Marcia Foster

	Position: Head Coach (1st Season)
	Alma Mater: Seton Hall '84

The curtain rises on the Marcia Foster era at Cal State Fullerton as the long-time Titans assistant and associate head coach enters her first year at the helm of the Fullerton program in 2009.

The 2009-10 season marks the first Division I head coaching position for Foster, who enters her seventh year on the Fullerton sidelines. She becomes the eighth different head coach in the 40-year history of the program after it was announced she would take over for the departing Dr. Maryalyce Jeremiah prior to the 2008-09 season.

Originally hired as an assistant coach upon Dr. Jeremiah's return to the sidelines in 2003-04, Foster spent the last three seasons as the associate head coach, helping lead the Titans to more wins in that span (37) than in the previous four years combined (36). Cal State Fullerton has posted four straight seasons of double-digit wins and the team has posted 65 wins during her stay in Orange County - the most since the Titans won 70 games in a six-year period from 1990-96.

Prior to joining the Cal State Fullerton program, Foster spent one season as head coach at Cal Tech and six seasons as an assistant coach at Big West Conference rival Cal Poly where she helped revive the Mustangs program. Cal Poly improved from four wins in her first season in 1996-97 to 12 wins in 2000-01 - the most since the school moved up to the Division I level.

That season, the Mustangs also advanced to the second round of the Big West Tournament (the deepest the school had advanced in their seven years in the league) and also ended perennial power UC Santa Barbara's 49-game conference winning streak earlier in the year.

In her final season with Cal Poly as associate head coach, the Mustangs' defense finished first in three-point defense, third in scoring defense and third in steals.

Her duties at Cal Poly included team defense, working with post players, primary shooting coach, camp clinician, scouting and academic monitoring as well as working with and developing several promotions for the student body and campus community.

Those efforts included the development of the Mustang Kidz Club (a kids club that began with the women's basketball program and was eventually adopted by the athletic department to be made available for every program), the Girls Rock Club, as well as on and off-campus basketball clinics.

Foster also spearheaded the development of a unique relationship with the Special Olympics of San Luis Obispo County where members of the women's basketball team officiated the Special Olympic Basketball Jamboree and the Special Olympic participants attended and played during halftime of home games.

Prior to Cal Poly, Foster also spent a year as an assistant coach at Arizona State of the Pacific-10 Conference.

Her high school experience includes serving as head coach for four seasons at Garden Grove High School in Southern California, leading the school to a Garden Grove League title in 1995.

She also led the junior varsity squad at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., for two seasons, guiding the Monarchs to a league championship in 1991, and spent the summer of 1994 coaching the Orange County California Optimist AAU team to a 18-and-under Southern California Championship.

Following the 2005-06 season, she was one of 11 collegiate female assistant coaches to be invited to participate in the 2006 Black Coaches Association "Achieving Coaches Excellence" (ACE) program for minority women in Indianapolis, Ind.

"It is both an honor and a privilege to have been selected by the Black Coaches Association to participate in the ACE program," said Foster at the time. "I look forward to the experience; to learning, networking and representing Cal State Fullerton and our basketball program at the highest possible level."

The ACE program is designed to enhance opportunities for women of color in collegiate basketball and improve the individual's preparedness to become a head coach. Since the program was launched in 2003, there have been 25 participants and six have gone on to fill head coaching positions.

Foster, a Plainfield, N.J. native, is a 1984 graduate of Big East member Seton Hall where she was a four-year starter on the Pirates' women's basketball squad and was ranked as the No. 4 freshman in the country following her rookie season.

A member of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and an accomplished Spoken Word poetry artist, Foster resides in Yorba Linda, Calif.