“I love coaching basketball and I love coaching basketball at Quinnipiac.”
These are the words of women’s basketball head coach Tricia Fabbri, who recently signed a contract extension that will keep her at Quinnipiac through the 2011-2012 season. Fabbri, who is currently in her 13th season as head coach, has earned the merit of being the winningest women’s basketball coach in school history.
Fabbri came to Quinnipiac from Fairfield after the 1994-95 season, where she was an assistant coach for four years. When she was hired in July 1995, Fabbri became the first full-time coach as well as the first female coach in school history. In the past 12 seasons, Fabbri has turned the program around from when she first took over.
“For the past 12 years, I’ve been able to be part of a great wave that just continues to grow and get better ,” Fabbri said. “We’ve been fortunate enough to establish a really good program in the east and one that has been a consistent winner at the Division 1 level, something that I’m really proud of.”
In the 1998-99 season, Quinnipiac moved to the Division 1 level, when Fabbri guided the team to a respectable 9-18 record, which was good enough to qualify for the Northeast Conference Tournament.
“I was very fortunate to come in at a time when they were making great strides to move from Division 2 to Division 1,” Fabbri said.
The 2000-2001 season saw Fabbri coach the Bobcats to their most successful season in 15 years, finishing 16-13, which included a 12-6 record in the NEC. It only kept getting better from there.
After a solid 2001-2002 season, Fabbri coached the Bobcats to back-to-back 18-win seasons in ’03 and ’04. The 2005-2006 season was one that saw Fabbri guide the Bobcats to a remarkable 22-win season and their first ever NEC championship game appearance. The 22 wins are the most in Fabbri’s Quinnipiac history, eclipsing the 18-win seasons of 2002-2003 and 2003-2004. Fabbri’s squad boasts a 3-1 record thus far in their ’07 campaign, with wins over Maine, Stony Brook, and Holy Cross.
As far as the future, Fabbri sees her team as one that will continue to grow and she believes the sky is the limit. She also hopes the team will continue to work its way up in the R.P.I. and play for a championship. “Hopefully we can put ourselves in a position this year to be cutting down some nets,” Fabbri said.
