Homeward Bound: Maria Marchesano
Homeward Bound: Maria Marchesano Brings History of Success to Moribund PFW Program
UNSCRIPTED
By Keith Edmonds
Fort Wayne Ink Spot
There are times when the expectant “unexpectantly” happens.
What I’m referring to is the moment that the women’s basketball program at Maryland’s Mount St. Mary’s University, led by Fort Wayne native Maria Marchesano, won the Northeastern Conference championship game in dominating fashion by defeating Wagner University 70-38 to advance to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament for the first time in 26 years. They’d been conference semifinalists the year before.
This capped off a tremendous spring for Marchesano—an Elmhurst High School alum—as she was also named the conference’s Coach of the Year.
Then there’s a moment when momentum and the unexpected meet.
On March 30, the Butler grad with deep ties to Indiana and the Midwest was hired to lead Purdue Fort Wayne’s women’s basketball team, a program that won one game last season and just 22 games in the last five years.
“Coach Marchesano is a seasoned coach and mentor to her student-athletes, and has demonstrated the integrity, tremendous work ethic, and enthusiasm vital to lead us in advancing our women’s basketball program,” said Kelley Hartley Hutton, PFW’s athletic director. “Coach Marchesano also understands the needs of our program and the importance of our student-athletes being successful in the classroom and on the court.”
The excitement over Marchesano’s hire is palpable and measurable. Nine days after the announcement, former Homestead great Sylare Starks announced that she was transferring to PFW from the University of Detroit Mercy.
Q: You’ve got NCAA experience and now you come back home to where it all began for you.
A: While moves like these are always bittersweet, I couldn’t be more excited to come home to Fort Wayne and be a part of the Mastodon tradition. I enjoyed my time at Mount St. Mary’s and the experiences that I had there (especially this last season).
I’ve had some opportunities prior to this but they kept taking me further and further away from the Midwest and home. This was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up at PFW and with them making the move to the Horizon League that made this position even more desirable. I am super grateful that Kelley (Hartley Hutton) and the rest of the administration are entrusting me with the future of the program, and I can’t wait to get to work.
Q: It was quite a season for you, making the NCAA tournament.
A: It really capped off a great year at Mount St. Mary’s. The girls worked hard, and it was so neat to see them celebrate and appreciate all that they’ve worked hard for what has been two years in the making.
Q: Can you explain what “two years in the making” means?
A: What I meant is that we felt that we had this type of team last year as we won 20 games and had huge momentum going into our conference tournament which would have determined whether we go to the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, that was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we couldn’t represent our league in the “Dance” last year. Our success this season wasn’t totally unexpected simply because we had a great number of our players returning from last season.”
Q: With the threat of the virus and all the uncertainty coming into this year, how did you keep your kids focused on your goals to finish what you started last season?
A: We just decided that we could only handle what we could handle and whatever that looked like we were prepared to take it on. We went through three shutdowns (because of Covid-19) which ended up being a total of 16 days lost where we couldn’t do anything with our team. One of our best players was out for three months; the most difficult part of all of this was that we had to play 10 games in 20 days with eight of those games coming in a 14-day span. So to say it was “trying” is an understatement.
But you know, I think that’s what makes me most proud of this team. They went through so much and never complained, they just did what they had to do, and we won nine straight games to get (to the NCAA tournament). It’s interesting that we beat Wagner University in the conference championship game after they’d beaten us two times during the regular season. Again, it’s part of what made the season so sweet.