Women's Basketball - 2009 NEWMAC Regular Season and ECAC Division III New England Champions

A native of Rochester, NY, Cherise Galasso starts her 12th season in 2011-12 as head women's basketball coach, associate athletic director and senior women’s administrator at WPI. 

Galasso has brought the Engineer program to new heights. Under her watchful eye, the program has posted consecutive 20-win seasons for just the second time in school history and first time in 26 years.  Galasso’s teams captured NEWMAC championships and ECAC New England tournament titles in 2007 and 2009, when they a new established a new program standard for wins with 24.   She has helped guide WPI to six straight NEWMAC Tournament semifinal appearances including, championship berths in 2007 and 2010.   

In the beginning of her tenure at WPI, she was very successful in elevating WPI's presence on a regional and national level. In Galasso's first season, she molded a team that had finished 6-18 overall and 1-8 in the NEWMAC conference the year prior and raised its record to 11-14 overall and 5-4 in the NEWMAC.  In 2001-2002, WPI finished 17-10 and went on to reach the NEWMAC post-season tourney semifinals with a resounding 20-point upset road victory in the quarters. Then in 2003-2004, WPI finished 16-12, again reaching the NEWMAC semifinals, while also landing an ECAC tournament berth.

Galasso also handles a bevy of duties on the administrative level. Some of those duties include the following: compliance, home game management, co-advisor of the Student Athlete Advisory Council, and a member of the WPI Steering Committee for Women and Diversity.  In the summer of 2007, Galasso was rewarded with a promotion from Assistant Athletic Director to Associate Athletic Director. 

Prior to WPI, Galasso had served in several capacities at Regis College, located in Weston, MA, over a three-year period. An assistant athletic director her first two years, she was promoted to associate AD. in 1999 at Regis, where she was also the senior women's administrator. Some of her administrative duties included budget management, team travel, home game management, pre-season and summer camp coordination.

In addition, Galasso had doubled as the head women's basketball coach and head women's soccer coach at Regis in her three years there.

Prior to Regis, Galasso was an assistant women's basketball coach at the University of Rochester, her alma mater, from 1994 to 1997. While at Rochester, she was also the Assistant Director of Game Management, Admissions Liaison, and Director of the Varsity Weight Program.

Galasso graduated in 1992 from Rochester with her bachelor of art's degree in psychology. She went on to matriculate at Nazareth College in Rochester, where she earned her master's of science in education in 1994.

As an undergrad, Galasso was captain of both her basketball and soccer teams. In soccer as a senior, she was the UAA Conference Player of the Year. She was also a member of the 1987 NCAA Division III National Championship women's soccer team.

In 1992 and 1993, she was a teacher in the Rochester area, first in the Greece Central School District, then in the Hilton Central School District.  From 1992 through 1994, Galasso was an assistant women's soccer coach at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Over the years, Galasso has directed many summer camps, such as the Kara Wolters' Basketball Camp and the Top of the Hoop Basketball Camp for girls. She is currently the camp coordinator for three camps, including one at Worcester Academy with Sherry Levin. She was also at one point the treasurer of the Massachusetts Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (MAIAW) and a former member of the NCAA Division III Atlantic Region Committee for basketball.

The 2011-12 campaign will mark the second year at WPI for assistant women's basketball coach Corey Boilard.  

Boilard joined the Crimson and Gray after four years as the varsity coach at Bow (NH) High School where he was a paraprofessional in the Special Education department.  In addition to Bow, Boilard spent time early in his coaching career working with the men's programs Keene State and Plymouth State.  More recently he served as a volunteer assistant Women's Basketball coach for the 2009 ECAC Finalists at Plymouth State.  

The physical education major has worked with various age groups as he has been in a coaching capacity at Bow High School, Hillsboro-Deering High School and Plymouth (NH) Middle School.  Boilard has also been a personal trainer. 

As a member of the Keene State men's basketball team, Boilard made several starts in his first year while the program was at the Division-II level.  He was also part of great turnaround at Keene State as the Owls went from a 2-22 record in Boilard's freshman season to 22-9 and 20-7 in the subsequent years.  Both 20-plus win teams were invited to the ECAC tournament.  

"I am excited to be a part of the WPI Women's Basketball program and honored for the opportunity to work with Coach Galasso," stated Boilard.  "She has worked extremely hard to build a top notch program and I am enthusiastic for the chance to contribute." 

Boilard competes as a professional duathlete and cyclist and elite triathlete.  He has entered several endurance events since 2005, claiming over 30 victories and numerous top-3 finishes.

Maegan Cook joins the WPI women’s basketball staff as an assistant for the 2011-12 season. 

Cook, a 2010 graduate of Assumption with a degree in elementary education, with a concentration in history, enjoyed a successful four-year career as a member of the Greyhound women’s basketball team.  Her teams appeared in the NE-10 playoffs all four years, and, in 2008, the team advanced to the NCAA regional semifinals.   

Her basketball background also includes serving as an instructor at summer basketball camps and clinics both in her hometown of Braintree and in Worcester.  Cook also taught fundamentals of basketball and volleyball for an after school program run by Fit Kids America, while attending Cal State San Marcos en route to earning her master’s degree in education. 

Cook is currently a teacher in the Worcester Public School System.