Irma Garcia Named 2009 ECAC Katherine Ley Award Winner
CAPE COD, Mass. - Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC)
Commissioner Rudy Keeling announced today that Irma Garcia has
been selected as the recipient of the 2009 Katherine Ley
Award. Established in 1983, the award honors an ECAC woman
athletics administrator who exemplifies the values and
characteristics displayed by Katherine Ley. It recognizes someone
of demonstrated leadership ability, a proponent of women's issues
and a role model for women coaches and administrators. She will
receive her award on Tuesday, October 6, at the ECAC Honors
Luncheon presented by Jostens. The luncheon will be held at The
Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis, Massachusetts during the
2009 ECAC Fall Convention and Trade Show.
Garcia has been a part of St. Francis College (N.Y.) Athletics for
the past 23 years as a student-athlete, coach and administrator,
and in the summer of 2007 was named the Terriers' Director of
Athletics. She is the first Hispanic female to lead a
Division I program. Garcia's leadership, compassion and dedication
to the St. Francis College Department of Athletics has touched many
and her induction to the College's Hall of Fame was a well deserved
honor.
In 1976, Garcia came to St. Francis College as a student-athlete on
the women's basketball team to play for St. Francis Hall of Fame
Coach Diane Nolan. Upon graduation, Garcia began her career as a
physical education teacher and girls' basketball coach at St.
Joseph by the Sea on Staten Island.
Garcia returned to St. Francis in 1988 when she was named the
eighth women's basketball coach in St. Francis College
history. During Irma's 11-year tenure her players and teams
received many individual and collective honors. Under her
guidance, 12 of her women's basketball players were honored on
postseason Northeast Conference (NEC) teams (four NEC first team
All-Conference players, two NEC second team All-Conference players,
five NEC All-Rookie team players, and one Newcomer of the Year).
Five former players were inducted into the College's Hall of
Fame. Garcia's women's basketball teams were also among the
NCAA elite in the classroom. Her 1998-99 team was honored by the
WBCA for having the fourth highest team grade-point-average out of
approximately 300 Division I women's basketball teams in the
country. The 1997-98 team ranked 23rd in the nation in team
grade-point-average. She also coached the first St. Francis women's
basketball player to play professional basketball, Carolyn Harvey.
After the 1997-98 season, Garcia was honored by her colleagues as
the Northeast Conference Coach of the Year.
In addition to her responsibilities as head women's basketball
coach, Garcia also served as the College's Department of Athletics
Senior Woman Administrator. Her administrative
responsibilities included monitoring student-athlete financial aid
and serving as the primary liaison to the College's admissions and
financial aid offices. Garcia was also instrumental in
fundraising for the then-new women's basketball locker room.
Following the 1998-99 season, Garcia retired from coaching and was
named Associate Director of Athletics. In that role, she also
was the Director of Student-Athlete Services and served as the
department's business manager, where she monitored the athletic
department's budget and purchasing.
Garcia earned a master's degree from Brooklyn College in 2001 in
sports administration. She is an active member of the National
Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), the
National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators
(NACWAA), American Council on Education (AEC), and Minority
Opportunities Athletic Association (MOAA).
She has recently been featured in USA Today, New York
Daily News, NCAA News, ESPN.com. and American Latino,
a nationally syndicated TV show. Garcia was honored Oct. 1, 2008 at
the White House, in Washington D.C., as a 2008 Las Primeras Award
Recipient by MANA, a national Latina organization, for becoming the
first Hispanic woman to run an NCAA Division I athletic program.
About the ECAC®
The ECAC is the nation's largest athletic and the only
multi-divisional conference in the country with more than 300
Divisions I, II, and III colleges and universities. The ECAC
stretches from Maine to North Carolina and westerly to Illinois.
Established in 1938, the ECAC, a non-profit service organization,
sponsors nearly 100 championships in 37 men's and women's sports
and assigns more than 4,400 officials in 12 sports. The ECAC
also administers nine affiliate sports organizations and six
playing leagues, and through the public relations arm of the
conference, more than 2,500 student-athletes in 23 sports are
recognized annually. Finally, the ECAC serves as the primary
conference for select members in the sports of men's and women's
ice hockey and men's lacrosse.
About Katherine Ley
In 1966, Ley was one of the founders of the Commission on
Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, the forerunner of the
Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. After serving a
12-year tenure at the State University College at Cortland as chair
of Physical Education and Athletics for Women, Ley became athletics
director at Capital University in Ohio. At the time, she was one of
only two women athletic administrators heading both men's and
women's athletics.
