Maryland's Frese Receives USSA's C. Vivian Stringer Coaching Award
12/14/2006 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 14, 2006
DAPHNE, Ala. - Brenda Frese, head coach of the 2006 National Champion University of Maryland women's basketball team, has been honored with the United States Sports Academy's C. Vivian Stringer Coaching Award.
Frese, 36, is the fifth-youngest coach ever to win a national title in NCAA women's basketball history, and is the ninth to do so in her first trip to the Final Four. The 2006 squad set Terrapin records for most wins (34), home wins (15), highest road winning percentage (.900), points (3,166), field goal attempts (2,363), three-point field goals (216), three-point attempts (540), free throws (690), free throw attempts (924), team free throw percentage (.747), rebounds (1,720) and blocked shots (195).
Last season, the Terrapins also led the nation in wins, three-point shooting (40 percent) and rebounding margin (+11.9 rpg) while also boasting the No.2-ranked offense (83.3 points per game). The overtime victory over Duke in the national championship game capped a perfect 6-0 record in overtime games.
Frese's most celebrated accomplishment prior to the title was her recruiting ability. The 2006 Terrapin roster featured seven former high-school All-Americans on their roster. After making one NCAA appearance in three years of head coaching prior to Maryland (two at Ball State and one at Minnesota) and a 10-18 record her first year in College Park, she signed the nation's No.2-ranked recruiting class. That class included Final Four Most Valuable Player Laura Harper. Her previous recruiting class was ranked No. 10 and Frese has had the No. 4 and No. 7 classes since the highly-acclaimed 2002-03 group. In October, she also signed the top-rated recruiting class which begins their careers at College Park in the fall of 2007.
Frese played basketball at the University of Arizona. She was an assistant coach at Kent State for two seasons and an assistant coach at Iowa State for four seasons before taking her first head coaching job at Ball State University. Frese coached the Cardinals to a school-best 19-9 (.679) record during the 2000-01 season, and was named Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year. Frese then took on the head coaching duties at the University of Minnesota where she led the Gophers to one of largest single-season turnarounds in NCAA history and went on to be named Associated Press Coach of the Year.
The C. Vivian Stringer Coaching Award is presented to a woman who has demonstrated outstanding achievement as a coach. This person exhibits a high standard of propriety, imagination and innovation as a character-builder in the tradition of great teacher-coaches.
The C. Vivian Stringer Coaching award has been presented annually since 2002 to outstanding coaches in women's sports as part of the Academy's Awards of Sport Medallion Series, which pays "Tribute to the Artist and the Athlete." Past winners include five-time Division II women's basketball national championship coach Amy Ruley, four-time national champion Alabama co-head gymnastics coach Sarah Patterson, five-time national champion UCLA women's track and field coach Jeanette Bolden and 10-time national champion UCLA softball coach Sue Enquist. For more information about this award, please visit www.asama.org.
The United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and the world with programs in instruction, research and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports.
For more information about the United States Sports Academy, "America's Sports University," call 251-626-3303 or visit the Academy's website www.ussa.edu.
