Marnie Dacko enters her first season as an assistant with the Rams in 2010-11, after having spent the previous eight years as head coach at nearby Massachusetts. In her eight seasons in Amherst, Dacko coached an All-American honorable mention, the A-10 Defensive Player of the Year and saw the school's first WNBA draft pick when Jen Butler was selected 15th overall by the Cleveland Rockers. In 2004-05, UMass had two All-Rookie selections as well as a third-team All-Conference and All-Defensive player. 2005-06 saw the Minutewomen have two second-team All-Leaguers, while in 2007-08, Kate Mills and Pam Rosanio earned All-Conference recognition. The following season, Kristina Danella was named to the A-10 All-Rookie squad and - in Dacko's final year with the Minutewomen - Jasmine Watson earned the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year award. Dacko arrived at UMass on April 11, 2002, after a successful seven-year stint at Cornell. During her tenure with the Big Red, Dacko became the winningest women's basketball coach in Cornell history with 80 victories. Dacko directed the school to its first two winning seasons in the Ivy League during her last two years with back-to-back 8-6 marks. She also developed 10 All-League players, two Academic All-Ivy picks, one Ivy League Rookie of the Year and four Ivy All-Rookie team selections. As a rookie head coach in 1995-96, Dacko earned Ivy League Coach of the Year honors. Prior to her time at Cornell, Dacko spent 11 years as an assistant coach at Northwestern, where she coached 25 All-Big 10 players and 20 All-Academic selections, one Big 10 Player of the Year, a Kodak All-American, a Champion All-American and a pair of Street and Smith's All-Americans. The Wildcats won the Big 10 title in 1989-90 with a 24-5 record and made four NCAA Tournament appearances (1987, 1990, 1991 and 1993) during her tenure. In Dacko's 11 seasons as an assistant to the highly regarded head coach Don Perrelli, Northwestern built a national powerhouse. Dacko also was an assistant coach under Perrelli at St. John's from 1979-84. During her five seasons working at the Big East institution, the team recorded a 118-43 (.733) mark, including 102 victories during the last four years when the program made four straight postseason trips - three of which were to the AIAW or NCAA national tournaments. St. John's twice won the Big East tournament and set a school record with 27 victories in 1982-83 en route to capturing the league's first regular-season title. Dacko began to set her mark as a patient builder and rebuilder of programs when she started the softball program from scratch at St. John's in 1981. As head coach, she guided it to a 39-45 mark in four seasons at the helm, including the 1982 NYSAIAW softball title. The 1978 Southern Connecticut State graduate began her successful basketball career while in high school, leading her Trumbull, Conn. team to the state championship in 1974. In four seasons at Southern Connecticut, Dacko scored 1,306 points (14.7ppg) and grabbed 689 rebounds (7.7 rpg). Inducted into the Southern Connecticut State Hall of Fame in 1996, she led the Owls to a 72-27 record, four top 10 finishes and four trips to the AIAW Division I national tournament as a player. Dacko averaged team-highs of 17.2 points and 9.6 rebounds as a junior, as SCSU finished 20-6 overall and sixth at the national tournament. In her senior season, the Owls went 19-11 and finished fifth at the AIAW national tournament behind her 17 points and seven rebounds per game. In her final season of college ball Dacko was a finalist for the prestigious Margaret Wade Trophy, awarded annually to the nation's top women's basketball player. Upon graduation, she ranked as the top scorer and rebounder in school history. Dacko was also inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2006. While basketball was her main focus at Southern Connecticut, she also earned three letters in softball and two in volleyball. After graduating from Southern Connecticut State, Dacko began her collegiate coaching career as a assistant at Wisconsin in 1978-79. A graduate of Trumbull (Conn.) High School, Dacko was a 1990 inductee into the Connecticut Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the Trumbull High School Hall of Fame. updated: 9/9/10