Stephanie Gaitley, women’s basketball head coach, has left Fordham University, according to a statement released from Fordham Athletics on June 30, 2022.

Just two years into her Fordham career, Coach Gaitley foreshadowed a tremendous future for the women’s team by earning the Maggie Dixon Metropolitan Coach of the Year award. She went on to win the award two more times in her Fordham career. In 2019, Coach Gaitley also won the Basketball Coaches Association of New York’s Coach of the Year award. That same year Gaitley led the women’s basketball team to number two in the Atlantic 10 (A10) championship with a total of 25 wins and just nine losses. 

In just over 10 years, Coach Gaitley has made herself into a historic coach for the Fordham Women’s basketball team as she has earned 220 of her career wins at the Jesuit university.

In her years at Fordham, Gaitley had dug the women’s basketball team out of a deep trench after 20 years of poor performance, leading the Rams to two A10 championships in just 11 years as well as upholding a career record of nearly 700 wins and 393 losses. In just over 10 years, Coach Gaitley has made herself into a historic coach for the Fordham Women’s basketball team as she has earned 220 of her career wins at the Jesuit university. 

In all her years at Fordham, the team has been noted as being within the top 45 women’s teams in defense.

Coach Gaitley built the Rams’ defense from the ground up, and now the team is prided on their defensive abilities. In all her years at Fordham, the team has been noted as being within the top 45 women’s teams in defense. In seven of her 11 years, the team has reached their defensive capabilities into the top-20. 

In just over four decades, before Gaitley joined Fordham, the university’s women’s basketball team only had only five seasons where they won 20 or more games. She led the team to have seven seasons with over 20 wins. 

In a November 2021 interview with the Observer, Coach Gaitley shared her optimism for the 2021-22 season, “Our goal is to continue to build on what we’re doing,” Gaitley shares, “and not just being satisfied with the status quo.”

Coach Gaitley proved this statement true in the 2021-22 season as the Rams finished sixth in the A10 championship.

Although Gaitley shared that sentiment of dedication with The Observer in November, it is a mentality that represents her years as the leading figure for the women’s program. 

Fordham Director of Athletics, Ed Kull, is expected to appoint an interim head coach shortly. 

This is a developing story; check back for updates.