NEW YORK (March 14, 2023) ---
Irma Garcia, the Director of Athletics at St. Francis College Brooklyn, will be presented with a Distinguished Service Award from the Met Basketball Writers Assn. at the 90th MBWA All-Met Haggerty Awards dinner scheduled Thursday, April 27, at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel & Conference Center in Tarrytown, NY.
Named St. Francis’ Director of Athletics in 2007 and the first Latina to lead an NCAA Division I program, Garcia is being honored for her professional leadership, compassion and dedication to intercollegiate athletics.
Under her guidance, the Terriers increased their sports sponsorship to 21 Division I programs.
(However, on March 20 and subsequent to the original publication of this story, in a major restructuring of all its operations, St. Francis College announced it will end all athletic programs with the conclusion of the spring 2023 season, and not sponsor any sports going forward).
The women’s basketball program turned in their best year ever by winning a program-high 19 games in 2013-14, and in 2015, the team captured the school’s first-ever Northeast Conference championship in the sport after winning three road playoff games. In doing so, the Terriers became the first women’s team in school history, in any sport, to participate in an NCAA championship event, and SFC enjoyed national exposure as they met eventual national champion UConn in its first round game during the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
The men’s basketball team tied a program record with 23 wins in 2014-15, and captured the NEC regular season crown. With that title, the Terriers qualified for the NIT, their first national postseason appearance since 1963.
In other sports, the St. Francis men’s water polo team appeared in the NCAA Final Four in 2013, and has qualified for the event three different times during Garcia’s tenure.
She was a driving force in securing the men’s soccer program with a new home field at Brooklyn Bridge Park-Pier 5, which opened in 2013. The Terriers rode that momentum by earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017, after capturing four Northeast Conference (NEC) Championships.
Under her leadership, St. Francis added the sports of women’s soccer and men’s volleyball, which both began competition during the 2019-20 academic year.
Garcia’s student-athletes have also excelled in the classroom and in the community. The women’s basketball team won the 2015-16 WBCA Academic National Championship with a 3.71 GPA. In 2017-18, the men’s golf team claimed the GCAA Academic National Championship with a cumulative GPA of 3.74.
A Brooklyn native, Garcia attended St. Angela Hall HS in the borough, before enrolling at St. Francis College, where she played basketball for four seasons and graduated with a Bachelors degree in Physical Education in 1980. She also has a Masters degree in Sports Management, which she earned at Brooklyn College.
After teaching and coaching at the high school level for several years on Staten Island, Garcia returned to SFC in 1988 as head coach of women’s basketball, a position she held for 11 seasons. In 1998, she was named the NEC coach of the year.
Garcia has been the recipient of several awards, including being named a NACDA/Under Armour AD of the Year in 2015-16 and receiving two Division I Administrator of the Year awards in 2015 from the ECAC and from Women Leaders in College Sports (formerly NACWAA), respectively. She also is a member of the St. Francis Athletics Hall of Fame, and is involved in numerous national and local organizations.
Click here for a list of the MBWA’s previous DSA honorees: Distinguished Service Awards (year-by-year).
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