Army West Point Athletics
Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Head Women's Basketball Coach
- Phone:
- 2796
Dave Magarity enters his 15th season as head coach at Army West Point in 2020-21 and his 16th overall at the Academy after serving as associate head coach in 2005-06.
Magarity led Army to unprecedented success with six consecutive winning seasons starting in the 2012-13 season and continuing through the 2017-18 season. During the stretch, Army reached the Patriot League semifinals five straight years. Magarity guided the Black Knights to a stretch of five years in a row with 20 wins or more with his most successful season coming in 2015-16 when Army finished a program best and appeared in its fourth NCAA Tournament after capturing the Patriot League Tournament title.
Overall, Magarity has helped Army reach the postseason four times as head coach with two NCAA Tournament appearances (2014, 2016) and a pair of WNIT appearances (2013, 2015).
Magarity surpassed a personal feat reaching 500 career victories in 2015-16 after topping Lafayette on Feb. 3, 2016. Prior to that milestone, he became Army’s career wins leader after a victory over Holy Cross on Jan. 15, 2014 gave him his 133rd win at the Academy to pass Lynn Chiavaro’s mark of 132 wins. He also is the career wins leader of the Marist men’s basketball program.
He tutored the most decorated women’s basketball player in Army history in Kelsey Minato. She garnered a number of accolades during her outstanding senior season in 2015-16, including espnW Mid-Major Player of the Year, All-Met Division I Player of the Year, and being selected All-America honorable mention by the Associated Press and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. Minato earned her third Patriot League Player of the Year nod to join 2003 Bucknell graduate Molly Creamer as the only player in league history to do so, and become the conference’s only player to be a first-team selection all four years.
Under Magarity’s direction, Minato finished her senior campaign with an Academy-record 743 points (23.2 points per game) to become the school and the Patriot League’s career scoring leader with 2,556 points over her four seasons.
In total, Magarity has mentored 11 players to All-Patriot League honors, including Cara Enright (USMA ’08), Alex McGuire (USMA ’09), Erin Anthony (USMA ’11), Anna Simmers (USMA ’13), Jen Hazlett (USMA ’14), Olivia Schretzman (USMA ’15), Minato (USMA ’16) and Aimee Oertner (USMA ’16), Aliyah Murray (USMA ’18), Madison Hovren (USMA ’19) and Alisa Fallon (USMA ’22).
Magarity was chosen to take the reins following what had been a "Cinderella" storybook season in 2005-06 for the Black Knights until their head coach, Maggie Dixon, died suddenly that spring.
Magarity spent the 2005-06 season on the bench with Dixon, serving as associate head coach and playing an integral role in the Black Knights' magical campaign during which the team won its first-ever Patriot League Tournament title accompanied by an NCAA Tournament berth.
Faced with an unthinkable challenge after the loss of Dixon, the Black Knights honored their late coach and ushered in the Magarity era with a stellar 24-6 record. Army posted an 11-3 mark in conference play.
Magarity has mentored six 1,000-point scorers at Army, including Hazlett and Minato, who both reached the plateau in 2013-14. Other players to reach the 1,000-point mark under Magarity's watch, Anthony, Enright and McGuire make up one of the most celebrated trios in Army history as they represent the program's third, fourth and fifth-leading scorers, respectively. Magarity's marquee recruit from day-one, Anthony, wrapped up a decorated career ranked second on Army's career rebounding list. A two-time CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-America selection, Anthony was a four-year all-league performer and three-time Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Madison Hovren became the sixth player to achieve the milestone in 2018.
Magarity also groomed three Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year, including Margaree King '08, Anna Simmers ’13 and Murray. His players have combined to win 16 All-Patriot League citations, seven All-Rookie Team honors and four Player of the Year (Enright, Minato) awards.
One of the most well-respected and recognizable faces in the basketball community, the honors and awards for Magarity are plentiful. He was named the 2012-13 Patriot League Coach of the Year after leading Army to a 22-9 mark and 11-3 in the Patriot League. In addition to the league honor, he was presented with the Anaconda Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 Men's Basketball Final Four in San Antonio, Texas. In his first season at Army, the N.Y.-Metropolitan Basketball Writer's Association named Magarity its Coach of the Year. Following the 2006-07 campaign, the Army team was bestowed with the Jimmy V Foundation Comeback Award, AT&T National Sportsmanship Award and Patriot League Sportsmanship Award, further rooting Magarity's influence on the program.
