One of the winningest coaches in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference history, Shirley Egner begins her 20th season as head coach of the Pointers in 2008-09.
Egner has compiled a 332-164 overall record in her 19 seasons, ranking second on the all-time WIAC wins list. The Pointers have won at least 18 games each of the past eight seasons and own a league-best .813 winning percentage during that time. Egner’s all-time coaching record, including high school, is 473-214.
Coach Egner led the Pointers to the 2001-02 NCAA Division III championship with a 67-65 win over St. Lawrence (N.Y.). She then took the Pointers back to the final four again two years later in 2003-04, where they placed fourth.
The Pointers have achieved their best success in recent seasons with a 183-45 record over the past eight seasons, which is the best winning percentage of any league team over that span. UW-Stevens Point’s best record was 30-3 during its championship season in 2001-02, becoming just the eighth team in Division III history to win 30 games in a season. Along the way to the championship, Egner also guided the Pointers to a 66-60 victory over four-time defending Division III champion Washington (Mo.), snapping the Bears’ 70-game home winning streak.
UW-Stevens Point won back-to-back WIAC titles in 2003-04 and 2004-05. In 2003-04, the Pointers also captured their first-ever WIAC tournament crown as Egner was named the league’s Coach of the Year.
Last season the Pointers finished third in the WIAC regular season standings, but became the first non-No. 1 seed ever to win the WIAC tournament crown with wins at Whitewater and at Eau Claire as Egner was again named Coach of the Year. Pointers are a league-best 96-32 in the WIAC over the past eight seasons.
Egner came to UW-Stevens Point from Nicholls State University in Thibodeaux, La., where she served as a graduate assistant.
A native of McFarland, Wis. and a 1980 graduate of UW-La Crosse, she began her coaching career as head girls’ basketball coach at Shiocton (Wis.) High School. After a one-year stint as the girls’ freshman coach at Monona Grove (Wis.) High School, she became head girls’ coach at Waunakee (Wis.) High School, where she led the Warriors to a five-year record of 115-40, including conference titles in 1985, 1986 and 1987 and state tournament appearances in 1986 and 1987.
Following the 1986-87 season, she was named the WBCA District Five Coach of the Year and was chosen to coach the Class B South Team in the WBCA All-Star Game in Madison.
Egner, who was the chair of the NCAA Division III women’s basketball committee from 2006-08 overseeing the national selection committee, is the senior women’s administrator and also a lecturer in the Department of Health, Exercise Science and Athletics at UW-Stevens Point.
