Marist College assistant coach Megan Gebbia was named AU women’s basketball head coach on Aug. 12, replacing former coach Matt Corkery.
Gebbia joins the Eagles after serving 10 years at Marist, seven as associate head coach of the women’s basketball team. Prior to Marist, Gebbia was an assistant coach at AU during the 1995-96 season.
“The timing is right for me, the place is right for me,” Gebbia said about coming to AU. “There was no question for me.”
Corkery departed AU after five seasons to become the associate head coach at Texas Tech University.
The hiring of Gebbia marks the third coach new Director of Athletics and Recreation Billy Walker has hired since taking over in April.
"Megan clearly shares our department's philosophy regarding the value of intercollegiate athletics as a complement to the University's academic mission,” Walker told AUEagles.com
In her time at Marist, Gebbia helped lead the Red Foxes to 10 straight seasons of 20 wins including nine Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships.
Since taking over Gebbia has spoken with some but not all of the team. In her conversations with the team, some players mentioned they had underachieved last year, but believe they have a chance to do well this year.
Last year the Eagles recorded their lowest win total since Corkery took over in 2008.
“Overall I think it’s a great group of young ladies,” Gebbia said. “They are really intelligent and seem like they really want to work for it. We just have to build on team chemistry.”
Gebbia said she was still thinking about changes in the coaching staff and will be interviewing the current assistant coaches in coming weeks.
Time will be of importance for Gebbia as she will have just over a month and a half before preparations begin for the upcoming season.
esaltzman@theeagleonline.com
