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Quinnipiac Women's Basketball Coach Hits Remarkable Milestone

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Quinnipiac women's basketball head coach Tricia Fabbri is closing in on 500 career wins. As of this article, she’s just three away at 497.

“It's remarkable,” said Fabbri. “Actually taking just a moment to think about and to really process that it's been 28 years.”

A lot can happen in three decades.

“There was a lot of different ‘Quinnipiacs.’ From Division II to Division I, from Braves to Bobcats," Fabbri said.

She has been there to see it all and her team has seen her through a lot, too.

Her first year in Hamden was 1995. She had her first child, Carly, in 1996.

“I think I was just young enough to say 'we're going to go for it,'” said Fabbri. “Just start everything in the same year.”

Ask Fabbri about her record milestone and you’ll see she doesn’t like to talk about it, mostly out of humility, maybe a little superstition, too.

But if you get her talking about the women she’s met along the way, that’s a story she’d love to tell.

“I played for [former Fairfield Women’s Basketball Head Coach] Dianne Nolan who was married and had a family so I saw it,” Fabbri said.

She had an example and now after 28 years in Hamden, Fabbri is happy to be an example, too.

“It's a lifestyle. There are no hours,” Fabbri said. “It's also really the business. You know, really being comfortable being the lone woman sitting at the table when there's a bunch of gentlemen there."

It’s a small club - female Division 1 college coaches. Even smaller is those who take on starting a family.

Head women’s hockey coach Cassandra Turner has always known where to look for advice.

“I will never forget coming to watch basketball games before I had children and seeing Carly, her daughter, getting water,” said Turner. “Taking it all in but not thinking that deeply about it. Just seeing it as, ‘Oh this is how it will go.’”

Turner knows now it's not that easy - she has kids of her own. But as Nolan before Fabbri and Fabbri before Turner, each one preparing the next.

“Her drive to want to be great and to want to create a phenomenal experience for her student-athletes, that's what's gotten her here,” Turner said. “And it's been really, really neat to watch.”

A lot can happen in 28 years. Yes, like 500 wins. But also becoming a mother, a mentor and making a whole lot of memories.

“It's been my life,” said Fabbri. “It's really been my life's work and I’m really proud of it because it's been consistently trying to be my best year after year.”

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