Hall of Fame
Monica (Scott) Haynes is a proud “Buckeye,” born and bred in Cincinnati, Ohio. The middle child to parents Will and Nedra Scott, Mrs. Haynes fell in love with sports at an early age. Though basketball was her first love, she showed a special affinity for volleyball and earned her way onto her varsity team as a sophomore.
Mrs. Haynes captained her high school team to several GMC conference championships and district titles, and was also a standout on the AAU/Junior Olympic scene setting for the highly competitive Tri-County Volleyball Club (Cincinnati) travel team. Her outstanding play caught the eye of many Division I programs, generating several full scholarship offers. She proudly accepted an athletic scholarship offer from Coach Ramona Riley-Bozier to attend Morgan State University in the fall of 1995 to become a Lady Bear (aka Honeybear), and the rest, they say, is history — literally.
Mrs. Haynes took little time to make her presence known throughout the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), earning the 1995 MEAC Rookie of the Year honor, a Second-Team All-MEAC selection, the 1995 MSU Rookie of the Year award, and a selection to the 1995 MEAC All-Tournament team. She continued her strong play in her sophomore season, leading the Lady Bears in assists for the second consecutive season, earning another Second-Team All-MEAC honor, and being selected to the MEAC All-Tournament team for her performance in the 1996 MEAC Championship tournament in which Morgan reached the championship game for the second consecutive year.
Motivated by consecutive losses in the MEAC Championship game, Mrs. Haynes elevated her play during her junior season achieving First-Team All-MEAC, MEAC All-Tournament, and MSU Female Athlete of the Year selections as she helped the Lady Bears win the 1997 MEAC championship. That team would go on to defeat the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) champion Grambling State in an epic NCAA Play-In match earning the Lady Bears the distinction of becoming the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) to earn a spot in the NCAA Division I Tournament.
Mrs. Haynes helped lead the Lady Bears to a second straight MEAC Championship in her senior season, earning her second First-Team All-MEAC selection and fourth MEAC All-Tournament team selection. She finished her collegiate career as one of the MEAC's most dominant and most decorated setters, leaving Morgan as a four time team captain, the all-time leader in career assists (currently in second place), and third all-time in career digs (currently in tenth place). In addition to volleyball, Mrs. Haynes also played one season of softball, where she was an All-MEAC honorable mention Centerfielder.
Mrs. Haynes graduated from Morgan State in 1999 with a B.S. in Marketing. She returned a few years later as a graduate assistant coach and lead recruiter for Coach Ramona Riley-Bozier, and earned an M.B.A. with a concentration in Marketing in 2004. After a 15-year career in Corporate America in sales and marketing, Mrs. Haynes is now working for herself as a full-time professional model and actress. Some of her work can be found on various television commercials, TV shows and print advertisements.
Monica is married to her most supportive husband Leonard IV aka “Lenny” and they have two amazing children, daughter Hayden Belle (age 14) and son Leonard V aka “LV” (age 12). She gives the Lord all of the praise and glory for her accomplishments on and off the court, and attributes her strength to her parents and her #1 fan “Granny Lou” (maternal grandmother)!
