Meet Coach Haag
Karen Haag is in her seventh year as head coach of The College
of Saint Rose women’s basketball team where she has remodeled
the Golden Knights into a team that is once again poised to stake
its claim as an elite NCAA program. Haag has accomplished that by
establishing herself as an astute leader and by providing the College’s
highly visible women’s basketball program with a sense of
consistency and a progressive mindset.
“Maintaining the tradition of excellence in the basketball
program would be impossible without the support of the College,
the athletics department and the tremendous efforts of the student-athletes,
support staff and the coaches here at Saint Rose. One of our goals
is to instill a pattern of success in our players and constantly
challenge them to reach their potential as a student and an athlete.
We have lofty goals for this program and truly believe that basketball
is an important factor in preparing our student-athletes for life.”
Haag’s impact is quite apparent. The Golden Knights garnered
their second consecutive bid to the NCAA Tournament and made their
fourth straight appearance in the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament
a year ago. At season’s end, Haag was awarded the 2007 Russell
Athletic/WBCA Region 1 Coach of the Year after Saint Rose won its
first eight regular-season contests, was ranked as high as 20th
in the USA Today/ESPN Division II poll and finished with a 21-9
overall record en route to a second place finish in the NE-10 standings
(16-6). It marked the first time the Golden Knights were ranked
nationally since the 2000-01 campaign.
The 2005-06 season was a major stepping stone for Haag as she guided
the Golden Knights to a 19-13 overall mark and an appearance in
the NE-10 Tournament championship game. After winning its last six
games to close out the season, Saint Rose was rewarded with its
first NCAA Tournament bid in five years. Furthermore, it marked
the first winning season for the women’s basketball program
in Haag’s tenure.
Haag has certainly brought the program a long way in her relatively
short tenure. She was dealt a difficult hand during her first year
on Western Avenue as Saint Rose finished 8-18 in 2001-02. Haag had
to make do without the presence of a National Player of the Year
candidate while injuries left her with only six healthy bodies by
the time February rolled around. Regardless, the Golden Knights
proved that they had absorbed their mentor’s teaching, sense
of accountability and commitment by winning two of their final four
games at a time when nobody would have batted an eye had they simply
closed shop and called it a year.
The Golden Knights were well underway to building upon that momentum
the following year when they won three of their first five games.
Unfortunately, the injury bug struck again and Saint Rose had to
make a go of it without two of its more prominent players the rest
of the way. The end result was an 8-19 mark and a plethora of questions
of what may have been.
Haag arrived at this juncture in her career via Wilkes University,
a NCAA III institution in Northeastern Pennsylvania, where she spent
10 years at the helm of the Lady Colonels after spending two years
at SUNY-Delhi. Under Haag’s guidance, Wilkes made four postseason
appearances throughout her final eight years and won the 1993 ECAC
South Region title, the program’s first championship of any
kind. She also guided Wilkes to the Middle Atlantic Conference playoffs
from 1995 through 1997, the first time in school history that the
program made three consecutive conference playoff appearances.
Haag spent three summers coaching various college All-Star teams
overseas including trips to Italy in 1997, Spain in 1996 and Australia
in 1995. At SUNY-Delhi, Haag led the Broncos to a 34-13 record and
into the quarterfinals of the NJCAA Region III Tournament during
each of her two seasons. Prior to her tenure at Delhi, Haag was
an assistant under former head coach Mari Warner at the University
at Albany. Haag also held an assistant coach position at Ithaca
College and spent three years as a head coach at Oneonta High School.
In addition to her coaching responsibilities, Haag serves as the
advisor to the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and is the department’s
Senior Woman Administrator.
A strong advocate of community service, Haag is a co-founder of
Camp BraveHearts which is a series of retreats designed for women
who have been diagnosed with cancer. The camp affords participants
an opportunity to learn new skills, increase self-esteem and confidence,
and help address the risks and fears that many women face during
and after treatment. Haag, who is a cancer survivor herself, has
also been involved with “Coaches vs Cancer” for the
American Cancer Society. She also served on the Wilkes-Barre YMCA
Board of Directors in addition to participating in numerous other
community service ventures.
Haag graduated from Oneonta State in 1984 with a degree in English
and secondary education. She also holds a master’s degree
in curriculum planning and development from the University at Albany.
A star player in her own right, Haag is among Oneonta State’s
all-time leaders in scoring, assists and steals. The team’s
Most Valuable Player following both her junior and senior seasons,
Haag garnered All-Conference accolades from the SUNYAC as a senior.
She recently became the first female basketball player inducted
into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
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