ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010011
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
SUSAN DUNAGAN says she will prepare for what could be a milestone win like any other game.
For someone who never has been punctual, Susan Dunagan didn't waste much time getting to the brink of 300 college coaching victories.
Dunagan will go for No.300 tonight at Lynchburg when her Roanoke team (13-3) meets the Hornets. Only four active Division III women's basketball coaches have reached this point faster.
``It shows how dedicated she's been to her profession,'' said Hollins coach Karen Harvey, who was an All-American for Dunagan in 1991. ``A lot of coaches don't have the stamina to stay in it a long time.''
The only coaches who have reached the 300-victory plateau in fewer games are St.John Fisher's Phillip Kahler, Scranton's Mike Strong, Salem State's Tim Shea and Elizabethtown's Yvonne Kauffman.
``That's amazing,'' said Dunagan, whose record stands at 299-91 over 15 seasons. ``I'm proud to be in that company.''
Dunagan will become only the 10th active Division III coach to win 300 games. One of them, Bridgewater's Laura Mapp, coaches against her in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Mapp has won so many games (480), she doesn't remember her 300th. ``I don't guess I do,'' Mapp said. ``I remember the 400th, but only because we were in the [ODAC] tournament at the time.''
Like Mapp, Dunagan's mind isn't focused on her impending milestone. She said she certainly doesn't want the treatment that Emory & Henry coach Joy Scruggs received last week when Scruggs won her 200th. Immediately after they left the court, the Wasps doused Scruggs with a bucket of water.
Scruggs said she tried to clear her mind and prepare for that 200th victory like it was any other game. Dunagan, 47, will do the same.
``If I start looking at statistics and records and things, I'll forget the whole purpose of what I'm doing,'' she said.
That mission is to help young women through their higher education while winning a slew of basketball games. Harvey, who was Karen Jenkins in her pre-marriage playing days, said Dunagan was ``kind of like a second mom.''
Along with her ``kids,'' Dunagan has won at least 20 games a season for the past nine years. The Roanoke Catholic High School graduate has won 10 ODAC championships (the last five in a row), and the Maroons have made the NCAA Tournament the past six years. Roanoke is ranked fifth in the South Region this week.
Dunagan's ODAC tournament record the past decade is 27-2. In addition, she spent seven years teaching and coaching at Cave Spring High School and won 124 games before succeeding Lynne Agee, who was 46-23 in three Roanoke seasons before going to UNC Greensboro.
For all of the winning, there's been no reduction in the compassion she shows her players.
Other coaches have noticed. Randolph-Macon's Hal Nunnally once approached Roanoke men's coach Page Moir during a holiday doubleheader at the Bast Center and said, ``Page, your Coach Dunagan, she can undress a team without cursing like no coach I've ever heard. I want her to do that to my team.''
Dunagan's teams always have listened, doing what they're told even when she's not around. Part of the credit goes to assistant coaches Lynn Richmond, Richie Waggoner and Jill Hilton, who have worked for Dunagan for a combined 17 years.
Much of the credit, too, goes to Dunagan's approach. She's often late to practice, game warmups, and works late into the night, but her teams prove she's doing something right.
``Her players are always where they are supposed to be all the time,'' said Moir. ``They're so well-disciplined. If you can instill that in a group of people, it really shows a unique ability.''
Then he added, ``We can't believe she taught school where she had to be there at 8 in the morning.''
``It's just gotten to the point,'' Dunagan said, ``that to keep from getting more uptight, I've become laid back. I don't want to rush.''
It does seem, however, that's she's been speeding on the road to success.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. Susan Dunagan has won 10 ODACby CNBchampionships, the past
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