Barb Bausch will be entering her second season as the head women's basketball coach after a successful first year at the helm. This past summer, Bausch received additional responsibilities as she was named the senior woman administrator as well as Student-Athlete Advisory Board advisor.
In her first season, she guided the Seahawks to an 18-8 record as well as a third-place finish in the league standings with an 11-5 mark. Bausch also mentored a pair of All-CAC picks.
Bausch came to St. Mary's after serving as the head coach for one season at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. where she mentored one All-Liberty League player. The Brewers (6-18) played three NCAA Tournament squads in 2006-07.
Before arriving at Vassar, she served as an assistant coach at her alma mater, California State University, Fullerton, from 2003 to 2006.
The Yorba Linda, Calif. native served as the head coach and senior woman administrator at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. for 10 seasons, compiling a record of 187-80 (.700) with the Quakers. Bausch led Guilford to the regular-season Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) championship and guided the school to back-to-back appearances in the second round of the NCAA Tournament from 2000-02. The all-time leader in women's basketball coaching victories at Guilford, she was named the ODAC Coach-of-the-Year twice (1995 and 2000), coached four league players-of-the-year, two ODAC Rookies-of-the-Year, two All-Americans, and seven all-conference honorees to 14 first- or second-team All-ODAC commendations.
Bausch finished her tenure with the Quakers with three consecutive 20-win seasons, including a school-record 25 wins in 2001-02. In 1995, she guided the Quakers to 20 victories and the first of four consecutive ODAC Tournament semifinal appearances. As Guilford's SWA, Bausch chaired the ODAC Women's Basketball Committee and served on the Quaker Club Executive Board.
She joined the Quakers in 1993 after coaching and teaching in the physical education department at Pomona-Pitzer College in Pomona, Calif. Bausch also made assistant coaching stops at Cerritos College in Norwalk, Calif. (1991-92) and Springfield College (1990-91) in Massachusetts.
In addition to her experience at the college level, she has taken her talents overseas, having coached for 11 years at the Hoersholm Invitational Basketball Camp in Denmark. Bausch has also served as a coach at the World Scholar-Athlete Games, the Rhode Island Scholar-Athlete Games, and the Ireland Scholar-Athlete Games.
She earned her B.A. in exercise science in 1987 from Cal State Fullerton. Bausch then completed her master's degree in sports psychology in 1991 at Fullerton as well.
The 2008-09 campaign marks the first season for Jeff Byrd as an assistant on the women's basketball coaching staff.
Byrd also serves as the St. Mary's Faculty Athletic Representative and has held that position since 2003.
An avid sports fan, Byrd is a professor of biology and has been at the College since 1990. He received his B.S. from Cook College at Rutgers University in 1983, his M.S. from The Pennsylvania State University in 1985, and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1991.
The former chair of the biology department at St. Mary's, his scientific field is microbiology (mainly bacteriology). Byrd currently holds the Aldom-Plansoen Distinguished Professorship which he earned in 2007. The professorship is awarded to newly tenured faculty and provides research funds for faculty scholarship to sustain and enrich scholarly contributions.
The Willingboro, N.J. native is a former editor-in-chief for the American Society for Microbiology's Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education and a former commissioner for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
At St. Mary's, Byrd teaches Genetics, Microbiology, Virology, and Contemporary Bioscience (Biology of Infectious Disease) and also serves as a research mentor for the St. Mary's Projects.
