The University of Maine Foundation

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The new coach of University of Maine Women's Basketball knows what it's like to be a UMaine student-athlete. From 1994–98, she was one of them.

Cindy Blodgett was an education major who received UMaine's Dean Smith Award, given annually to the university's top female and male student-athletes for academic excellence. A powerhouse on the hardwood, she graduated with 20 UMaine records and led her teams to the NCAA tournament four consecutive times.

Now Blodgett has returned to her alma mater, this time to coach. In honor of her head coaching debut, the Cindy Blodgett Women's Basketball Education Fund was established in the University of Maine Foundation in 2007 with a gift from Russell S. Bodwell '44 and Barbara Higgins Bodwell '45. Income from the fund will be used to provide scholarship aid for deserving student-athletes on the UMaine Women's Basketball team.

It is scholarship aid, says Blodgett, that will address one of her priorities: ensuring academic strength in the student-athlete equation.