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Having completed her 15th season at the helm of the Georgia Tech women’s basketball program, Agnus Berenato continues to push her players, program and family toward the pinnacle of success by striving to make the most out of all of life’s opportunities. It’s the principle to which Berenato adheres in her professional and personal life, and one that she tries to instill in her players, family and others around her. And the success backing up her philosophy is evident.
Berenato is the Yellow Jackets’ all-time winningest women’s basketball coach with 223 victories since becoming Tech’s head coach prior to the 1988-89 season. She notched her 200th career victory on Dec. 29, 1997, in a thrilling overtime game against St. Mary’s and now has 283 total wins in 18 years as a head coach, which includes a four-year stint at Rider College in Lawrenceville, N.J. Her 200th win at Tech came on Jan. 26, 2002 in an 83-78 victory over Clemson.
During the 2002-03 campaign, Tech completed the most successful regular season in school history, finishing the year with a 20-11 overall record and a school-best-tying 8-8 mark in league play. The Jackets won their last four games in the regular season to tie for fourth place in the ACC standings. On Dec. 27, Tech claimed a 65-61 win over 22nd-ranked Georgia at Philips Arena, to record the program’s first-ever win over its in-state rival. Four members of the team earned All-ACC honors, with Sonja Mallory being named to the first team and both Fallon Stokes and Alex Stewart garnering third-team honors. Mallory was also named as a WBCA All-District team member as well as being a member of the ACC’s All-Defensive team. Rookie Kasha Terry was an honorable-mention ACC All-Rookie pick in 2003 as well.
Mallory was also named the Georgia Division I Player of the Year by the Atlanta Tip-Off Club, while Berenato was the organization’s Georgia Division I Coach of the Year for the second time.
The Jackets reached the postseason for the fourth-straight year and for the second time in school history in the NCAA Tournament. Tech’s 20 wins on the year, mark the second time since becoming a Division I program that the Yellow Jackets have won 20 games, matching the total of the 1992 NWIT championship team.
In five of the past seven seasons, Berenato has led the Jackets to victories over top-15 opponents. In 1997, the Jackets defeated seventh-ranked NC State and eighth-ranked Virginia. In 1998, the Jackets knocked off ninth-ranked Virginia. In 1999, Tech upended seventh-ranked North Carolina, and in 2000 the Yellow Jackets topped No. 12 North Carolina before twice toppling NC State (ranked 11th and 14th). In 2001, Tech twice knocked off Virginia, ranked in the top 25 and in 2002, the Jackets downed 17th-ranked North Carolina on the road.
With a strong passion for success and a belief that your dreams will take you there, Berenato now dreams of new and bigger goals for her program in the 21st century.
Berenato has guided Tech to postseason play six times, including four-straight appearances in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. In Tech’s first ever post-season appearance, the Jackets captured a national championship by winning the 1992 National Women’s Invitational Tournament, compiling a 20-13 overall record.
The 20-win season marked the third time during her tenure that the squad had broken the school record for wins in a season and the first time Tech had won 20 games as a Division I program. The following season, Berenato led Tech to its first NCAA Tournament bid.
In addition, Berenato has also guided Tech to its first-ever win in the ACC Tournament and its first-ever appearance in the championship game in 15 years of tournament play.
Berenato posted her second consecutive winning season in 1997, guiding the Jackets to a 15-12 mark.
Adding to her list of dreams come true, Berenato was named the Women’s NCAA Division I Coach-of-the-Year in the state of Georgia by the Atlanta Tip-off Club, and Coach-of-the-Year by the State of Georgia’s Hall of Fame, marking her third such honor.
Demonstrating her abilities as a recruiter, Berenato’s 2002 class has been consistently ranked among the top 15 in the nation, including a rating of 11th by the All-Star Girls Report, along with being rated fifth among classes with three or more players in the ASGR. The 1994-95 recruiting class received honorable mention honors from Blue Star magazine. Her 1989 class of signees was rated as high as 17th in the nation, the first time that a Tech class had been cited by a national recruiting analyst. Athlon magazine rated the 2001 recruiting class 13th nationally in its pre-season college basketball preview issue.
