Stefanie L. Pemper, former head coach of the Bowdoin women’s basketball team, led the team to unprecedented success and lifted the program to an elite level, regularly capturing conference titles, competing for national championships, and setting the Polar Bears on a path of sustained excellence that continues to this day.
In her ten seasons at Bowdoin from 1998 to 2008, her teams achieved a remarkable winning percentage of 83 percent (235-48) while winning 90 percent of its games in the notoriously competitive NESCAC, capturing the first seven championships in the history of the league. From 2001 to 2007, her teams won seventy-six consecutive games at home, the fourth-longest home-winning streak in the history of NCAA Division III women’s basketball and, under her leadership, the Polar Bears qualified for the NCAA Tournament nine times, reaching the Sweet Sixteen seven straight years and advancing to the Elite Eight six consecutive times. During the 2003–2004 season, Pemper led her team to a record of 30-1 and the first NCAA championship game, in any sport, in Bowdoin’s history, and was named the WBCA Division III Coach of the Year.
A former standout player at Idaho State University, Pemper was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2003 and, in 2009, was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.
