With the 10th-ranked
Lions’ 5-0 win over FDU-Florham on September 26, The College of New
Jersey’s head field hockey coach Sharon Pfluger collected her 350th
career victory as the mentor of TCNJ’s field hockey program.
Pfluger now sports a record of 350-39-5 in her 20th
season of coaching at TCNJ. Overall, she owns a career mark of
359-58-9 in 22 years of coaching as Pfluger accrued a 4-8-3 mark at
Kean in 1983 and a 5-11-1 record at Montclair
State in 1984. Through the
conclusion of the 2003 campaign, Pfluger was ranked fourth among
coaches from all three NCAA divisions in win percentage (.853) and
eighth in total wins.
She is a member of the NFHCA Hall of Fame Class of 2003 that was
inducted on January 10, 2004 in Baltimore, MD. The
Class of 2003 was only the fourth group of inductees to be honored
by the NFHCA Awards & Hall of Fame Committee.
Under her guidance, the Lions have earned 19 consecutive NCAA
Tournament bids and won seven NCAA crowns (1985, ’88, ’90, ’91, ’95,
’96, and ’99). During her tenure, TCNJ has produced four unbeaten
seasons, including two perfect 20-0 campaigns in 1995 and 1999.
Since the inception of the NJAC in 1985, Pfluger has produced
a 129-9-1 mark and her squads have won 15 of 19 possible NJAC
titles. She has been tapped as the NJAC Coach of the Year four
times with selections in 1989, 1995, 1999 and 2001.
In total, the TCNJ field hockey program has produced 69 NFHCA
All-Americans, including 59 under Pfluger. TCNJ has produced two
four-time All-America selections with Diane Smith ‘85 (1981-1984)
and Melanie Vasofski ‘97 (1993-1996) and has had five players
recognized as either the Division III National Player of the Year or
Honda-Broderick Award nominees.
Three times, she has coached squads to consecutive national
championships. First, from the fall of 1990 to the spring of 1992,
Pfluger earned four titles. Then she followed that up with four
more from the 1995 women’s lacrosse title to the 1996 field hockey
title. Pfluger picked up two more rings as the 1999 field hockey and
2000 women’s lacrosse teams were victorious.
She received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the March
of Dimes in 1990, while the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association
cited her with the Outstanding Achievement Award in both 1991 and
1992. On
November 15, 1992, Pfluger became the first woman honored by the
Trenton Select Committee. She is one of just two female coaches
featured in the NCAA Hall of Champions’ Legends of the Game display,
which was opened in March of 2000 in Indianapolis. |