As an inspirational leader to her student-athletes, Berenato has coached several players who have earned individual acclaim.
Under Berenato’s guidance in 1999, Niesha Butler became the first player in Tech history to win the ACC Rookie-of-the-Year award and was also named to Freshman All-America teams by the Women’s Basketball News Service and the Women’s Basketball Journal.
Butler also became the latest of Berenato’s freshmen to participate in USA Basketball sanctioned competitions. She was the youngest player invited to the World University Games teams trials last summer, while three other Tech freshmen have been named to U.S. Olympic Festival teams. Joyce Pierce was the first freshman to receive such honors in 1990, followed by Kisha Ford in 1994 and Joannah Kauffman in 1995. Bronda Davis was also named to the 1991 Olympic Festival team in 1991 following her sophomore year.
In 1997, senior Kisha Ford became the first Yellow Jacket to garner first team All-ACC honors since Ida Neal in 1989. She was also named a District III All-American as well as an honorable mention All-American. Ford, who was on the bronze medal-winning 1995 USA William R. Jones Cup team, went on to become the first player ever drafted by the WNBA’s New York Liberty. She was also Tech’s first freshman All-American, earning the honors from Basketball Times.
In all, Berenato has coached 10 different players to All-ACC honors: Ida Neal (1989-second team); Karen Lounsbury (1990-second team); Joyce Pierce (1991, 92, 93-second team); Kisha Ford (1995, 96-second team, 1997-first team); Niesha Butler (1999-second team; 2001-third team); Sonja Mallory (2002-second team, 2003-first team); Milli Martinez (2002-second team); Regina Tate (2002-third team), Fallon Stokes (2003-third team), Alex Stewart (2003-third team).
Six of Berenato’s players have been named to the ACC all-tournament team: Joyce Pierce (1992); Devony Caldwell (1992); Kisha Ford (1994); Carla Munnion (1998-second team); Milli Martinez (2000-second team); and Fallon Stokes (2003-second team).
Four have also been named to the ACC All-Freshman team: Kathy Dortch (1993); Kisha Ford (1994); Carla Munnion (1994); and Niesha Butler (1999).
During the 2002 season, Milli Martinez became the first Yellow Jacket named to the ACC’s five-member All-Defensive team and Sonja Mallory joined her by making the team this past season.
Berenato, 46, originally joined the Tech staff prior to the 1986-87 season and served two years as the Jackets’ principle assistant coach, coordinating recruiting efforts and coaching Tech’s frontcourt players. She assumed the head coaching duties at Georgia Tech in July of 1988, posting a 14-14 record in her first year and tying the school record for wins in a season.
Before coming to Tech, Berenato spent four years as the head women’s basketball coach at Rider University, compiling an overall 60-55 during her time there.
Her first team at Rider in 1981-82 posted the best record in school history with a 26-7 mark and was named Team of the Year by the New Jersey Coaches Association.
Following that season, the rookie head coach was honored as Coach of the Year by the NJCA. In addition, she received the Presidential Gold Star of Rider College and was chosen Woman of the Year by the Rider College Women’s Studies Department.
Berenato also coached Rider’s women’s volleyball team, posting a 66-51 record in four seasons, including a school-record 25-12 mark in 1983, following a 20-8 record in 1982.
In her four years at Rider, all of Berenato’s student-athletes in basketball and volleyball received their degrees, an impressive graduation rate of 100 percent.
She was inducted into Rider’s Hall of Fame in February, 2002.
A 1980 graduate of Mount St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Md., with a bachelor of arts degree in Sociology and Theology, Berenato received the “Distinguished Alumni” award from the Mount St. Mary’s National Alumni Association in 1984.
