| Mike Petersen |
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2008-09 will mark head coach Mike Petersen's fifth season at the helm of the Wake Forest women's basketball program.
When Petersen began working with the Demon Deacons in 2004, he guided the team to its first winning season in 14 years, ending the campaign with a third-round trip to the WNIT to mark the program's first non-conference post-season appearance since 1988.
The following season, Petersen continued to build on the new foundations, leading the squad to a 12-16 overall record. The Deacs finished 3-13 in the ACC, which proved to be arguably the toughest conference in the nation. At the end of the season, Petersen signed a seven-year contract extension which will keep him in the Wake Forest head coaching position until at least 2013, allowing time to build a solid program that can be highly competitive on both the conference and national stage.
Last season, Wake Forest bettered its record from the 2006-07 season by six wins, despite losing its leading scorer and starting three sophomores and two freshmen at different points during the year. The Demon Deacons finished 12-2 in non-conference play, the team's best opening mark since 1987. WFU received several votes for the AP Poll early in the season when it landed an upset over 10th-ranked Texas A&M at the Paradise Jam Tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Wake Forest went on to take the St. John's division title at the event with wins over Indiana and Wichita State.
Just as conference season started things began to shake up for the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest lost two point guards to injuries and struggled through the first half of the ACC slate while adjusting to the lineup changes. The real proof of Wake's late season improvement came at the ACC tournament when the Deacons battled Florida State. When the teams met earlier in the season, FSU took a decisive 80-54 win. At the tournament, Wake Forest held a lead at halftime and narrowly missed an upset over the sixth-seed with a 57-52 loss.
In four years, Petersen has coached several athletes that have garnered honors from other ACC coaches. Cotelia Bond-Young had a standout season for her final year with the Deacs in 2005-06. Bond-Young earned third team All-ACC honors after leading the conference in three-pointers and finished as the Deacs' fifth all-time leading scorer and the program's all-time leader in three-pointers made.
Liz Strunk also had a solid campaign in 2005-06, as she joined Bond-Young in Wake Forest's 1,000-point club. Freshman Deirdre Naughton was named to the ACC All-Freshman team and received conference Rookie of the Week honors twice.
Petersen's outgoing on-court personality and the team's new fast-paced style of play created a buzz, and the seats in the Lawrence Joel Coliseum began to fill. Breaking the overall attendance record on 2004-05, the Wake Forest women's basketball program spent the majority of the year in the top 50 in the country for attendance. The Deacs finished their first year under Petersen with the fourth-most improved attendance in the nation.
The Demon Deacons continued to set new attendance marks under Petersen in 2005-06. Wake Forest drew a record-breaking crowd on Jan. 27 against North Carolina, as 5,342 fans were in attendance. The Deacs drew over 3,700 fans to five different games.
Petersen arrived in Winston-Salem after five years with the Minnesota men's basketball program, serving as associate head coach for four seasons under Don Monson. Petersen was involved in every aspect of the Minnesota program, but primarily with individual player development, scheduling, offensive play-calling, opponent scouting and game-planning. He directed an offense that led the Big Ten in scoring and field goal percentage in 2001-02 and was second in scoring offense in 2002-03. Petersen also worked extensively with future NBA lottery pick Joel Przybilla -- who improved his scoring from 6.5 ppg as a freshman to 17.2 ppg as a sophomore.
Petersen joined the Golden Gophers in 1999 after three seasons as the head coach of the TCU women's basketball program from 1996-99. Inheriting a program that went 3-52 in the two years prior to his arrival, Petersen guided the Horned Frogs to the program's first-ever winning season, first-ever conference tournament victory and a then school record 16 wins in 1999. In his first full season with the Horned Frogs, he landed a recruiting class ranked in the top 25 by the Blue Star Report. Petersen was also instrumental as TCU raised its average attendance from 250 to 1,880 -- an increase of more than 750 percent. Prior to taking over at TCU, Petersen was the women's head coach at New Mexico State University from 1992-96. Similar to TCU, he inherited a program that went 30-32 the previous two seasons and did not return a single starter for the 1992-93 season.
In his four seasons with the Aggies, Petersen recorded three consecutive 20-win seasons and compiled an 81-38 (.681) overall record and a 53-19 (.736) record in Big West Conference games. Petersen, who led the Aggies to their first-ever Big West Conference title in 1995, was responsible for the development of 1995-96 All-American and WNBA player, Anita Maxwell. Not only did he sign a top 25 recruiting class, but Petersen also helped the Aggies lead the Big West Conference in attendance all four years. Petersen spent three years as an assistant coach with the men's program at the University of Oregon prior to his stint at New Mexico State. While with the Ducks, Petersen coached former Minnesota Timberwolves' guard Terrell Brandon, making him the first college basketball coach to have coached both an NBA player and WNBA player. In 1985, Petersen accepted the head women's coaching position at Gonzaga University. During his first season, Petersen led the Zags to a 21-10 record and missed the NAIA National Tournament by a single game. After an 11-16 record in their transition year into NCAA Division I athletics, Gonzaga shocked the experts by winning the West Coast Conference title in its inaugural season in the conference -- only their second year at the NCAA Division I level.
Before moving into the coaching ranks, Petersen enjoyed a stellar college playing career. He began at the College of the Redwoods in Eureka, Calif. After two seasons, he transferred to Northwest Christian College, an NAIA school in Eugene, Ore.
In his junior year, Petersen helped the Crusaders to a 22-7 record and the Pacific Northwest Collegiate Conference title. His senior year, he blossomed and was named to the Little All-America team. He finished his career among the top 10 all-time leading scorers in school history in just two full seasons.
Petersen stayed on as an assistant men's coach at Northwest Christian while he completed his undergraduate work in Biblical studies in 1983. After more than two and a half years with the NCC program, Petersen left for Oregon in the middle of the 1983 season to become an assistant coach for the women's team. During his season and a half, the Ducks won the NorPac title and earned an NCAA tournament berth in 1984.
In September of this year, Northwest Christian College announced its inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame with Petersen being one of three inductees.
"It's a huge honor for me and I'm very flattered and humbled to be included in the first Hall of Fame class," said Petersen. "Northwest Christian College was and continues to be an important part of my life and shaped who I was as an athlete and a person. My experience there had a huge impact on me and it's very gratifying and humbling to be honored."
Petersen, 51, and his wife of 30 years, Patty, have two sons, Riley (20), who is a sophomore at Wake Forest, and Jake (16).
