Big West Conference Women's Basketball Coach of the Year

Big West Coach of the Year

Awarded for	the top women's basketball coach in the Big West Conference
History
First award	1983–84
First winner	Sheila Strike-Bolla & Jim Bolla, UNLV
Most wins	8, Hawaii & UC Santa Barbara
Most recent	Laura Beeman, Hawaii

The Big West Conference Women's Basketball Coach of the Year is an annual college basketball award given to head coaches in the Big West Conference.

The award was first given at the end of the 1983–84 season, when the conference was known as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA), to husband and wife co-coaches Sheila Strike and Jim Bolla of UNLV. The programs with the most awards are Hawaii and UC Santa Barbara with 8, with Mark French's conference-leading 7 awards and Laura Beeman garnering the award in 2025. Jennifer Gross is the only head coach to win five consecutive coach of the year honors, her most recent being after the 2020–21 season. ^[1]

Winners

Season	Coach	School	Source(s)
1983–84	Sheila Strike-Bolla Jim Bolla	UNLV	[2]
1984–85	Sheila Strike-Bolla (2) Jim Bolla (2)	UNLV (2)
1985–86	Joan Bonvicini	Long Beach State
1986–87	Bill Nepfel	Hawaii
1987–88	Maryalyce Jeremiah	Cal State Fullerton
1988–89	Vince Goo	Hawaii (2)
1989–90	Jim Bolla (3)	UNLV (3)
1990–91	Maryalyce Jeremiah (2)	Cal State Fullerton (2)
1991–92	Mark French	UC Santa Barbara
1992–93	Vince Goo (2)	Hawaii (3)
1993–94	Vince Goo (3)	Hawaii (4)
1994–95	Colleen Matsuhara	UC Irvine
1995–96	Mark French (2)	UC Santa Barbara (2)
1996–97	Mark French (3)	UC Santa Barbara (3)
1997–98	Mark French (4)	UC Santa Barbara (4)
1998–99	Tina Slinker	North Texas
1999–2000	Mark French (5)	UC Santa Barbara (5)
	Faith Mimnaugh	Cal Poly
2000–01	Mark French (6)	UC Santa Barbara (6)
2001–02	Jennifer Young	UC Riverside
2002–03	Mark French (7)	UC Santa Barbara (7)
2003–04	Mike Divilbiss	Idaho
2004–05	Tammy Holder	Cal State Northridge
2005–06	Mary Hegarty	Long Beach State (2)
2006–07	John Margaritis	UC Riverside (2)
2007–08	Sandy Simpson	UC Davis
2008–09	Lindsay Gottlieb	UC Santa Barbara (8)
2009–10	Sandy Simpson (2)	UC Davis (2)
2010–11	Faith Mimnaugh (2)	Cal Poly (2)
2011–12	Jason Flowers	Cal State Northridge (2)
2012–13	Lynne Roberts	Pacific
2013–14	Jason Flowers (2)	Cal State Northridge (3)
2014–15	Laura Beeman	Hawaii (5)	[2] [3]
2015–16	John Margaritis (2)	UC Riverside (3)	[2]
2016–17	Jennifer Gross	UC Davis (3)
2017–18	Jennifer Gross (2)	UC Davis (4)
2018–19	Jennifer Gross (3)	UC Davis (5)
2019–20	Jennifer Gross (4)	UC Davis (6)	[4]
2020–21	Jennifer Gross (5)	UC Davis (7)	[5]
	Tamara Inoue	UC Irvine (2)
2021–22	Laura Beeman (2)	Hawaii (6)	[6]
2022–23	Jeff Cammon	Long Beach State (3)
2023–24	Laura Beeman (3)	Hawaii (7)	[7]
2024–25	Laura Beeman (4)	Hawaii (8)	[8]

Winners by school

School	Winners	Years
UC Santa Barbara	8	1992, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2009
Hawaii [a]	8	1987, 1989, 1993, 1994, 2015, 2022, 2024, 2025
UC Davis	7	2008, 2010, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
Cal State Northridge	3	2005, 2012, 2014
Long Beach State	3	1986, 2006, 2023
UC Riverside	3	2002, 2007, 2016
UNLV [b]	3	1984, 1985, 1990
Cal State Fullerton	2	1988, 1991
Cal Poly	2	2000, 2011
UC Irvine	2	1995, 2021
Idaho [c]	1	2005
North Texas [d]	1	1999
Pacific [e]	1	2013

• Among current Big West members, Bakersfield and UC San Diego have yet to have an honored coach.
• Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico State, San Diego State, San Jose State, and Utah State never had an honored coach during their Big West tenures. Another former member, Cal State Los Angeles, left what was then known as the PCAA before the conference sponsored women's sports.

Notes

1. Hawaii left the Big West Conference in 1996 to join the Western Athletic Conference, and rejoined the Big West in 2012.
2. UNLV left the Big West Conference for the Mountain West Conference in 1996.
3. Idaho left the Big West Conference for the Western Athletic Conference in 2005 and is currently a member of the Big Sky Conference.
4. North Texas left the Big West Conference for the Sun Belt Conference in 2000 and is currently a member of the American Athletic Conference.
5. Pacific left the Big West Conference for the West Coast Conference in 2013.

References

1. #BigWestHoops [@BigWestHoops] (March 8, 2021). "One of the #BWWBB Co-Coaches of the year is @UCDavisWBB Jennifer Gross! ..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
2. Big West Conference Women's Basketball Record Book (PDF) (March 2020 ed.). Big West Conference. p. 25. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
3. "Beeman named Coach of Year in Big West basketball". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
4. "Big West Announces Women's Basketball All-Conference Lists and Awards". Big West Conference. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
5. "BIG WEST ANNOUNCES 2020-21 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL MAJOR AWARDS". Big West Conference. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
6. "The Big West Announces 2021-22 Women's Basketball All-Conference Team". Big West Conference. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
7. "2023-24 Women's Basketball All-Big West Awards and Teams Announced" (Press release). Big West Conference. March 12, 2024. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
8. "Hawaii's Lily Wahinekapu named Big West Player of the Year". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. March 11, 2025. Retrieved March 11, 2025.