| Kristen Patterson | ||
 |
Title | Head Women's Basketball Coach |
| kristen.patterson@aic.edu | ||
| Phone | (413) 205-3924 | |
Kristen Patterson, one of the finest student-athletes ever to
compete for the Yellow Jackets, was named the fifth head
coach in AIC women's basketball history on June 14, 2007.
Patterson, who enters the 2007-08 season days shy of her 28th
birthday, is currently the seventh-youngest head coach in Division
II women's basketball.
A 2002 graduate of American International with a degree in Business Management who later went on to earn her MBA at the College, Patterson has spent the last four seasons as AIC's top assistant. Over that span, the Yellow Jackets posted a combined 94-31 (.752) record with four NCAA Tournament appearances and a berth in the NCAA Division II national championship game in 2006 after capturing the Northeast Region championship. Last season the Yellow Jackets posted a 21-8 mark and finished in a second-place tie in the Northeast-10.
As a player, Patterson, a three-year captain for
the Yellow Jackets, led AIC to the NCAA
Tournament as a sophomore, junior and senior, culminating with a
school-record 28-4 mark and the program's first-ever appearance in
the NCAA Division II "Elite Eight" in 2002. A two-time
Northeast-10 All-Conference selection who earned First Team honors
as a senior, Patterson holds school records for career assists
(557) and made free throws (511) while being ranked fourth in
career scoring (1,539 points). Over her four-year career she
led the Yellow Jackets to an 88-34 (.721) mark and topped the team
in steals and assists in each of her four seasons while averaging
17.3 points as a senior.
Arguably the greatest female student-athlete to attend American International in its history, Patterson also excelled on the soccer pitch and the softball diamond. In soccer, she remains the leading scorer in program history with 49 goals and 31 assists for 129 points and led the Yellow Jackets to a NCAA Tournament berth in 1998. She was also named the 1998 Northeast-10 Freshman of the Year and 2000 NE-10 Player of the Year. In softball, Patterson played during the 2002 and 2003 seasons and was a member of AIC's last NCAA Tournament team in 2003.
Patterson currently resides in her hometown
of Agawam, Mass.