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August 28, 2019
Strong seasons expected from Cape May County field hockey teams
September 3, 2019

Two LCM grads land Division I coaching jobs

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

Two of the all-time greats from the Lower Cape May Regional High School girls basketball program are now coaching at the Division I level.

Lauren Holden, who finished off an excellent four-year playing career at Division I Fordham University in March, has been hired as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University. That announcement came earlier this summer.

And Stephanie (Agger) Carideo, a former standout at Philadelphia University (now Jefferson University), has been named an assistant women’s basketball coach at the University of Pennsylvania, the school announced earlier this week.

LAUREN HOLDEN

Holden started 117 of a possible 132 games and scored more than 1,000 career points during her career at Fordham, which culminated with the Rams winning the Atlantic 10 championship and appearing in the NCAA Tournament during her final season last winter.

A 5-6 point guard, Holden led all of Division I basketball in minutes played per game at 38.6 last season. She averaged 9.0 points and 2.5 assists per game as a senior.

Holden was named the South Jersey College Player of the Year by the Al Carino Basketball Club of South Jersey last winter. 

Holden joined Fairleigh Dickinson’s staff shortly after the hiring of new head coach Angelika Szumilo, who had previously served as the associate head coach at Fordham.

Holden is the all-time leading scorer at Lower Cape May and the second-highest scorer in Cape May County high school girls basketball history with 2,476 career points. She led Lower Cape May to its first and only South Jersey championship as a senior in 2015.

Fairleigh Dickinson, located in Teaneck, went 8-22 overall, 5-13 in the Northeast Conference last season.

STEPHANIE CARIDEO

Carideo landed at Penn after serving as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Jefferson under Herb Magee last season. She previously was the head women’s coach at Division III Penn State Abington, where she won North East Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors after leading Abington to a 22-5 record and its first-ever NCAA Division III Tournament berth.

As a player, Carideo posted more than 1,000 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists and 200 steals during a stellar four-year career at Jefferson, which at the time was known as Philadelphia University. 

Carideo graduated from Lower Cape May in 2007 after scoring 1,001 career points. She was inducted into the Lower Cape May Regional High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012.

Carideo joins a Penn program, led by Mike McLaughlin, that has won four of the last six regular-season Ivy League titles. Penn finished 24-7 overall, 12-2 in the Ivy League, last season.