The Falcon women’s basketball team will have a new head coach for next season, as Robyn Fralick was announced on Tuesday to be taking over the coaching duties going forward.

Fralick was previously the head coach of the Ashland Eagles of Division II basketball, where she helped lead the team to a 104-3 record over her three seasons as coach, including a D-II National Championship in 2017 and a runner up finish in the D-II National Championship this season back on March 23.

“When you get a group of people together that love each other and love to play, special things happen.” Fralick said.

Fralick also said that having local connections helped her in the decision to coach for the Falcons.

“It’s such a great opportunity,” Fralick said. “I’m originally from Michigan and all of my and my husband’s family live in that area, so we’re still really close to family. It’s a region that I’m really familiar with recruiting.”

However, Fralick also wants to get to know the team better going into the offseason to get a stronger understanding of what to build on.

“I’ve really got to know the team and its players and figure out how to maximize who we are,” Fralick said. “(How we can improve) is still to be determined.”

The team also understands that having a new head coach will be a challenge, however, they believe they will be able to minimize the impact going into next season if they can work together to improve collectively.

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“We’re going to focus on building together,” Fralick said. “We’re going to focus on building on the court and off the court and that’s where we really want to start… Any time there’s a transition, there are challenges, coming to a place and a new team, the transitional things are challenges in themselves and I’m going to work hard to go through those and move through them as quickly as possible.”

Fralick is also excited to be coaching in the Mid-American Conference, as the fellow MAC teams of the Central Michigan Chippewas and the Buffalo Bulls both had strong seasons on the women’s basketball side.

“That’s always your hope as a coach,” Fralick said. “What Central Michigan and Buffalo did was just incredible, for them to both make the Sweet 16 in the same year from the MAC is just a true testament to how good the MAC is.”

The team will likely begin their new season in early November.