Brooks Monaghan Wins 300th Game as Memphis Women’s Coach

Entering his 25th season at the University of Memphis, Brooks Monaghan is certainly one of the most successful coaches on campus. He’s guided the Tigers to numerous conference championships and NCAA Tournament appearances. As the season began, he was sitting on 299 career wins. Following a 5-1 win over Alabama A&M to launch their 2024 campaign, Brooks Monaghan entered the 300-win club and was treated to a special tribute video featuring a number of current and former players.

“I wasn’t even thinking about that honestly” he said. “It feels great. What feels the best is watching up there on the video board, some of the former players and some of the former great players and the things they had to say. But it also means I’m old.” he said with a hearty laugh.

“You know, it seems like yesterday when I first started here and here we are going into my 25th year. So, I’m proud to be a part of this program and hopefully there’s a lot more wins ahead.”

The win tonight for the Tigers was another win in a long streak of unbeaten season openers. Memphis native Ashley Henderson got the scoring started and she got it started early. Less than two minutes into the game, she poked home from close range to stake Memphis to a 1-0 lead. Henderson then doubled the advantage just six minutes later when she rifled home from eight yards out. In the 19th minute it was Izzy Monck who headed home from a corner kick to make it 3-0. Ten minutes into the second half, it was Momo Nakao who scored off an inch-perfect ball into the box by Finley Lavin. Credit is due, however, to Alabama A&M. Despite being overmatched, they never threw in the towel and were rewarded with a very nice goal 15 minutes from time. The answer came almost immediately for Memphis as a cross from the left side was deflected in for an own-goal. And at 5-1, the Tigers were able to wrap up the proceedings to get their coach his 300th win.

Reflecting on both tonight’s game and his overall tenure, Monaghan was a touch philosophical.

“It means a lot. In this profession, and life, time flies. Every once in a while, it’s important that we all take a step back and recognize what we’ve all done. To just sit here and watch that, it means the world. Those are some special, special people that were up there.”

One of the hallmarks of Monaghan’s tenure is the tough non-conference schedule that the Tigers always seem to play. This year is no different, as the next five games are all against power conference teams: @ Missouri, @ Ole Miss, vs. Iowa State, vs. Kansas State, @ Tennessee. That’s not an accident and Coach Monaghan is very aware of just how much more difficult the games for his team are about to get.

“This was a game that we knew coming in we should have won. From last year to this year, going into this season, losing the players we lost, losing our three captains there are question marks. Where we, still very early, is I’ve told the team and I’ll tell you guys: this team has a lot of potential. We’ve got a ways to go, we’ve got a lot of youth but it gets real now. With the competition coming up, we’re going to be challenged. But I look forward to the challenge.

If you want to be the best you’ve got to play against some of the best. Obviously, you guys have seen the schedule. There’s some very, very tough opponents. We try to play a very strong non-conference schedule to prepare us for conference because our conference is good. So, it’s very crucial. That starts even in preseason. We played two very tough preseason matches to help prepare for those games as well. A lot of work to do, but we have a lot to work with.”

As ever, there were still a few things Monaghan thinks the team can be doing better, which is not unexpected given that this was the first game of the season.

“What we need to do better is just being able to make the simple passes and just clean that up. But there was some good. We got to try different things and play players on different sides and see if it works. Some worked, some didn’t. It’s not a preseason game, it’s a real game. But this was our last chance to really, before we get to some heavy competition, to test some things.”

And to wrap up the night Monaghan was asked, perhaps jokingly, if they can expect 300 more wins from him. After a brief moment to stifle a chuckle, he answered, “I hope so. I love what I’m doing. With any job there’s good days and bad days. I’ve had a lot more good days than bad days. But I haven’t reached that point in my life where I’ve thought about the finish line. So, hopefully I can continue to do this and put more wins up there.”