2017 Kay Yow National Coach of the Year, Maureen Magarity, was named the women's basketball head coach at the University of Vermont in April, following the departure of Alisa Kresge for the University of Richmond.
The former University of New Hampshire and College of the Holy Cross head coach takes the reigns at a Vermont program that has made the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four years.
Magarity joined Mitch Wertlieb on The Sports Rapport this week to discuss coaching style, her family and marriage to University of Vermont men's basketball head coach John Becker and her Vermont community.
This interview was produced for video. We highly recommend watching.
Magarity on her relationship with former UVM women's basketball head coach Alisa Kresge
"I've been Alisa's number one fan, I think, for 20 plus years now. We played together in college at Marist College. I was a fifth year senior, she was a freshman. She came in, she was one of the best players I've ever played with. And then I was able to coach her for a year when I first got into coaching. She's been a rockstar from the day I met her, when she first came in as an 18 year old. We kind of came up through the college coaching ranks together, and then when I was the head coach at UNH, and she took over at UVM. We were in the same conference for a couple years before I left for Holy Cross.
I think just having somebody that I've admired so much over the years, and the last two years being out of coaching, but being up in Burlington and watching all of her games and being able to go to the last two NCAA tournaments. I told the team when I took the job, I've been a fan girl for the last couple years of this program. I think Alisa's style is hers, and it's very unique. And I think our personalities are a little bit different as far as our coaching style, but our philosophies are very similar because we did play for the same college coach, the legendary Brian Giorgis, who has retired."
Magarity on her marriage to UVM men's basketball head coach John Becker
"It's an amazing accomplishment just to be a head coach and to be a division one head coach, but to also have your husband down the hall. John has been my biggest cheerleader over the years, and I'm his biggest fan. It's a really neat experience.
We're at two really cool times of our lives and our careers, where we both feel like we've been able to accomplish a lot. But to be at a place like UVM that's so supported, and we have the best boss in the world, Jeff Schulman as our athletic director, who thought this was a great idea. I think logistically, some people are curious how we're going to be able to do this during the basketball season with two young daughters. One's home and one's on the road. But there's nobody else that I think this would work [with]. John and I have just been great teammates the last couple years and it's really special."
Magarity on how next year's roster is shaping up
"With the transfer portal, you just never know. Our student athletes had a lot of great opportunities and some decided to go in for a little bit to see what was out there. And that was the first thing I did when I was hired, I met individually with each player. The thing that just kept coming back was UVM and the community, and it was really, really hard for them to leave their majors, their advisors, their teachers, their friends. And you go to the games at UVM and Patrick Gym, and the support that women's basketball has at UVM is just incredible. And that's just not something that you see very often, especially at the mid-major level.
I'm thrilled to say we didn't lose anybody to the portal. All returners are coming back. Our one senior graduating, Keira Hanson, she's still working on a waiver, so she did go into the portal for that extra year. But everybody that was going to come back, came back, and even three out of our four incoming freshmen that were signed from the previous staff are coming too. So we have a great, great nucleus back and I'm absolutely thrilled."