A three year-starter and two-time captain, Berenato played for former NBA star Fred Carter at Mount St. Mary’s. She also played professionally for one year for the Entente Semonaise team in Sens, France following her high school graduation. Berenato received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters at Mount St. Mary’s in 1995, fulfilling her personal ambition to become the first alumna to return as a commencement speaker.
Recognized for her unyielding desire to demonstrate the ideals of good sportsmanship on and off the court, Berenato was selected by the Institute of International Sports as one of its Sports Ethics Fellows for 1996. Most recently she was selected “Who’s Who in America” by Marquis Who’s Who, the chronicle of American Achievements.
The Sports Ethics Fellows Award honors individuals who consistently demonstrate an interest in promoting the ideals of ethics and fair play in sport and society.
Berenato has gained respect among her peers and was appointed to serve a three-year term on the East Regional Basketball Championship Committee in 1991. As one of eight members on the committee, Berenato’s role was critical to the selection and seeding of teams for the championship.
In 2001, Berenato was elected to the Kodak All-American Selection Committee for the WBCA. She is the representative for Division 1, District 2.
Spreading her belief that dreams can come true throughout the community, Berenato will serve her 10th year as a member of the National Advisory Board for the Atlanta Tip-off Club. She received the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Volunteer Award for exemplary volunteerism that enriches the lives of young women by enhancing sports, fitness and training programs for girls from the Jesse Draper Boys’ and Girls’ Club of Atlanta this spring.
Berenato is a member of Atlanta Women’s Network, Inc., the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, the Georgia Women’s Intersport Network, Atlanta Women in Sports and the Naismith Hall of Fame. She was also one of the first women’s basketball coaches to sign an endorsement contract. In 2002, Berenato reached an endoresment agreement with adidas.
For the 12th consecutive year, Berenato, her staff and the Jackets will participate in drug awareness, tutorial and academic achievement programs for various elementary schools, work with the Coaches vs. Cancer program and perform various speaking engagements.
A dynamic speaker, Berenato has addressed audiences at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, GTE Directories, Reebok clinics and the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs. She has also appeared live on such talk shows as CNN’s The Sporting Life to discuss her ability to balance her coaching career and family life.
She and her husband, Jack, have five children: Theresa, 20, Andrew, 18, Joey, 14, Clare, 12, and Christina, 9.
Berenato Year-by-Year Season School Overall Record Conf. Record 1981-82 Rider 26-7 (.788) 1982-83 Rider 14-14 (.500) 1983-84 Rider 11-15 (.423) 1984-85 Rider 9-19 (.321) 1988-89 Georgia Tech 14-14 (.500) 5-9 (.357) 1989-90 Georgia Tech 13-17 (.433) 4-10 (.286) 1990-91 Georgia Tech 15-13 (.536) 3-11 (.214) 1991-92 Georgia Tech 20-13 (.606) 6-10 (.375) 1992-93 Georgia Tech 16-11 (.593) 8-8 (.500) 1993-94 Georgia Tech 12-15 (.444) 5-11 (.313) 1994-95 Georgia Tech 14-16 (.467) 5-11 (.313) 1995-96 Georgia Tech 14-13 (.519) 5-11 (.313) 1996-97 Georgia Tech 15-12 (.556) 7-9 (.438) 1997-98 Georgia Tech 11-17 (.393) 3-13 (.188) 1998-99 Georgia Tech 13-14 (.481) 6-10 (.375) 1999-2000 Georgia Tech 17-14 (.548) 7-9 (.438) 2000-01 Georgia Tech 14-15 (.483) 5-11 (.313) 2001-02 Georgia Tech 15-14 (.517) 7-9 (.438) 2002-03 Georgia Tech 20-11 (.645) 8-8 (.500) RIDER Totals (4 years) 60-55 (.522) TECH Totals (15th year) 223-209 (.516) 84-150 (.349) OVERALL Totals (19th year) 283-264 (.517)
