Year of Service: 29th
Trenton State College ’82
Education: BS, Health and Physical Education
Sharon Pfluger leads all active NCAA Division III coaches when it comes to victories and winning percentage as the veteran coach has collected 498 wins with an impressive .836 overall winning percentage. That number is even better in her tenure at the College as she has racked up a .859 winning percent with a mark of 489-75-5. Overall, Pfluger has a career record of 498-94-9. She is also one of only two coaches in Division III to eclipse the 400-win plateau.
She collected that 450th career win at TCNJ when the Lions collected a 4-0 victory over the University of New England in the 2010 NCAA Division III Tournament.
Under her guidance, the Lions have captured eight NCAA Division III Championships (1985, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1999, and 2011) and have boasted five undefeated seasons. Her teams have qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 26 of her 28 years seasons.
Since the inception of the NJAC in 1985, her squads have won 21 of 27 possible NJAC titles. Pfluger has been tapped as the NJAC Coach of the Year six times, with selections in 1989, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2004 and 2006 in addition to being the Co-Coach of the Year in 2007. In the fall of 2011, she was honored as the 2011 National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division III Coach of the Year.
Pfluger has coached 78 All-Americans at TCNJ with three of those players being tabbed as the national player of the year. She has also had five players selected as Honda-Broderick Award Nominees as the top player in their sport, with Gina Carey being named the Most Outstanding Collegiate Field Hockey Athlete in 1992.
She is a member of the NFHCA Hall of Fame Class of 2003 which was inducted on January 10, 2004 at the NFHCA Awards Luncheon 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.
In the fall of 2007, she added another impressive honor as she was inducted into the United States National Lacrosse Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2007, which was the 50th class to be inducted.
Pfluger was a member of the College’s 1981 field hockey team that was named as a Team of Distinction by the Athletic Alumni Hall of Fame in the summer of 2006.
She is one of just two female coaches (Pat Summitt being the other) featured in the NCAA Hall of Champions’ Legends of the Game display located in Indianapolis, IN.
She authored a chapter for a book edited by Cecile Reynaud, PhD entitled, “She Can Coach: Tools for Success from 20 Top Women Coaches,” which was published by Human Kinetics Publishers in March 2005. Pfluger’s chapter focuses on team cohesion.
Pfluger was an assistant coach at Drew University in 1982 for field hockey and in 1984 for lacrosse, and the head field hockey coach at Kean College in 1983 and at Montclair State College in 1984, prior to her return to the College.
A resident of Hopewell Township, NJ, Pfluger is the proud mother of two sons, Augie, 17 and Jonah, 15, and a daughter, Kileigh, 11.
