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Sharon Versyp Last College: Purdue '89 Position: Head Coach Experience: 3rd year

Sharon Versyp and her team had a difficult challenge before the start of the 2007-08 season. The Boilermakers lost four starters, two to graduation and two to injury and were facing a non-conference schedule that was rated the toughest in the country. Versyp worked her magic and pulled off what was perhaps the finest coaching performance of her career. The Boilermakers scratched their way to a third place finish in the Big Ten regular season and capped that off with a second consecutive Big Ten Tournament championship and a 15th-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The Boilermakers were not satisfied with just playing an NCAA Tournament game in Mackey Arena though. Versyp led the women to a 66-59 upset over 17th-ranked Utah and Purdue advanced to the second round for the 14th time in 15 years. All this was accomplished after losing 73 percent of the offense, 67 percent of the rebounding and 53 percent of the assists from a team that went 31-6 a season ago.

Purdue's 2008 NCAA Tournament win against the Utes was Versyp's 50th Purdue career victory. She has a 25-win per season average as the Boilermaker head coach and her 50-21 school mark is an impressive .704 win percentage. At Purdue, Versyp has a .735 win percentage in the Big Ten with a two-year record of 25-9.

Earlier in the 2007-08 season, Versyp achieved another milestone when she picked up her 150th win as a collegiate head coach with a 69-53 victory over Butler on Nov. 17, 2007.

Versyp returned to her alma mater on April 10, 2006, to build upon the excellence of Purdue women's basketball. Versyp, a former Boilermaker point guard, has created success everywhere she's been. As a collegiate head coach she has compiled a 167-86 record in eight seasons. As a player at Purdue she led the team to three consecutive winning seasons at a time when the program had enjoyed only one winning campaign in the previous ten years of play.

In her first season as head coach at Purdue, Sharon Versyp led the Boilermakers to a 31-6 record that included a second-place finish in the Big Ten regular season, a Big Ten Tournament title and an appearance in the NCAA Elite Eight. Versyp was named the 2007 WBCA Region VI Coach of the Year for her achievements with the team.

With her 24th win on Feb. 22 against Iowa, Versyp became Purdue's winningest first year head coach. The 24 wins passed Carolyn Peck (23-10) and Kristy Curry (23-8) for the most victories by a first-year coach. Versyp's win percentage in 2006-07 of 83.8 percent (31-6) is the fifth-best in a season at Purdue and tops for a first-year coach. The 31 wins equals the second-most in school history and marks only the third time the Boilermakers have achieved a 30-plus win season. Versyp is the only first-year head coach to achieve a 30-win record.

Versyp was the head coach at Indiana prior to Purdue, where she led her team to a 19-14 season, 9-7 in the Big Ten and the quarterfinals of the post-season WNIT. The nine-game improvement was the second largest turn-around in school history for a first-year head coach. While at Indiana, Versyp guided senior Cindi Valentin to first team All-Big Ten honors and newcomer Whitney Thomas to the Big Ten All-Freshman team.

Prior to her stint with the Hoosiers, Versyp was the head coach at Maine for five seasons where she amassed a 98-51 record, including a 67-19 America East Conference record. Versyp's teams won three straight America East regular season championships (2003, 2004, 2005) and in 2004 also won the America East Tournament title earning an NCAA Tournament berth. Versyp was twice voted America East Coach of the Year (2003 and 2005). Her teams achieved season records of 25-6 in 2002-03 and 25-7 in 2003-04, which were the first back-to-back 25-win campaigns in school history.

Under Versyp's guidance, Maine student-athletes earned America East, Rookie and Defensive Player of the year designations and garnered 15 all-conference honors in her five years with the Black Bears. Versyp coached 2003 and 2004 America East Player of the Year, Heather Ernest, who plays professionally overseas.

Versyp challenges her student-athletes in the classroom as well. This past season, the Purdue women earned a 3.15 cumulative team GPA. While at Maine her team ranked 13th in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association National Team Academic Honor Roll.

Versyp's Indiana roots run deep. The Mishawaka, Ind., native was named Indiana Miss Basketball in 1984 becoming the first of six Miss Basketball's to play for the Boilermakers. After graduating from Purdue, Versyp became a head coach in the high school ranks at Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis from 1989-1993. There she took a 0-18 team to a sectional runner-up finish in just two seasons. She also served as the head coach at Benton Central High School in Oxford, Ind., from 1993-1996.

Versyp entered the collegiate ranks in 1996-97, when she joined Bud Childers' staff at the University of Louisville. Assistant coach Martin Clapp was also a member of that staff. After going 20-9, sharing the Conference USA regular-season title and an earning NCAA berth, Childers left for James Madison University. Versyp joined him in Harrisonburg, Va., serving as his top assistant and recruiting coordinator. She was there for three seasons and in 1999 helped ink a recruiting class ranked nationally in the top 25.

As a player Versyp was a fixture in the Purdue starting lineup beginning her freshman year and is one of only seven four-year starters in Purdue women's basketball history. She led the team in scoring three straight seasons and still ranks fourth in single game assists (12), seventh in career assists (418) and 10th in career points (1,565). Versyp still has records in the top-10 all-time in 11 statistical categories. In 1988, Versyp was named All-Big Ten and CoSIDA All-American.