Katie Abrahamson-Henderson

Katie Abrahamson-Henderson
Born	(1966-12-23) December 23, 1966 Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S.
Occupation	Women's basketball coach
Years active	1990s–present
Known for	Head coach of the University of Georgia women's basketball team; former head coach at UCF, Albany, Missouri State

Kay Noel "Katie" Abrahamson-Henderson (born December 23, 1966) currently serves as the head coach of the women's basketball team at the University of Georgia.

Early life

Abrahamson-Henderson completed her high school education at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1985. During her high school career, she excelled in basketball, averaging an impressive 44 points per game and earning a place in the Washington Warriors Hall of Fame in 1992. She was honored as an All-American by both Parade and USA Today, ranking among the nation’s top five players during her senior year. Besides basketball, she also achieved state championships in swimming for the 50 and 100 yard freestyle events and the freestyle relay before ultimately deciding to pursue college basketball.

College

Although recruited by numerous programs, Abrahamson-Henderson opted to attend the University of Georgia, where she played under the guidance of Andy Landers, a coach inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. In her freshman season in 1986, she contributed to Georgia winning the Southeastern Conference championship. After two seasons there, she transferred to Iowa to compete for Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer. At Iowa, she played for two years and helped lead the team to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen during her senior year. She graduated with a B.S. degree in physical education and sports administration in 1990 and earned an M.S. in education from Duquesne University in 1992. Additionally, she spent one season playing professional basketball in New Zealand.

Coaching career

Initially not inclined toward coaching, Abrahamson-Henderson’s perspective changed while pursuing graduate studies at Duquesne when she was encouraged to take on a graduate assistant coaching role. She then spent two years as an assistant coach at the University of Maine under Joanne McCallie before moving on to a six-year stint at Iowa State with Bill Fennelly, where she worked alongside future Maryland head coach Brenda Frese. When McCallie accepted the head coaching position at Michigan State, Abrahamson-Henderson joined her staff as associate head coach.

Her first opportunity as a head coach came at Missouri State, where she guided the team to two regular-season Missouri Valley Conference titles, three postseason conference championships, three NCAA tournament berths, and a 2005 victory in the WNIT. After stepping down in 2007, she took an assistant coaching role at the University of Washington before becoming associate head coach at Indiana University Bloomington under Felisha Legette-Jack.

In 2010, Abrahamson-Henderson assumed leadership of the University of Albany women's basketball program, turning around a squad that had endured five straight losing seasons into perennial contenders within their conference. Her tenure featured multiple America East titles and NCAA tournament appearances, including a notable upset over fifth-seeded Florida in 2016.

She was appointed head coach at the University of Central Florida in 2016 with the mission of rejuvenating its women's basketball program following several losing seasons. In her initial year, she improved their record dramatically from 7-23 to 21-12 and led them to a second-round appearance in the WNIT. By the 2018-19 season, UCF posted a 26-7 record and earned its first NCAA Tournament invitation since 2010-11. The 2021-22 campaign saw UCF capture its first regular-season championship since 2004-05 and win the conference tournament by defeating USF. That season also marked UCF’s debut rankings in both major national polls.

On March 26, 2022, Abrahamson-Henderson was appointed as only the third head coach ever for The University of Georgia’s women’s basketball program.

Head coaching record

{{CBB Yearly Record Subhead| |name=UCF Knights |startyear=2016 |conference=American Athletic Conference |endyear=2022 |}

External links

• Official Website