Emily Garner enters her eighth season as Trinity College's head women's basketball coach in 2023-24, having guided the Bantams to their best-ever season last winter. Trinity played its way into the NCAA Division III Quarterfinals for the first time and snapped the program record for wins in a single season with 25. Garner was honored as the 2023 D3Hoop.com Regional Coach of the Year In 2022-23, Trinity jumped out to a best-ever 19-1 start, downed Amherst and Williams in the post-season to reach its first New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Finals, and won NCAA Tournament games against Notre Dame (Md.), Cortland State, and Wisc.-Whitewater to finish the year with a program-record 25 wins against just six defeats.
Also the 2022 NESCAC Coach of the Year, Garner led Trinity to a 17-6 overall record in 2021-22 and into the NESCAC Semifinals for the first time since 2014 despite losing no less than four players with starting experience in the season's first semester. The Bantams won the league's regular season title for the first time with an 8-2 mark in league play and hosted the conference championship for the first time in the program history. Garner mentored Samantha Gallo to an All-NESCAC First Team and a D3Hoops.com and New England Women's Basketball Association (NEWBA) All-Region season, while Bailey Hyland was named the 2022 NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year. Reilly Campbell received All-American, All-Region, and All-NESCAC honors, while Emma Wax was also an All-NESCAC selection, and Hannah Marzo graced the CSC Academic All-District Team in 2022-23.
In 2019-20, Peace Kabari earned back-to-back, All-NESCAC accolades under Garner's mentorship and Kabari was named the 2020 NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year, while Bria Fuller collected NESCAC Rookie of the Year honors that winter. Kabari and Sheena Landy '17 have both been named as Trinity's female athlete of the year during Garner's tenure, and Trinity lands multiple athletes on the NESCAC All-Academic team on an annual basis. In 2018-19, Trinity posted its best overall record in 19 years at 19-6 and earned their second-ever home game in the NESCAC Championship Tournament. In 2017-18, Garner led the Bantams to their first trip to the post-season since 2014, closing the year with a 15-10 overall record and earning the No. 8 seed in the NESCAC Tourney. In 2016-17, Garner led Trinity to a 13-10 final mark and the Bantams just missed the post-season on a tiebreaker.
Garner became the sixth head coach in the 43-year history of the Trinity women's basketball program in 2016, after honing her skills for the previous six seasons as a NCAA Division I assistant coach at Long Island University-Brooklyn and the United States Military Academy. At Army, where she served as an assistant from 2012 to 2016, Garner helped the Black Knights post a four-year record of 99-28 with two NCAA appearances and two WNIT appearances. Garner began her coaching career in 2010 as a graduate assistant at LIU-Brooklyn following a fine playing career at Lafayette College. After two seasons coaching the Blackbirds, she joined the staff at Army where her responsibilities included post player development, opponent scouting, head junior varsity coach, compliance, and summer camps. Garner, who mentored two Patriot League Players of the Year at West Point, was promoted to recruiting coordinator by legendary Army Head Coach Dave Magarity in the spring of 2015. In Garner's final season, Army posted a program-best record of 29-3 and won both the regular-season and tournament titles in the Patriot League.
Garner earned her bachelor's degree from Lafayette in English with minors in economics and business in 2009 and also holds a master's degree in secondary education (English) from Long Island University. A three-year starter for the Leopards, Garner was elected captain and garnered Patriot League All-Tournament honors in her senior season. She is also a graduate of the 2018 NCAA Women Coaches Academy, which is hosted in a partnership between the Alliance of Women Coaches and is a four-day educational training available to NCAA coaches of all experience levels. The NCAA Women Coaches Academy is designed for women coaches who are ready to increase their individual effectiveness by learning advanced skills and strategies that directly affect their personal and team success. In the fall of 2019, Garner was named to Trinity’s “50 for the Next 50,” an initiative to honor women who will have a lasting impact on the future of Trinity College. She is a member of the Trinity Athletics Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and will serve as a DEI Faculty Fellow in 2022-23.
