University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Agnus Berenato Named "Native Son" Award Recipient
1/23/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Agnus Berenato Named "Native Son" Award Recipient
1/23/2004
Agnus Berenato joins former "Native Son" recipients such as Frank Wycheck and Dawn Staley. |
PITTSBURGH
The 100th annual banquet will be held on Monday, Jan. 26, at the Hilton Hotel in Cherry Hill. The ceremony will also include an awards presentation honoring the top performers from Philadelphia over the past century.
The last five winners of the "Native Son" award were Bobby Higginson of the Detroit Tigers, Jamie Moyer of the Seattle Mariners, golfing champion Ed Dougherty, Olympian and current Temple women?s basketball coach Dawn Staley and Tennessee Titans? tight end Frank Wycheck.
Berenato, a native of Glousester City, N.J., became Pittsburgh?s seventh head coach on May 1, 2003, after serving the previous 15 years as head women?s basketball coach at Georgia Tech. She guided the Yellow Jackets to the postseason her final fours years, including the 2003 NCAA Tournament.
The all-time winningest coach for the Yellow Jackets, Berenato owned a 223-209 (.516) record in her 15 seasons at Georgia Tech. She guided the team to its first postseason championship by capturing the 1992 National Women?s Invitational Tournament, compiling a 20-13 overall record.
A two-time recipient of the Women?s NCAA Division I Coach of the Year award in the state of Georgia by the Atlanta Tip-off Club, Berenato also served as an assistant coach at Georgia Tech for two years prior to her head coaching appointment in 1988.
Before arriving at Georgia Tech, Berenato spent four years as head women?s basketball coach at Rider University. The New Jersey Coaches Association named her their NJCA Coach of the Year after she guided the Broncs to a school-record 26-7 mark in her first season.
A 1980 graduate of Mount St. Mary?s College in Emmitsburg, Md., Berenato earned her bachelor?s degree in sociology and was a three-year starter on the basketball team. Playing for former NBA star and current ESPN analyst Fred Carter, she was a two-time captain for the Mountaineers.
She has also received the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Volunteer Award for exemplary volunteerism from the Jesse Draper Boys? and Girls? Club of Atlanta in 2003 and was named to the "Who?s Who in America" in 2004. Additionally, she was selected by the Institute of International Sports as one of its Sports Ethics Fellows in 1996.
