May 12, 2006
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
Head coach Brenda Frese, who led the Maryland women's basketball team to the program's first-ever NCAA title, will receive the New York Athletic Club's Winged Foot Award on Wednesday, May 17 in New York City. The award is presented annually to the winning coach of the NCAA Division I Basketball Championships.
The award is also being presented to the University of Florida's Billy Donovan, the winning coach of the men's NCAA Championship, and will also be honored on the same night. Both Frese and Donovan will be receiving the award for the first time in their careers.
Frese is the fifth women's coach to receive the Winged Foot Award. It was first presented to the coach of the championship women's team in 1999 when Carolyn Peck led Purdue to the NCAA title. The New York Athletic Club first presented the honor in 1996 to Rick Pitino who had led the University of Kentucky to the 1996 title. Maryland men's coach Gary Williams also received the honor in 2002. Maryland joins the University of Connecticut as the second school to have both its men's and women's basketball head coaches take home the Winged Foot Award.
In her fourth season at the Terrapin helm, Frese has made a remarkable turnaround of the Maryland women's basketball program which had won just 10 games in her first season. This year, the Terps won a school-record 34 contests en route to capturing the NCAA crown. Maryland garnered its first-ever No. 1 final national ranking in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, as well.
This season's squad featured sophomore Crystal Langhorne (Willingboro, N.J./Willingboro), who was selected an All-American by several publications, while also leading the nation in field goal percentage (67.0 percent). She was also a first team All-ACC pick. Frese also coached the 2006 ACC Rookie of the Year in Marissa Coleman (Cheltenham, Md./St. John's College [D.C.]), and junior Shay Doron (Great Neck, N.Y./Christ the King) was a second team all-conference honoree. The Terps led the nation in three-point field goal shooting (40.0 percent) and rebounding margin (+11.9 rebounds per game). They were also among the top five in three other statistical categories.
The NYAC recognizes these college coaches for being an important and positive influence on the lives of student-athletes.
-TERPS-
