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SPORTS SPRING 2011
Fleig reaches rare milestone Women’s Basketball
One day in 1990, when Mary Fleig had just completed her seventh season as an up-and-coming women’s basketball coach at nearby Franklin & Marshall, her phone rang. It was Millersville’s director of women’s athletics, Marge Trout. But Trout wasn’t calling on behalf of Millersville. “Gannon’s athletic director wanted Mary for that job and wanted to know if she would be interested,” said Trout. “Mary told me no and asked when [the Millersville] job was going to be open.” Millersville wasn’t looking for a new coach. After all, then-coach Deb Schlegel was only two years removed from backto-back PSAC Championship game appearances. Later that year, though, Schlegel—Fleig’s college basketball teammate—left for an assistant coaching position at the Naval Academy. “[Mary] was one of five or six candidates we interviewed,” said Trout. “We knew she could be successful at Division II. It was a unanimous decision.”
Clearly, it was the right decision. Fleig posted a 122-60 record at F&M, and in the 21 years at Millersville, she’s closing in on 400 wins. On Dec. 30 of this season, Fleig’s Marauders defeated Merrimack 75-59, for the 500th win of her career. 500 wins is a milestone only 16 coaches in Division II have reached, and Fleig ranks 10th in career victories. Fleig is self-admittedly shy, so the full-page spread newspaper articles and TV coverage that accompanied the accomplishment was rather embarrassing. Reaching 500 wins was not why she started coaching and after two years in the profession, she wondered if coaching was actually going to be her profession. “I remember my first win at F&M,” said Fleig. “It was at Lebanon Valley College, and a kid was sitting on the bench reading an English book during the game. I had only high school experience. I expected college to be different. At that point I realized it was going to be very different. I started 5-18 and 8-15
Top: The team and assistant coach Darlene Newman ‘84 celebrate Coach Fleig’s 500th win. Above: athletic director Peg Kauffman ‘87 presents Fleig with an award to mark the occasion.
at F&M. At that point, I started taking accounting courses. Coaching wasn’t working. I was going to use F&M to make some money and maybe start a new career.” Fortunately for hundreds of young student-athletes and Millersville University, Fleig chose coaching over accounting. Fleig has since won six PSAC East Coach of the Year awards—more than any other coach in league history. She
