Missy West is entering her sixth season as the head women's basketball coach at Hartwick.
Over the last two seasons, West has returned the Hawks to prominence with back-to-back 22-win seasons, an NCAA Tournament appearance, an ECAC title, and two berths in the Empire 8 Conference Championship game. Hartwick's 44 victories over the last two seasons is tied for third all-time for wins in consecutive seasons.
This past year, West led the Hawks to the program's first ECAC Championship after road victories over Staten Island, Rutgers-Newark, and Brooklyn College. Under West's guidance, junior guard Maria Foglia was named the Empire 8 Player of the Year, the ECAC Metro Tournament Most Outstanding Player, and to the D3hoops.com All-East Region Team. Freshman forward Britney Dumas was tabbed both the ECAC Upstate and Empire 8 Rookie of the Year.
In 2011-12, West piloted Hartwick to a 22-6 record and an invitation to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time since 1999. The Hawks went 12-2 in Empire 8 play, which was a program record for conference wins, and they advanced to the Empire 8 Championship game for the first time.
West was selected as the Empire 8 Conference Women's Basketball Coach of the Year. She was also one of only eight coaches in the country to be named a finalist for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division III National Coach of the Year.
She helped lead Foglia to ECAC Upstate and Empire 8 First Team honors and Kate Purcell to conference accolades as well.
In 2010-11, West guided the Hawks to a 10-14 overall record, 7-9 showing in the Empire 8, and fifth-place finish in the conference standings. Under her guidance, Purcell and Foglia each earned Empire 8 honors at the conclusion of the campaign.
In her first season piloting 'Wick, West led the team to a 12-13 overall record, an improvement of five wins. Hartwick also ended up fifth in the Empire 8 standings with a 7-9 record which was the most victories in the conference in the last four years.
West, a native of Malone, NY, joined the department following a four-year stint at SUNY Canton, where she helped revive a dormant program and turned it into a league title holder. Over her three-year span with the team, the Kangaroos registered a 53-23 record, which included a 12-8 mark in the 2007-08 campaign and a NAIA Sunrise Conference regular season title.
Prior to her arrival, the Kangaroos had posted back-to-back no win seasons. After recording a 3-20 record in her first year as an assistant under Bruce Tallon in 2004-05, SUNY Canton recorded its first winning season since 1997-98 with an 18-10 record and a Region III quarterfinal berth. The following season, the Kangaroos captured the regular-season Sunrise title with a 23-5 record and advanced to the Region III title game. West was elevated to co-head coach for the 2007-08 year.
West was a three-sport standout at Malone Central High School, where she lettered four years in soccer, basketball and softball. She was recognized as Miss New York on the hardwood in 1996 after averaging 28 points per game her senior season. West, a four-time league MVP, garnered honorable mention All-American honors by USA Today her junior and senior seasons. She was named New York State's three-sport Female Athlete of the Year and also became the first female to have her jersey retired at Malone Central in three sports.
Following her prep career, she attended Duke University, where she received her bachelor's degree in sociology with minors in history and biological anthropology in 2001. As a Blue Devil, she averaged 4.7 points, 1.5 rebounds, posted 75 assists and 65 steals in her 96-game career. With West on the roster, Duke won two Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) tournament titles and three regular season league titles with a combined 130-36 record. She was on Duke's 1999 title game squad, as well as teams that advanced to the "Elite Eight" in 1998 and "Sweet 16" in 2000. As a junior, she was recognized as a second team all-ACC tournament honoree after posting 42 points in three games. Entering Duke, she was chosen as the pre-season ACC rookie of the year, the first player in the program's history to receive that type of recognition.
After graduation, West embarked on a three-year professional playing career in Germany - one year with Wolfenbuettel and two years with Gottingen. In her first season with Gottingen, she tallied 25 points, 7 rebounds per game and to help lead the squad to an undefeated season and a second division German title. The following season, she was named a team captain and posted 17 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals per game.
West, who added an associate's degree from SUNY Canton's physical therapy assistant program in 2007, has also worked as a physical therapy assistant at the Canton United Helpers Nursing Home and at Northern Physical Therapy in Ogdensburg.