Magarity added to his coaching accolades when he was named the Basketball Coaches Association of New York Division I Women's Basketball Coach of the Year following the 2013-14 campaign and he was a finalist for the WBCA National Coach of the Year, as a recipient of the WBCA Region I Coach of the Year. Along with those honors he earned his second New York MBWA Coach of the Year award in 2016.
Magarity is one of only two coaches to lead both a men’s and women’s team to the NCAA Division I Tournament. He joined William "Speedy" Morris, who reached the NCAA Tournament with the men's and women's basketball teams at La Salle.
Magarity arrived at West Point in October of 2005 following a brief stint as the Assistant Commissioner/Director of Men's Basketball Operations for the Mid-American Conference (MAC). Prior to joining the MAC, he held a similar position with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) based in Edison, N.J.
During his coaching tenures at Marist and St. Francis University (Pa.), Magarity was honored as Coach of the Year in four 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 Sport Magazine New York Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Award once in 1988.
Under his direction from 1986 to 2004, the Red Foxes saw unparalleled success as he led his teams to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 1987 and to the National Invitational Tournament in 1996. Of the 18 Marist teams he coached, 15 of them reached double digits in wins and two eclipsed the 20-win plateau, including a 22-win performance during the 1995-96 season. His squads played in two conference tournament championship games and won the ECAC Metro Conference regular-season title in 1987-88. That June, Magarity saw Marist gain national prominence when Rik Smits was the second pick overall of the 1988 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers.
Magarity led Marist to only its second 20-win season in 1995-96, compiling a school-record 22 wins, and posted a school-record .759 winning percentage (22-7). The Red Foxes earned the program's first bid to the NIT, and Magarity was recognized as the NABC District II Coach of the Year. Four players from that squad were named All-Northeast Conference.
The Red Foxes and Magarity won a share of the MAAC regular-season title in 2001-02, the first since joining the league prior to the start of the 1997-98 campaign. Marist went 13-5 in MAAC action on its way to an overall 19-9 record.
Magarity began his Empire State coaching career as an assistant at Iona College under then-head coach Pat Kennedy. While a member of the Gaels coaching staff, Magarity helped Iona to a pair of 20-win seasons and two NCAA Tournament appearances (1984, 1985). After three successful years at Iona, Magarity headed up the Hudson River to take over the program at Marist.
His coaching career began at St. Francis in 1973 as a graduate assistant and then as an assistant coach until taking over the reins of the program in 1978, becoming the youngest Division I head coach in the nation at the time (27). In his third campaign, Magarity led the Red Flashes to a 17-10 mark, the most wins in a season for St. Francis in a dozen years, and earned NABC District III Coach of the Year honors as a result.
A 1974 graduate of St. Francis in Loretto, Pa., Magarity earned a bachelor's degree in business management and marketing.
Magarity, who hails from Philadelphia, Pa., and his wife, Rita, have three children: Maureen, Katie and David, Jr. All three Magarity children are Marist graduates. Maureen, the current head women’s basketball coach at Holy Cross, served as her father's assistant and eventually associate head coach at Army before departing to take the head women's basketball coaching position at the University of New Hampshire in May 2010.
Head Coaching Background
2006-Present: Head Women's Coach, Army (257-172, .599)
1986-2004: Head Men's Coach, Marist (253-258, .495)
1978-83: Head Men's Coach, St. Francis (Pa.) (60-76, .441)
College Women's Coaching Record: 257-172 (.623), 14 seasons
College Men's Coaching Record: 313-334 (.484), 23 seasons
Overall Record: 570-506 (.529), 37 seasons
Assistant Coaching Experience
2005-06: Associate Women's Head Coach, Army
1983-86: Assistant Men's Coach, Iona
1974-78: Assistant Men's Coach, St. Francis (Pa.)
1973-74: Graduate Assistant Men's Coach, St. Francis (Pa.)
Administrative Experience
2005: Assistant Commissioner, Mid-American Conference
2004-05: Assistant Commissioner, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
2004: Director of Athletic Development, Marist
Postseason History
Postseason Apperances: 6 (Men's NCAA: 1, NIT: 1, Women’s NCAA: 2, WNIT: 2)
2016 NCAA: Syracuse 73, Army 56
2015 WNIT: St. John’s 64, Army 56
2014 NCAA: Maryland 90, Army 52
2013 WNIT: Fordham 55, Army 46
1996 NIT: Rhode Island 82, Marist 77
1987 NCAA: Pittsburgh 93, Marist 68
