1976: Women’s Basketball Team Earned a Respectable First Season Record

Capitol Campus formed its first intercollegiate women’s basketball team in 1976, which was also the first intercollegiate women’s sports team of any kind on campus.

In preseason, the team practiced every Monday and Thursday night to prepare for the season and recruit new players. Though plagued by injuries its first year, the team held a full roster and full 12-game schedule for the season. Head coach Rodney Metzger and assistant coach Ed Bejster steered the women’s team through its first season with a respectable 6 – 6 record.

Team captain, junior Lynn Mattern, led the team as the highest point scorer with 203 points for the season. Senior co-captain Beth Kopas followed close behind with 188 points.

Women’s basketball failed to generate interest later in the 70s but made a resurgence as a varsity club team in the late 80s. It was one of the sports teams created when intercollegiate varsity sports returned to Penn State Harrisburg in 2005.