FRESNO, CA. - Director of Athletics Dennis Janzen has announced the hiring of Erin Scholz, former Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.
Scholz, a former NCAA Division I All-American at the University of Colorado served as the Assistant Coach at Utah State for the past three years. While at Utah State, Scholz focused primarily on the development of the centers and forwards. Under her tutelage, USU set a new modern era block record with 144 blocks this past season. This broke the record set by the previous year’s team of 128 blocks. The 2004-05 team swatted 111 balls.
Scholz is only the seventh head coach to lead the Sunbird’s since the beginning of the program in 1981. She states, “I am excited and incredibly honored to assume the position of head women’s basketball coach for Fresno Pacific University. The FPU campus and community combine to be a field full of priceless treasure and a field that is also ripe for a new harvest. A genuine “thank you” to all that have come and gone before me within the leadership of FPU women’s basketball. I am confident that the Lord has prepared me to lead this team well and be instrumental in establishing a new identity that will fuel us to a new level of excellence.”
As an outstanding student-athlete at the University of Colorado, Scholz came to Utah State after a professional playing career with the Colorado Chill of the National Women's Basketball League (NWBL), helping the Chill secure two NWBL ProCup Championships in 2005 and 2006. She then went to Australia where she helped lead the Lakeside Lightning of the Western Australia State Basketball League to the SBL Championship.
Scholz was a college teammate of USU head coach Raegan Pebley at Colorado from 1993-97, where Scholz played in a school record 132 games, starting a school-record 127 contests. She is No. 2 on the Buffs' career rebounds list with 1,067, an average of 8.1 rebounds per game, which ranks No. 5 on CU's career rebounding average list. Scholz is also fourth in CU history in points scored, ranking 14th in career scoring average with 12.3 points per game.
Scholz was the founding player of CU's 500-200-50 single-season club with 544 points, 279 rebounds and 80 assists in 1995-96, ranking fifth in the single-season scoring list and eighth in rebounding.
She also is CU's school-record holder for single-game NCAA Tournament marks with 19 rebounds against Southwest Missouri State (March 17, 1995). She also is the single-game school-record holder with 12 free throws vs. Auburn (March 17, 1996), attempting 17 free throws which also tied a CU school-record. Also while at the University of Colorado, Scholz helped guide the Buffalo’s to two regular season conference championships, three conference tournament championships, and four NCAA tournament appearances including an “elite eight” and two “sweet sixteen” finishes.
“We are very pleased to have Erin joining the Sunbird athletic staff to bring leadership to our women’s basketball program. She is an outstanding mentor for young women, brings incredible enthusiasm and passion, and is an outstanding basketball coach. She brings a commitment to excellence both inside and outside of the competitive venue that resonates with Sunbird Athletics” states Director of Athletics Dennis Janzen.
Scholz also brings an impressive resume of honors as a player beyond her collegiate career. Among these are Colorado Sportswoman-of-the-Year for high school basketball (1993), the two-time Colorado high school player of the year (1992, 1993), and a recent inductee into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame (2008). In addition, Scholz was a part of USA Basketball for four years representing the United States internationally as a member of the USA Select Team (1996) coached by the legendary UConn Huskie coach Geno Auriemma, and the 1995 USA Jones Cup team that captured the Bronze medal. She also was a member of the 1993 and 1994 US Olympic Festival squads. The 1993 squad was also coached by Geno Auriemma.
Scholz is a frequent speaker in churches, schools, and civic groups. She recently spoke at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes National College Conference in Hannibal, Missouri. Scholz inherits a program that was 9 – 21 overall and 5 – 15 in GSAC play.
For more information on Fresno Pacific University Sunbird athletics go to http://www.fresno.edu/athletics/