their first year of competition in the Peach Belt Conference, they finished with a 19-1 record in conference play to win the PBC regular season championship.

Engineering the Lady Saints rise to prominence, Burson has guided her teams over the past seven years to an astounding 170-54 record, while finishing ninth in the nation four years ago.

In her 14-year tenure, Burson‘s Lady Saints have amassed an amazing overall record of 324 wins and 124 losses (.723), averaging over 23 wins per season. Burson's teams are known for tough defense of their home court. Under her tutelage, the Lady Saints can boast an impressive home record of 160 wins while losing only 21 times on their home floor over this 14- year period, including a 91-11 record posted over the last seven years. (Four losses are to the 2005 NAIA National Champion Union University) In January 2003, Coach Burson reached a milestone with her team's 200th win.

Burson was born in St. Louis, MO where her father enjoyed a career in professional football. After receiving AS, BS & MA degrees from Truett-McConnell College and the University of Montevallo, Burson followed his footsteps into the coaching field. She began serving as a conference rater in 1998 and worked as an NAIA Rater at the national level, as well as being a member of the NAIA All-America Selection Committee, the WBCA Kodak All-America Selection Committee and the WBCA Scholarship Selection Committee.

Throughout the seasons, Burson's teams have been characterized by their mental toughness. Buying into the belief that “Most battles are won before they are fought,” Burson developed DAWG Week, North Georgia's answer to the Army's Special Forces Training. Working closely with LTC Billy Shaw to implement “beast events” which simulate game-like stress situations, Burson puts her “ladies” through five days of grueling war-like basketball. She is often asked the secret in such training whereby she simply states it begins with the name itself. The initials in DAWG Week stand for Dedicated Athletes With Guts! “Their effort is a true testament to their character”, she says with pride.

Another characteristic of Burson-coached teams is their perennial appearance among NAIA national statistics. In the last four years alone, the Lady Saints have, at various times during the season, led the nation in field goal percentage, free-throw percentage, three point field goal percentage, blocked shots, and were among the top-five in defensive rebounds per game, blocks per game, and free throw percentage last season. Most importantly Burson's players perpetually boast high team over-all GPA's. This past season, the Lady Saints were honored by the WBCA for the fifth best GPA in the NAIA with a 3.509 team average.

A four-time Atlanta Tip-off Club/Naismith Awards NAIA Coach of the Year, and three-time GACC Coach of the Year, Burson's forte seems to lie in judging raw talent. Among her recruits are Players of the Year, several Freshman of the Year, numerous All-Conference players, 1st Team Kodak All-Americans, Kodak All-American Honorable Mentions, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Team NAIA All-Americans and both NAIA and conference Scholar Athletes. The 2004-05 championship team included three NAIA All-Americans, three NAIA Academic All-Americans, SSAC Freshman of the Year, the SSAC Tournament Most Valuable Player, three SSAC All-Conference selections, and three SSAC All-Academic players.

In addition to Burson's coaching duties, she is an assistant professor in the HPE Department. Over the summer months, she is the Director of several girls' basketball camps along with the Team Camp of Champions, featuring some of the best high school varsity teams in the state. During the Fall, Burson's Lady Saints host THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HOOPS, a free basketball clinic for elementary girls and boys, as a way of “giving back” to the community for their support of the team.