| C ATA M O U N T S P O R T S
Sisters Across Generations Endowed Head Coach Next Step in Proud History of Women’s Hoops BY | THOMAS WEAVER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY | ANDY DUBACK
Vermont joins a rare circle of teams who have an endowment in support of the head women’s basketball coach. Alisa Kresge is the Catamounts’ first Elizabeth F. Mayer ’93 and Paul J. Mayer M.D. Head Coach.
16 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
On February 1,
before tip-off of the Catamount women’s basketball home game versus UAlbany, Director of Athletics Jeff Schulman ’89 G’03 shared landmark news: the largest gift ever made exclusively to a UVM women’s athletics program would permanently endow the Elizabeth F. Mayer ’93 and Paul J. Mayer, M.D. Women’s Basketball Head Coach at the University of Vermont. “We would like to thank these beautiful and wonderful student-athletes for using both their basketball and academic skills,” said Betty Mayer as the news was released. “Their drive for perfection and their special individual personalities working together as a team are evident. They share that personal relationship with us, their fans, and the young people who look up to them as role models.”
This next step for women’s basketball was years in the making, tracing to pioneering varsity athletes, the strides of Title IX in the early 1970s. Fittingly, the announcement of the gift was coupled with a broader celebration of girls and women in sports. Considering Catamount women’s basketball, in particular, the breakout teams of the early nineties are foundational. Across the 1991/’92 season coach Cathy Inglese’s Catamounts piled up a 29-0 record in the regular season and earned a first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. Incredibly, the next season’s team repeated that undefeated regular season run. “Looking back, we had such a level of trust and respect for each other that it became a transformative experience. Maybe it’s a comfort level, maybe it’s a defining-who-you-are level, but we have
