Following a coaching and teaching career that spanned over 40 seasons, Springfield College Women’s Basketball Head Coach and Associate Professor of Physical Education Naomi Graves G’85 has announced that she will retire at the conclusion of the 2025-26 academic year.
“For 35 years, Coach Graves excelled at her craft on Alden Street. The imprint she leaves behind on women’s basketball at Springfield College will be everlasting,” said Executive Director of Athletics Dr. Craig Poisson. “Beyond her national accolades and her postseason successes, Naomi also made her mark in the classroom as a consummate teacher-coach, impacting the lives of hundreds of students in addition to our student-athletes on the hardwood. I am grateful for Coach Graves’ longevity on the coaching staff and I wish her the best in retirement.”
Graves ranks 12th among active Division III women’s basketball coaches for wins. In fact, across all three Divisions, Graves is one of only 99 head coaches to ever eclipse 600 career coaching wins. She retires as the program’s longest tenured head coach, as the all-time wins leader and is the only one in the program’s 62 year history to ever reach 100 or more wins.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to be the Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Springfield College,” said Graves. “It was a dream of mine to be a teacher/coach at this institution and I am so grateful to have worked with so many student-athletes, staff and coaches. I leave the Springfield College Community with such gratitude.”
Since Springfield joined the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC)/ New England Women’s 8 (NEW 8) at the start of the 1995-96 season, Graves led Springfield to six conference championship titles, six regular season conference titles and earned conference coach of the year accolades four times. Graves also coached seven major award winners including three Rookies of the Year, three Defensive Athletes of the Year and one Athlete of the Year. Graves also coached All-Americans Sam Hourihan ’23 and Angie Czeremcha ’25.
Over her 41 seasons of coaching that spanned 35 seasons at Springfield College and six at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Graves produced 616 victories – 548 of which came during her time on Alden Street. Under Graves’ tutelage, Springfield made eight appearances in the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament and reached the big dance for the first time in program history in 2001. That season, the Pride won their first NCAA Tournament game, 60-49, over the University of Southern Maine before bowing out in the second round.
The next season, Springfield earned a first-round bye before defeating Eastern Connecticut State University, 61-50 to reach the round of 16 for the first time. In 2005, Graves and the Springfield College women’s basketball team made history advancing to the Elite Eight following wins over Stockton (64-60), Mount Saint Mary’s (NY) (66-60) and Wesleyan (CT) (62-56) coming just a win shy of the Final Four. The Pride wouldn’t make a run that deep until reaching the round of 16 in 2022 with a 73-68 win over Messiah and a buzzer beater 73-71 overtime victory over Ithaca.
Graves received her bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of Rhode Island (URI) in 1982. She was captain of the basketball team and scored 1,862 career points – the second most in school history, while receiving URI Female Athlete of the Year honors as a senior. Graves was named to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) All-America team as a senior, and was an All-New England selection in each of her four years with the Rams. She was inducted into the URI Athletics Hall of Fame on October 20, 1995.
In 2008, Graves received the Judy Sweet Award, which is given annually at the NCAA Women Coaches Academy in Denver, Colo. for a coach who’s spirit and willingness to live her story with integrity and perspective for her own and other’s personal and professional success. A year later, Graves was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame – she in fact was inducted as both a student-athlete and a coach.
Off the court, Graves was named as a Distinguished Professor of Humanics (DPH) at Springfield College as a teacher-coach who demonstrates, through their life and work, the principles of the College’s Humanics philosophy and mission to educate students in spirit, mind, and body for leadership in service to humanity. Her Humanics Lecture: The Call Me “Coach”: The Role of the Teacher-Coach in the Stewardship of Humanics was delivered in 2012.
In 2017, Graves also became only the third Division III women’s basketball head coach to receive the WBCA’s Carole Eckman Integrity in Coaching Award, which is given annually to a coach that exemplifies spirit, integrity and character through sportsmanship, commitment to the student-athlete, honesty, ethical behavior, courage and dedication to purpose. The award has been given out since 1986 – a span of 40 seasons where now only four of the 40 recipients have come from the Division III realm (Mapp – Bridgewater, Cook – Gallaudet, Graves – Springfield, Jeffers – Capital).
Graves served one year as an assistant basketball coach at URI before attending graduate school at Springfield College, where she earned her master’s degree in physical education in 1985. Graves also served as president of the Women’s Basketball Association in 1986 and was a member of the ECAC Selection Committee for three years. Graves is an active member of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), and was the District 1 representative for the NCAA Division III Coach of the Year committee. She has also served as a member of the New England Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (NEWBA).
A native of Williamsburg, Mass., Graves is one of Massachusetts all-time basketball greats. As a senior at Hampshire Regional High School, she averaged 23 points and 17 rebounds and was named a high school All-American.
Graves led her squad to four state championships and earned an unprecedented three MVP Awards at the Western Massachusetts State Tournament. Graves was the Western Massachusetts scoring leader with 2,137 career points until former Southwick High star (and UConn All-American) Rebecca Lobo broke her record.
Tagged with: D3 NEWMAC
