Head coach Gela Mikalauskas enters her 18th year on Grymes Hill and the seventh of her second tenure at the reigns of the Wagner College program.
A season ago, the Seahawks finished with a final record of 12-17, 5-13 in the Northeast Conference. The 12 wins amassed by the Seahawks last season, which included a 7-4 non-conference mark, are the most by a Wagner team in eight years, since the 2002-03 team went 15-13. In 2011-12, the Seahawks welcome back three starters, several important players off the bench and have added a talented five-member recruiting class.
In 2009-2010, Mikalauskas led the Green & White back to the postseason for the first time since 2003-2004 while winning nine overall games and six NEC contests. Included was a win over eventual NEC Champion Saint Francis (PA) on the road and in the Spiro Sports Center against American, which would go on to win 22 games and play in the WNIT.
Mikalauskas returned to the sidelines in 2005 following a 15-year break from coaching.
Mikalauskas is the school's all-time winningest coach with 214 wins in 16 years, including a 174-134 record during her first stint as head coach. She also guided the Green & White to a school-record 24 wins during the 1983-1984 season, when Wagner put together an unmatched 17 game winning streak. Mikalauskas has also led the Seahawks to two other 20-win seasons and holds five of the top-10 seasons in school history. More impressive then those gaudy numbers is the fact that during her 15 years at the helm every student-athlete that she coached graduated in four years.
"It is a tremendous honor and privilege to be the head coach here at Wagner as the College has always had a special place in my heart," said Mikalauskas.
During her prior Wagner coaching stint, Mikalauskas took the Seahawks to seven straight league tournament berths winning the 1985 Cosmopolitan Conference Tournament and the 1989 Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament.
The 1989 NEC and Metropolitan Coach of the Year, she accumulated a .671 winning percentage in four seasons of NEC play. Mikalauskas won her 100th career game on January 20, 1986 at Seton Hall and has coached 10 of the 20 members of the program's 1,000-point club.
Under her direction she has also coached the single season record holders for most points, scoring average, rebounds and steals as well as current assistant coach Maureen (Coughlin) Hannafin, the 1989 Northeast Conference Player of the Year.
She was inducted into the Wagner Athletics Hall of Fame in 1991 and is also a member of the Kean University Hall of Fame and the Moore Catholic (HS) Hall of Fame.
Mikalauskas played point guard for two seasons at Wagner, leading the Seahawks to the only undefeated season in school history (13-0) in 1973-1974. In 1974-1975, she averaged 20.1 points per game in helping lead the Seahawks to a 12-4 record before transferring to Kean. At Kean she was a captain her junior and senior years, scored over 1,000 points (Kean and Wagner) and was twice named All-League while earning a physical education and health degree in 1977.
For the past 17 years she along with her husband Greg have owned and directed the 800-plus student University Basketball Camp on Staten Island and contributed numerous hours as a clinician for the area Catholic Youth Organization. In addition she ran the camp for ten years while she was a coach of the Seahawks, appropriately titled the "Wagner College Basketball Camp for Girls."
She continues to reside on Staten Island with her husband Greg and their children, Christopher (22) and Anna (18).
The Mikalauskas File:
• 214-267 Career Record all at Wagner (1979-1990; 2005-pres.)
• Winningest coach in Wagner women's history
• Led Wagner to a school-record 24 wins in 1983-1984
• Took Seahawks to three straight Cosmopolitan Conference Tournaments 1982-1985
• Won the 1985 Cosmopolitan Conference Tournament
• Brought the Green & White to four straight Northeast Conference tournaments 1986-1990
• Won the 1989 Northeast Conference Tournament
• Was victorious in 17 straight games during the 1983-1984 season which still stands as the longest winning streak in Wagner men's and women's basketball history
• Holds five of the 10 best regular season records in Wagner women's basketball history
• A member of the Wagner Athletics Hall of Fame
• A member of the Kean University Hall of Fame
• Started the Wagner College girls basketball camp
• Notched her 200th career coaching victory on January 28, 2010 against Quinnipiac
• Notched her 100th career coaching victory on January 20, 1986 at Seton Hall
• Coached the Seahawks' single season record holders for most points, scoring average, field goals attempted, rebounds, and steals
• Coached 11 of the 21 members of the Wagner 1,000 point scorers
• Under her regime current assistant coach Maureen Hannafin was named 1989 Northeast Conference Player of the Year
• Logged three 20 win seasons while coaching Wagner
• 1989 Northeast Conference and Metropolitian Coach of the Year
• Member of the 1973-1974 Wagner squad that went 13-0
• Held a .671 winning percentage in four seasons of Northeast Conference Play during her first stint as coach
• Among the top-20 in Northeast Conference regular season wins with 61.
