Kristin Hughes begins her third season at the helm of the Colgate University women’s basketball program.
In her two seasons as the head coach, Hughes has led the Raiders to the Patriot League Tournament semifinals twice and guided Colgate to a runner-up finish in her inaugural season. Last season, the Raiders posted a 6-8 mark in the league, advancing to the league tournament semifinals before falling to eventual champion Army.
Colgate played arguably the toughest schedule in the Patriot League going up against the likes of Vanderbilt, Boston College, and Syracuse early in the season.
The Raiders suffered a few setbacks with injuries in the early going, but really hit their stride towards the end of the year. Colgate won six of its final 11 games before losing to Army.
Hughes mentored a pair of all-league players in first-team selection senior MEGAN BALLARD and all-rookie team honoree GRETCHEN POLINSKI. Four athletes also earned Patriot League Academic Honor Roll recognition under her watch.
In her first season at Colgate, Hughes led the Raiders to a runner-up finish in the Patriot League Tournament. She mentored first-team all-league pick Emily Braseth ’05 and the 2005 Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year in Ballard. Five Raiders also were named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll under her watch.
Hughes came to Colgate from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where she worked as Case’s interim athletics director and head women’s basketball coach.
Hughes served as the Spartans’ head women’s basketball coach for 11 seasons. During her tenure, she became the all-time winningest coach in the history of the program with 120 victories.
The highlight of her career came during the 2001-02 season when she guided the Spartans to their first-ever bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament. The team finished second in the University Athletic Association with a 20-7 overall record before advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Case defeated Mt. St. Mary’s, 59-56, in the first round before losing a 73-67 decision to St. Lawrence, which eventually lost in the championship game.
In 1995-96, Hughes led Case to a third-place finish in the North Coast Athletic Conference with its first winning season since 1983. She became the first CWRU women’s basketball coach to be named Coach of the Year. The following season, Hughes saw her squad advance to the semifinal round of the NCAC Tournament for the first time in 10 seasons.
Hughes coached all seven of the 1,000-point scorers in Case’s history, including current Colgate assistant coach Angie Zeuch, and the first All-American in the history of the program.
In 2000, Hughes was promoted to the position of assistant athletic director and primary women’s administrator. She was named interim athletic director in 2003. In her position as interim athletics director, Hughes oversaw 19 varsity sports, 16 club programs, the physical education curriculum, and the intramural and recreation programs.
Prior to her arrival at Case, Hughes spent two years as an assistant basketball coach at Amherst College, as well as an assistant varsity and head junior varsity women’s lacrosse coach at Smith College.
A 1991 graduate of Elms College, Hughes won the Monsignor Timothy J. Leary Student-Athlete Award as a senior. She played basketball and lacrosse all four years, and captained both teams her junior and senior seasons. In 1993, she completed a master’s degree in exercise and sports studies at Smith College.
Hughes recently was inducted into the Elms College Hall of Fame. She joined three other inductees as the first class to be voted into the Athletic Hall of Fame since 2002.
Hughes resides in Hamilton with her daughter Emma.
