2012-13
Stags Women’s Basketball 7
Invitational (WBI). In the opening round of the tournament Fairfield
hosted, and defeated Towson University, for the program’s first nation-
al postseason tournament home game and victory. Stephanie Geehan
became the first Stag named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year
that season, and in the process set the career mark for blocked shots
in a career. The 2010 graduate earned First-Team All-MAAC and First-
Team All-Met accolades following her breakout campaign and helped
continue Frager’s record of having players recognized at the regional
level.
The Stags captured 18 victories during the 2008-09 campaign,
including a 12-6 mark in league play. The league win total was one
more than the 11 the Stags captured during Frager’s debut season
and was good for a second consecutive third place finish in the con-
ference regular season standings. The team rattled off an eight-game
winning streak from mid-January through mid-February, the longest
such streak for the program since 2000-01, and included a 7-2 mark
in the month of January.
Included in that stretch of games was the program’s first-ever win
over a nationally ranked team. Fairfield travelled to Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
on January 23, 2009 and knocked off #20 Marist, 73-65, in overtime
live on ESPNU. The victory also snapped the Red Foxes 37-game home
conference win streak.
Frager’s first season at the helm of the Stags, the 2007-08 cam-
paign, can only be considered a rousing success. Fairfield won 22
games, including five straight to start the season, and knocked off
ACC member Boston College and earned strong consideration for an
at-large berth to the WNIT. The win total was the fourth-most victories
in a single-season in the program’s history. It also marked the seventh-
time in program history that the Stags had won 20 or more games,
and the first time since the 2000-01 squad earned an at-large berth
to the NCAA Tournament. The squad fulfilled Frager’s goal of playing
well down the stretch, winning 12 of the final 16 games, including five
of six to finish the regular season.
Frager was named the program’s fifth-head coach, and second at
the Division I level, on April 18, 2007, coming to the Stags after a nine-
year stint as the head coach at Southern Connecticut State University.
Over the course of his tenure at SCSU, Frager built the Owls into a
Division II powerhouse, culminating in the 2007 National
Championship and an impressive nine-year record of 189-83. That
2006-07
Owls set a school record, posting a 34-2 record, beginning
the year with 20 consecutive wins, and ending with an 11-game post-
season win streak.
Frager earned instant recognition in his first year as a collegiate
coach, the 1998-99 season at Southern, earning New England
Collegiate Conference co-coach of the year accolades. He was hon-
ored after leading the Owls to an 18-win season, and the program's
first postseason berth since 1985, qualifying for the ECAC
Championship.
It was the first of many personal awards that Frager would earn dur-
ing his tenure at Southern Connecticut. He was named the Northeast-
10
Conference coach of the year each of his last three years at SCSU.
Frager received recognition from the Women's Basketball Coaches
Association (WBCA) in 2005 and 2006, being named the Region I
coach of the year. After capturing the 2007 National Championship,
Frager earned the Molton/Women's D-II Bulletin National Coach of the
Year award.
The 1999 postseason berth was the first of many for Frager, who
coached the Owls to four NCAA Tournament berths, and a spot in the
conference championship in each of his nine seasons. In each of his
four NCAA Tournament appearances, Frager's squads have picked up
at least one win, and he boasts a 9-3 NCAA Tournament record. The
first NCAA Tournament win of his coaching career came with a 66-63
over UMass-Lowell at the end of the 2002-03 campaign.
The 2003-04 season saw the Owls win 19 games and fall just short
of an NCAA Tournament berth. Frager's team still had an impact on the
national standings however, winning the statistical national title for
scoring defense for the first time.
Frager's Owls wasted no time in returning to the 20-win plateau and
postseason play. The 2004-05 season saw Frager lead the Owls to a
25-6
overall record and an 18-4 mark in Northeast-10 play. Frager's
Owls, who finished the year ranked 21st nationally, defeated Pace, 55-
33,
in the NCAA Northeast Regional to cap off the season.
A year later, Frager's squad posted a SCSU record 29 wins, and
advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. The
team captured the NE-10 regular season and tournament titles on the
way to a final national ranking of 14th. And for the second time in
three years, the Owls were the statistical national champions in scor-
ing defense.
Frager's road to Fairfield began in 1987 when he was named the
head varsity girls basketball coach at Seymour High School. Over the
next 11 seasons his teams compiled an impressive 208-58 record, for
a winning percentage of .782, and three state titles. Frager found a
winning way at Seymour, with 11 straight appearances in the CIAC
tournament and eight consecutive trips to the quarterfinals or beyond.
His charges put together a winning streak of 52 straight games during
the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons, with identical 26-0 records, and
a pair of state titles. Frager led the Wildcats to the first state title in
1993.
A native of Shelton, Conn., Frager earned a Bachelor's Degree in
Political Science from the University of Connecticut in 1984. In 1994
he earned a Master's Degree in Social Sciences from SCSU.
Frager, and his wife Shirley, reside in Southbury, Conn., with their
sons, Brendan and Kevin.
Joe Frager At A Glance
Education
University of Connecticut
B.S. in Political Science
1984
Southern Connecticut State
M.S. Social Sciences
1994
Coaching Career
Fairfield University
2007-
Present
Head Coach, Women’s Basketball
Southern Connecticut State
1998-2007
Head Coach, Women’s Basketball
Seymour High School
1987-1998
Head Coach, Girls’ Basketball
Honors and Accomplishments
New Haven Tap-Off Club Hall of Fame
2011
New England Basketball Hall of Fame
2009
CT Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame
2008
Molton/Women’s D-II Bulletin National Coach of the Year 2007
Northeast 10 Coach of the Year
2005, 2006, 2007
WBCA Region I Coach of the Year
2005, 2006
