USD Women's Basketball 2001-2002

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Head Coaeh Kat:hy Marpe 22nd Season

Coach Marpe will begin her 29th year as a head coach and her 22nd season leading the University of San Diego women's basketball program. In her career Marpe has reached milestones aspiring coaches can

only dream of; 339 career coaching victories, 102West Coast Conference wins, two WCC coach of the year awards, two conference tournament championships and two NCAA Tour– nament teams. As a Torero, Marpe has coached 11 First Team All-West Coast Conference players, and more impor– tantly, 30 of Marpe's players have been honored as WCC Scholar Athletes. The changes Marpe has witnessed in the game of women's basketball with the skills and athleticism of today's student athletes, is nothing short of staggering. Success through change permeates Marpe's long and distinguished coaching career. Marpe's fourteen winning seasons and coach of the year honors in 1993 and 1998 attest to her ability to flourish in a changing athletic environment. Marpe's success comes as a result of embracing - not re– sisting change. Marpe will once again embrace change in 2001-02, hoping to duplicate the Torero success of recent past. Her 1999-2000 team matched a school record of 17 overall wins featuring future professional players Susie Erpelding and Jessica Gray. The 1999-2000 Toreros ran through the WCC Tournament, beating the number one seeded Pepperdine Waves 68-51. San Diego was awarded the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, becoming the second San Di– ego team Marpe would lead into the big dance. On February 3, 2001 Marpe became just the fourth coach in WCC history to reach 100 conference victories. By season's end and now entering the 2001-02 campaign, Marpe now owns 102 WCC wins, ranking her third all-time in WCC career coaching victories. Marpe's 339 overall career wins puts her in an elite class of about 60 NCAA coaches that have won over 300 games in a career. As the "dean" of West Coast Conference coaches, Marpe has twice been honored as the conference's coach of the year. She would win the award in 1998 after leading the 1997-98 Toreros to one of the largest single-season turn– arounds in WCC history - an improvement of eight games. It would be the second time Marpe would receive the honor.

Kathy Ma1·pe, 1998,1993 West Coast Confe1·ence Coach of the Year