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Head coach Mike Petersen begins his fourth season at the helm of the Wake Forest women's basketball program.
In three seasons as the head coach of the Demon Deacons, Petersen has changed the perception, the look, the attitude and the overall style of play of the women's program. Taking a team that hadn't seen a winning season in 14 years, Petersen turned the tables and guided the Demon Deacons to a 17-15 overall record and to a third-round trip to the WNIT in 2004-05, his first season with the program.
Last season, Petersen guided one of the nation's youngest squads to a 9-20 record. The Deacs opened the 2006-07 season with an 8-2 run, winning seven consecutive games. Despite going 0-14 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the nation's perennial powerhouse conference, sophomore guard Yolanda Lavender earned Honorable Mention All-ACC accolades, while rookie forward/center Mekia Valentine was named to the ACC All-Freshman team.
Lavender was the league's third-leading scorer with 17.0 points per game and Petersen saw Valentine set a new freshman single-season record with 50 blocks. Sophomore forward Corinne Groves was the third-leading rebounder despite missing the last three games due to injury.
In the 2005-06 season, Petersen continued to build his program, leading a young squad to a 12-16 overall record. The Deacs finished 3-13 in the ACC, which proved to be arguably the toughest conference in the nation.
As a team, Wake Forest led the ACC and finished fifth in the nation in three-pointers made (215). The Deacons scored 100 points in a game twice during the season, against Lipscomb and Savannah State, a feat that had not been accomplished since 1988.
Under Petersen's tutelage, senior Cotelia Bond-Young had a standout season. Bond-Young earned third team All-ACC honors after leading the conference in three-pointers made. She finished as the Deacs' fifth all-time leading scorer and as the program's all-time leader in three-pointers made.
Senior Liz Strunk also had a solid campaign in 2005-06, as she joined Bond-Young in Wake Forest's 1,000-point club. Freshman Deirdre Naughton was named to the ACC All-Freshman team and received conference Rookie of the Week honors twice.
The Demon Deacons continued to set new attendance marks under Petersen in 2005-06. Wake Forest drew a record-breaking crowd on Jan. 27 against North Carolina, as 5,342 fans were in attendance. The Deacs drew over 3,700 fans to five different games.
In his first season as head coach of the Deacons in 2004-05, Petersen broke down the walls of the record books, guiding both individual players and the team into territory that had not been touched in decades. Bond-Young climbed the charts and broke the record for single-season three-pointers and three-point attempts. Also leading the ACC in the same categories, she became just the fifth junior to earn a spot in the elite 1,000-point club. Strunk also had an impressive season with two 30+ point games, including a school-record 40 points against Clemson. As a team, the Deacs hit 100 points once during the season (and once in preseason), something that had not been accomplished since 1995.
While guiding the team to new heights, the fan base grew as well in 2005. Petersen's outgoing on-court personality and the team's new fast-paced style of play created a buzz, and the seats in the Lawrence Joel Coliseum began to fill. Breaking the overall attendance record, the Wake Forest women's basketball program spent the majority of the year in the top 50 in the country for attendance. The Deacs finished their first year under Petersen with the fourth-most improved attendance in the nation.
Petersen arrived in Winston-Salem after five years with the Minnesota men's basketball program, serving as associate head coach for four seasons under Don Monson. Petersen was involved in every aspect of the Minnesota program, but primarily with individual player development, scheduling, offensive play-calling, opponent scouting and game-planning. He directed an offense that led the Big Ten in scoring and field goal percentage in 2001-02 and was second in scoring offense in 2002-03. Petersen also worked extensively with future NBA lottery pick Joel Przybilla -- who improved his scoring from 6.5 ppg as a freshman to 17.2 ppg as a sophomore.
Petersen joined the Golden Gophers in 1999 after three seasons as the head coach of the TCU women's basketball program from 1996-99. Inheriting a program that went 3-52 in the two years prior to his arrival, Petersen guided the Horned Frogs to the program's first-ever winning season, first-ever conference tournament victory and a then school record 16 wins in 1999. In his first full season with the Horned Frogs, he landed a recruiting class ranked in the top 25 by the Blue Star Report. Petersen was also instrumental as TCU raised its average attendance from 250 to 1,880 -- an increase of more than 750 percent.
Prior to taking over at TCU, Petersen was the women's head coach at New Mexico State University from 1992-96. Similar to TCU, he inherited a program that went 30-32 the previous two seasons and did not return a single starter for the 1992-93 season. In his four seasons with the Aggies, Petersen recorded three consecutive 20-win seasons and compiled an 81-38 (.681) overall record and a 53-19 (.736) record in Big West Conference games. Petersen, who led the Aggies to their first-ever Big West Conference title in 1995, was responsible for the development of 1995-96 All-American and WNBA player, Anita Maxwell. Not only did he sign a top 25 recruiting class, but Petersen also helped the Aggies lead the Big West Conference in attendance all four years.
Petersen spent three years as an assistant coach with the men's program at the University of Oregon prior to his stint at New Mexico State. While with the Ducks, Petersen coached former Minnesota Timberwolves' guard Terrell Brandon, making him the first college basketball coach to have coached both an NBA player and WNBA player.
In 1985, Petersen accepted the head women's coaching position at Gonzaga University. During his first season, Petersen led the Zags to a 21-10 record and missed the NAIA National Tournament by a single game. After an 11-16 record in their transition year into NCAA Division I athletics, Gonzaga shocked the experts by winning the West Coast Conference title in its inaugural season in the conference -- only their second year at the NCAA Division I level.
Before moving into the coaching ranks, Petersen enjoyed a stellar college playing career. He began at the College of the Redwoods in Eureka, Calif. After two seasons, he transferred to Northwest Christian College, an NAIA school in Eugene, Ore.
In his junior year, Petersen helped the Crusaders to a 22-7 record and the Pacific Northwest Collegiate Conference title. His senior year, he blossomed and was named to the Little All-America team. He finished his career among the top 10 all-time leading scorers in school history in just two full seasons.
Petersen stayed on as an assistant men's coach at Northwest Christian while he completed his undergraduate work in Biblical studies in 1983. After more than two and a half years with the NCC program, Petersen left for Oregon in the middle of the 1983 season to become an assistant coach for the women's team. During his season and a half, the Ducks won the NorPac title and earned an NCAA tournament berth in 1984.
In September of this year, Northwest Christian College announced its inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame with Petersen being one of three inductees.
"It's a huge honor for me and I'm very flattered and humbled to be included in the first Hall of Fame class," said Petersen. "Northwest Christian College was and continues to be an important part of my life and shaped who I was as an athlete and a person. My experience there had a huge impact on me and it's very gratifying and humbling to be honored."
Petersen, 49, and his wife of 29 years, Patty, have two sons, Riley (18), who is a freshman at Wake Forest, and Jake (15).
