Nancy Fahey Named D3hoops.com National Coach of the Year
St. Louis, Mo., March 21, 2010 – A day after leading the Washington University in St. Louis women’s basketball team to the 2009-10 NCAA Division III national championship, head women’s basketball coach Nancy Fahey was named the D3hoops.com National Coach of the Year.
It is the first time in her illustrious career that Fahey has garnered D3hoops.com Coach of the Year honors and the first time since 2000 she has been bestowed with coach of the year accolades.
Fahey guided Washington University to a 29-2 overall record this season, and the Bears defeated Hope College, 65-59, on Saturday, March 20, at the Shirk Center in Bloomington, Ill., to claim the program’s fifth national championship and the first since a run of four straight titles from 1998-01.
The 29 wins are the most for Washington University since it posted back-to-back 30-0 seasons during the 1998-99 and 1999-00 national championship runs. With a 571-100 overall record in 24 seasons on the Danforth Campus, Fahey ranks fourth in NCAA history with an .851 winning percentage.
Sunday’s Coach of the Year announcement is the latest of several coaching honors Fahey has earned this year. Immediately following the conclusion of the regular season, she was named the University Athletic Association (UAA) Coach of the Year, as she guided the Red and Green to a 13-1 mark in conference play, winning her 19th UAA title in the process.
Fahey was also named the DIII News Coach of the Decade earlier this season; marking the second time in her career she received that honor. She led the Bears to two national championships with four Final Four appearances last decade, and since the 1999-00 season, the Bears have posted an overall record of 279-39 (.877).
During the 2010 postseason run, Fahey improved on some NCAA Division III records the Bears had already set, and broke another in the process. She has now won a record five national championships, and appeared in a Division III best nine Final Fours. The Bears also passed the University of Scranton for the most wins in NCAA Division III postseason history, with a 55-18 all-time record in 22 postseason appearances.