Having done it his way for so long, Joe Frager’s testimonial is perfect ending to exceptional career

Joe Frager holds net aloft as Fairfield claimed MAAC women's basketball championship. (Photo by Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — John Elway. Dale Earnhardt. Alex Rodriguez. Phil Mickelson.

All four men are universally regarded among the best in their fields, yet all four reached the summit of their careers in the waning stages of them. Elway, after 14 years of coming up empty, closed his Hall of Fame resume by leading the Denver Broncos to their first two Super Bowls. Earnhardt, one of only three drivers to win seven NASCAR Cup Series championships, needed 20 years to win his sport’s biggest event, the Daytona 500. Rodriguez waited 16 years before finally winning a World Series in 2009. And Mickelson, whose pursuit of a major championship was equal parts agonizing and meandering, got the monkey off his back in his 43rd try when he won the 2004 Masters.

Entering Saturday, Joe Frager channeled all four men in their primes, unable to break through the shadows of Brian Giorgis, Tony Bozzella and Tricia Fabbri for 14 years at Fairfield until Saturday, when the Stags gave their longtime head coach the one thing missing from his resume, a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship, as a farewell present of sorts for the affable coach who announced his impending retirement in October.

“At the beginning of the year when he told us it was going to be his last year, I think it just clicked,” Lou Lopez-Senechal, Fairfield’s star senior forward and MAAC Player of the Year, said. “Having that motivation from the beginning gave us an extra boost. We wanted to have the best year we could have, for him, for us, for everyone. He trusted us the whole time, and he deserves it more than anyone.”

“We just really wanted to send him off right,” point guard Rachel Hakes echoed. “Coach means a lot to us, and just speaking to me personally as point guard, I feel the ultimate trust that he knows and is confident in what I’m doing on the floor. He can give me play calls just like a playbook, and I can just roll with it. I know he’s trusting me from the bench, and that’s allowed me to really play free this year.”

Frager and his staff are a different group of birds in the college basketball sky, a close-knit nest that dates back to his time at Seymour High School and Division II Southern Connecticut, before assuming the reins at Fairfield in 2007. But the family atmosphere has contributed to the easygoing approach to the arduous task of winning at a high level, and has — at least in Frager’s mind — made it all the more admirable.

“It’s been really special,” he remarked. “Laura Scinto has been with me every step of the way, when I was at Southern Connecticut and also at Fairfield. I coached David Jollon’s wife, and now David’s been with us for seven, eight years on staff. Macey Hollenshead played for me, and so it’s really gratifying to get to accomplish something like this with a group of players like this, and the type of staff that we have. It’s a lot of work to do what we do. It’s a lot of fun, it’s a lot of stress sometimes, but I have a great staff, a great group of young women, and we got it done.”

The reality of the moment may not have hit right away — Frager admitted it would probably do so after Fairfield has competed — but the significance of the milestone was certainly not lost on someone who has done it his way and done it so well for so long, and now has a measure of validation for his journey.

“Right now, I’m thinking, who are we going to play, and what film am I going to have to break down?” Frager quipped. “That’s kind of the way I’m wired. But it’s really special, because when you get a group that you enjoy being in the gym with every day, it makes your job a heck of a lot easier. And when you have the type of leaders we have on this team, they’re just really an extension of the coaching staff in terms of what can be done.”

“It’s sweet. In a way, it’s almost a little bittersweet, to be honest with you. I’m so proud of these kids, and I’ve said from the beginning: I’ve wanted this for them. Whether we won today or we didn’t, I couldn’t be disappointed in this group with what they did throughout the entire season, but the fact they were able to come through the way they did is just a great capper.”