3 Years • Career Record: 114-174 • Record at ESU: 39-45 • 2 PSAC Tournament appearances
Stephanie Del Preore enters her fourth season as head women’s basketball coach at East Stroudsburg University in 2023-24.
During the 2022-23 season, ESU returned to form as the Warriors finished 15-14 overall, 11-11 in the conference and advanced to the PSAC Tournament for the first time since 2019-20. As a team, the Warriors ranked 26th in NCAA Division II with 57.4 points allowed per game, 38th in 3-pt percentage (34.1), 48th in 3-pt defense (28.0), 49th in turnover margin (2.93), 53rd in assists per game (14.2) and 55th in turnovers forced per game (19.10).
Graduate student guard Ryan Weise earned a number of honors including being named to the All-PSAC East First Team, the PSAC East Athlete of the Week (11/14), the D2CIDA National Player of the Week (11/15), to the November DII Women's Basketball All-Stats Starting Five as well as the Lehigh Valley Small College Basketball Organization's Pete Nevins Player of the Year, Team of the Year and Scholar Athlete Team. Weise left her stamp on the ESU record book as she owns the top career marks for 30+ point games (6), 3-pt percentage (40.3) and free throw percentage (82.3). She set the single-season record with 97 3-pt field goals and set the single-game mark for 3-pointers made with eight (three times).
After missing a season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Warriors returned to the court in 2021-22 and received the Team Academic Achievement Award, for posting the highest GPA among ESU athletic teams. Graduate transfer Ryan Weise notched the program's first triple double since 1993 when she recorded 10 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in a victory over Shippensburg on Jan. 29, 2022.
Del Preore guided ESU to a 20-10 overall record in her first season with the program. The Warriors finished the regular season with a 15-7 mark in the PSAC East and advanced to the PSAC Semifinals after defeating Bloomsburg at home in the opening round.
ESU reached the 20-win mark for the fifth time in program history and first since the 2006-07 season. The .682 winning percentage was the fifth-best by a Warriors team over the last 30 years. Del Preore's team held opponents to 57 points of offense per game and tallied 14 wins inside Koehler Fieldhouse.
The Warriors finished the 2019-20 season as the 22nd ranked team in NCAA Division II with 13.2 turnovers forced per game. ESU also ranked 23rd in scoring defense (57.0), 36th in fewest turnovers (397), and 45th in assist to turnover ratio (1.05).
Del Preore, who brings seven years of head coaching experience,a 1,000-point scorer at Marist College and former professional basketball player in Spain,spent the previous four seasons at the helm of Division I LIU Brooklyn.
During her time with the Blackbirds, Del Preore coached nine student-athletes that earned All-NEC honors, including the 2018-19 NEC Rookie of the Year. She had at least two players named All-NEC every season and coached the first ECAC Rookie of the Year in program history. She also guided a 1,000-point scorer and had 13 players that garnered conference academic honors.
Del Preore spent three seasons as the head women's basketball coach at the University of Bridgeport, an NCAA Division II institution, from 2010-13. The Purple Knights were regionally ranked during the 2012-13 campaign and finished third in the East Coast Conference with a record of 18-10. Under the direction of Del Preore, Bridgeport advanced to the ECC championship game in 2011 after tallying 17 wins. She coached four first team all-conference players and two all-east region honorees.
She also created and managed the first "Donate Life Day" while at Bridgeport to help raise awareness for organ and tissue donations, an initiative she continues to support to this day.
Del Preore began her collegiate coaching career in 2006 as an assistant at Caldwell College. She spent one season at Caldwell, where she helped to organize practices and oversee film exchange for scouting. She was named the assistant coach at Stevens Institute of Technology in 2008 and helped the Ducks to an Empire 8 championship and the second round of the Division II tournament in 2009. She was named the interim head coach for the final three games of the 2009-10 season.
Del Preore was a four-year member of the women's basketball team at Marist College from 2000-04 and finished her career with 1,114 points for the Red Foxes. She was named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) all-rookie team following her freshman season. During her senior campaign, she led Marist to the program's first NCAA Division I Tournament appearance after being named the MVP of the MAAC Tournament. She garnered second team All-MAAC honors for her performance during the 2003-04 season.
Del Preore spent one season in Leioa, Spain playing basketball at the professional level for Club Irlandesas of the Liga Femenia 2 in 2004-05. She would lead the team in scoring, rebounding, and minutes played.
A New Jersey native, Del Preore earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Marist in 2004. She starred as a prep player at Livingston High School and finished her career as the school's all-time leader in scoring and rebounding. She was inducted into the Lancer Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.
