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Laura Habacker
Office Phone: (413)-265-2342
Office E-mail: habackerl@elms.edu
Laura Habacker enters her 10th season as head coach of the
women’s basketball program.
For the third consecutive season, Coach Habacker led her team to
New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) postseason play. Under
Coach Habacker, the Blazers have advanced to the quarterfinals of
the conference tournament in seven of the last nine years,
including the NECC semifinals in 2008-09 and conference
championship game in 2009-10. In 2004-05, she received North
Atlantic Conference (NAC) Co-Coach of the Year honors.
During the team’s inaugural NECC campaign in 2008-09, Coach
Habacker guided the Blazers to a 15-12 overall record — the
second-highest win total in program history.
Prior to joining Elms College in 2002, Coach Habacker was the head
women’s basketball and volleyball coach for five years at
Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. In 1999, she was named
women’s basketball coach of the year at Clarkson by the
Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (UCAA), and was a nominee
for National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA)
Regional Coach of the Year.
Coach Habacker was also an assistant women’s basketball
coach at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and helped the team
qualify for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC)
Tournament in 1994-1995, and advance to the second round of the
NCAA Division III Championship in 1995-1996.
Coach Habacker played four years for the women’s basketball
team at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and helped
lead them to the NCAA Division III Northeast Regional Championship
and an appearance in the Final Four.
In the summer of 2009, Coach Habacker served as an administrator
at the NCAA Student Athlete Development Conference, and in the
summer of 2008 she attended the NCAA Women’s Basketball
Coaches Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. She also currently serves on
the NCAA East Regional Women’s Basketball committee.
Coach Habacker earned her bachelor’s degree in biology
from Clark University. In addition to her coaching duties, she is
the Assistant Athletic Director.
Michelle Fernandes
Office Phone: (413)-265-2342
Office E-mail: fernandesm@elms.edu
Michelle Fernandes enters her second season as an assistant coach
for the women's basketball team.
Coach Fernandes, who works as an admissions counselor in the
Elms College Admissions department, brings a great deal of playing
and coaching experience to Elms' women's basketball
program.
Coach Fernandes was a four-year starting point guard for the
Blazers between 2004 and 2008 and was a team captain for three of
those seasons. Coach Fernandes is currently ranked second on the
Blazers' all-time assists list with 220, and third on the program's
all-time steals list with 136, averaging 2.2 assists and 1.8 steals
per game. She also connected for 133 field goals from beyond the
arc, the most in school history.
As a coach, she has experience at the high school level and as an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) coach.
Coach Fernandes earned her bachelor of arts degree in English with a minor in coaching from Elms College in 2008.
