University of New Haven Athletics

Ty Grace '99 became the 16th head coach of the University of New Haven women's basketball team on July 22, 2013. She led the Chargers to a 26-6 record and the 2015 NCAA Division II East Region Championship in just her second season on the sidelines at her alma mater.
 
New Haven’s NCAA postseason berth was the program’s ninth overall and four NCAA national quarterfinal appearance. The Chargers tallied the fourth most wins in program history with 26 and made their first Elite Eight appearance in nearly three decades. A thrilling 58-57 victory over No. 13 Stonehill gave the Chargers their first regional in the new millennium. New Haven recorded three wins over ranked opponents during the season and concluded the year ranked No. 9 by the WBCA. The season also capped the largest four-year turnaround in Northeast-10 Conference history as the 2015-16 squad recorded 23 more wins than the 2011-12 Chargers. The team set a record with 16 NE-10 victories – improving the standard of 13 Grace guided the Chargers to the season prior, and posted a near-perfect 12-1 record at home during the regular season.
 
Grace coached one of the finest players in UNH women’s basketball history in WBCA Division II Player of the Year Finalist and East Region Player of the Year Aquillin Hayes. She was the first WBCA All-America Team selection at New Haven since 1989 and only the third individual in program history. For only the third time in the rich history of the Northeast-10 Conference, Hayes was named the Player and Defensive Player of the Year while selected to the All-Conference First Team. Hayes led the team in points (576), rebounds (291), blocks (37) and shooting percentage (.502).
 
In her first season at UNH, Grace led the Chargers to an 18-10 record and the team’s first trip to the NCAA postseason since 2006-07. An overtime setback to Adelphi in the East Region Quarterfinals concluded a season in which the Chargers reached their highest win total (18) since finishing at 21-9 in the 2007-08 campaign – their final season prior to joining the Northeast-10.
 
Most recently the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Seton Hall University, Grace brought 13 years of Division I coaching experience to New Haven. She was instrumental in assembling recruiting classes ranked as high as 25th in all of Division I as a member of the prestigious Big East Conference, including the signing of two McDonald's All-America nominees. The Pirates' roster included an All-Big East Rookie Team member and two Second Team All-Big East performers during Grace's tenure in South Orange from 2009-2013. She coached alongside Anne Donovan, an Olympic gold medalist as both a coach and player and member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame who is currently the head coach of the WNBA's Connecticut Sun.
 
Previously, Grace was an assistant coach at the United States Military Academy from 2006-09. The Black Knights recorded a then-program-best 24 victories in the 2006-07 campaign, including a record 12-game winning streak, and featured a Patriot League Player of the Year, two Rookies of the Year and a Scholar-Athlete of the Year in her four-year run at West Point.
 
Grace collected prior head coaching experience at Ramapo College of New Jersey from 2004-06 and served as a Division I assistant coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University from 1999-2004. She began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Hartford from 1998-99.
 
A 2010 New Haven Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, Grace is one of only two Chargers to record 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds for her career, totaling 1,347 points and 1,047 boards with 47 double-doubles from 1994-98.
 
Grace graduated from the University in 1999 with a B.S. in the Management of Sports Industries and later earned a Master's of Administrative Science from Fairleigh Dickinson in 2001.