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Sports

From Oakton High to Big-Time College Hoops

Herndon native Amaka Agugua is now an assistant coach at Old Dominion University

Amaka Agugua has been an assistant basketball coach at Division I women's programs such as Virginia Commonwealth, Indiana and now Old Dominion.

But she gives much credit to Fred Priester, her former coach at Oakton High, for her success.

"Oh man, he was a disciplinarian. He liked things a certain way. If you didn't do it that way you probably had to run or do something crazy," said Agugua, now the top assistant and recruiting coordinator under Karen Barefoot at ODU in Norfolk. "He is very, very smart when it comes to the basics of the game. He will increase your basketball IQ and all within the discipline of a team. He is a leader."

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But Priester has helped the former Herndon resident in other ways as well, including the recruiting process and during her coaching career.

She was a top player at Oakton High but an injury scared off some college coaches before she signed to play with Division I Hofstra in New York.

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"He helped me through my whole career. He was my coach for four years. I got dropped [from some schools] after the injury. He was with me through that process. He has always been on my side."

Priester told Oakton Patch on Thursday: "I just love her to death. She is like a daughter to me. When I first met her when she was 13, she was raw. She hurt her ankle as a junior. We lost in the state finals when she was a senior to Hampton. I was able to see her play at Hofstra and got to visit her in Indiana when I was visiting family. I am so proud of her, not just what she is doing as a coach but as the person she has become."

Agugua spoke to Patch late Wednesday night, after ODU blew a 10-point lead in the second half and lost at George Washington, 58-52, in overtime in non-league play. This is her first season as an assistant at ODU under head coach Barefoot in the Colonial Athletic Association after two years at Indiana.

"I am very familiar with the CAA as far as the coaches, referees and even some of the players because I coached at VCU before I went to Indiana," she said. "I am definitely glad to be at ODU. A lot of my family still lives in Northern Virginia. I am very close to home right now."

She had several friends on hand at the game at GW and also expects family and friends to be at the Patriot Center when ODU plays at Mason on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. The Monarchs are 1-7 so far this year with a young team.

Agugua was an all-Met and all-state player at Oakton and then played at Hofstra, where she was a three-year captain and scored 970 points with 568 rebounds in her career. She graduated from Hofstra in 2005 after she played in 95 games, with 82 starts, for the Pride.

Agugua got to know Barefoot when the Oakton grad was an assistant at VCU and Barefoot was an assistant at ODU. Both schools are in the CAA, as is Hofstra.

"I do a little bit of everything. As coach's top assistant I am her right-hand man. I am in charge of post players," Agugua said. "I would say my strength is player development and as my career has gone along I feel confident with my X's and O's [with strategy]. I feel I am old enough that the kids respect me but young enough they can relate."

Like many assistant coaches she would one day like to be a head coach.

"I definitely have those aspirations," she said. "I just believe everything happens in God's timing. I learn to take everything one day at a time."

For now she is glad to be at ODU after playing against the Monarchs as a visting player and coach with Hofstra and then VCU.

"The support at ODU is amazing. The history is amazing," she said of a program that has produced several WNBA players and advanced to the NCAA title game in 1997. "It is amazing to be on the home side of the bench when we play at the Constant Convocation Center."

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