April 2, 2008
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Army head women's basketball coach Dave Magarity will be honored with the 2008 Anaconda Sports "Lifetime Achievement Award" at a ceremony scheduled for Sunday, April 6, in San Antonio, Texas, as a part of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Final Four. The award is presented to an individual "for outstanding contributions to the game of basketball for 30 years as a coach, administrator, and gentleman."
"I am very honored to receive such a prestigious award," Magarity said. "Just to be associated with the names of the past recipients is very humbling. Coaching can be such a rewarding profession, and I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to enjoy such longevity within a field with so many great professionals."
Over the course of the last 10 years, recipients of the Anaconda Sports Lifetime Achievement Award have included notable names such as Rollie Massimino, Dick Vitale, Mike Deane, Jim Phelan and Kevin O'Neill.
Magarity, who has been a part of the coaching profession for 30 years, has spent the last three seasons on the Army sidelines. Late Army head coach Maggie Dixon brought Magarity on board as her associate head coach during the Black Knights' 2005-06 Patriot League Championship season. After Dixon's passing in April of that year, Magarity remained with the Black Knights and took over as the eighth head coach in Army women's basketball history.
In his first season at the helm, Magarity helped the Black Knights to an Army Division I record for wins with a 24-6 mark in 2006-07. In two seasons as Army's head coach, Magarity owns a 42-18 (.700) record and has produced two all-league players in senior Cara Enright and junior Alex McGuire. He boasts a career record of 355-352 (.502) over 25 seasons as a head coach.
Magarity, who spent the first five seasons of his head coaching career at St. Francis (Pa.) (1978-1983), was no stranger to the Hudson Valley when he started at West Point. He had spent 18 seasons (1986-2004) as the head men's basketball coach at Marist College, just 31 miles up the road from West Point. Under Magarity's watch, the Red Foxes experienced unprecedented success and made two postseason appearances. Magarity took Marist to the NCAA Tournament in 1987 and later earned a bid to the 1996 National Invitational Tournament.
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During his coaching tenures at Marist and St. Francis, Magarity was honored as "Coach of the Year" in three different leagues. He was first named "Coach of the Year" at St. Francis in 1981, earning NABC Division I District III accolades, before garnering recognition at Marist during the 1986-87 season, when he won ECAC Metro honors.
He was honored again following the 1994-95 campaign, being dubbed the Northeast Conference "Coach of the Year," and the following season, was recognized by the NABC for the second time in his career. He would again earn NABC "Coach of the Year" honors following the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons. Magarity was selected the MAAC "Coach of the Year" in 2001-02 by the league's coaches. He won CollegeInsider.com's top coaching honor three times (2000, 2001, 2002) and the New York Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Award twice (1988, 2007).
Anaconda Sports, Inc. was founded in 1902 as Kaye Sports and has grown over the years to become one of the largest independent sporting goods dealers in the United States. Anaconda is one of the Patriot League's corporate partners.
