WFP: Big honour for Dufresne

Former Bisons women’s basketball head coach and current athletic director at the U of M, Coleen Dufresne will be inducted to the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1984 Dufresne became the first full-time coach in Bisons women’s sport, and went on to lead the team to three national titles.

On Wednesday, April 22 Melissa Martin of the Winnipeg Free Press describes how university athletics have changed since the beginning of Dufresne’s tenure.

Today, Dufresne’s memories also provide a record of how university athletics have changed. When she was getting started in her career, video breakdown was in its early stages in Canadian university basketball; that’s become a major piece.

The vast majority of Dufresne’s Bisons came from inside Manitoba, while most U of M coaches now have to look outside provincial borders as competition for top players increases. The dollar figures have changed, too. In the mid-1980s, scholarship money for Canadian university sport was far less than it is today. Promising athletes are pegged earlier, and the stakes to snag their interest have raised.