Lehigh University Athletics
Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- srb1@lehigh.edu
- Alma Mater:
- Eleventh season
Lehigh head basketball coach Sue Troyan is certainly no stranger to winning. She has helped turn around the women’s basketball program from a struggling team to a perennial Patriot League contender. Guiding last year’s team to 18 regular season wins – the most in her tenure, Troyan became the first Lehigh head coach to be named the Patriot League Coach of the Year. Along the way, the 2004-05 Mountain Hawks posted a school record ten wins against Patriot League opponents, while posting a Lehigh record 11 home wins. The Mountain Hawks have won more than 10 games in all ten of Troyan’s seasons at the helm. She has guided her troops to two Patriot League final appearances, as well as a berth in the NCAA Tournament. In 2001-02, Troyan passed Muffet McGraw as the all-time victories leader in Lehigh women’s basketball history.
Throughout her coaching career, Troyan has been used to her teams faring well. Her first five years as a coach were with Lehigh’s softball team. As the head softball coach, Troyan rebuilt a program that finished 7-30 prior to her appointment. In her five years as head coach, she recorded a 107-87-1 mark, won three consecutive Patriot League titles and a Coach of the Year award. In 1996-97, the women’s basketball team laid claim to its first-ever Patriot League title under Troyan’s tutelage.
Troyan, 39, now enters her eleventh season as head coach of the women’s basketball program. In Troyan, Lehigh has a coach who understands the importance of relating to her players, the experience of having played collegiate basketball and the knowledge of what it takes to be successful.
In the season prior to Troyan’s appointment as basketball coach, Lehigh finished 3-24, and in the four previous years Lehigh had a combined 12-97 record. In Troyan’s first season (1995-96), Lehigh finished 14-13, 5-7 in the Patriot League. In 1996, Lehigh set a school record with seven Patriot League wins (7-5) and recorded its first-ever Patriot League Tournament victory and championship. By 2002-03, the team set a record with nine wins against league opposition and showcased the Patriot League Rookie of the Year. Last year’s squad also matched that record with nine Patriot League victories, as Lehigh returned to the league tournament semifinals.
“Lehigh basketball players are very fortunate in that our coaches really care about not only how we perform on the court, but they have a genuine interest in the choices we make off the court in our time at Lehigh,” said Teniece Johnson ’04.
Prior to her latest coaching endeavor, Troyan served five years as an assistant basketball coach and two years as the Director of Athletic Program Budgets. In her first two years at Lehigh she served as a graduate assistant, before becoming Lehigh’s first full-time women’s assistant basketball coach.
A 1988 graduate of
At
Sue and her husband Fran – Lehigh’s head softball coach – reside in
