Mike Curfman is in his seventh year as head women’s basketball coach for the Beavers. Curfman has directed Bemidji State University to a 62-102 overall record (.378) in his six seasons while posting a 35-77 (.313) mark in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Curfman is the third-longest tenured coach in the program’s history, trailing only Doreen Zierer who coached 11 seasons (1990-2002) and Ruth Howe who coached the programs’ first 10 seasons (1967-77). Curfman is fourth on BSU’s all-time coaching victories list. He trails Zierer (129), Howe (95) and Joan Campbell (70).

After posting his lowest win total at BSU in 2008-09, Curfman and the BSU women’s basketball team bounced back with a 12-15 overall mark in 2009-10, making it the fourth season out of five that the Beavers have tallied more than 10 wins. The last time BSU had as many 10 win-seasons in such a short period of time was from 1994-99, when Zierer led the Beavers to four 10-win seasons in five years.

Rejuvenating a program is nothing new to Curfman, he came to Bemidji State after six years at the helm of the University of Minnesota, Crookston program where three times during his tenure his teams set or equaled school records for wins (2000-01, 2001-02 and 2004-05) and racked up 55 victories during his final four seasons.

While at UMC, he helped to elevate the program to the NCAA Division II level. After a 1-26 season in 1999-2000, Curfman directed the Golden Eagles to a school-record nine wins in 2000-01 and increased UMC’s win total to 16 the following year. In 2002-03, under Curfman, UMC made the NSIC tournament for the first time, cruising to the championship game before falling to NCAA Tournament bound University of Minnesota Duluth. In his last season at UMC in 2004-05 his Golden Eagles tied for fourth place in the NSIC posting a league record of 8-6 while going 16-12 overall and making their first ever appearance in the North Central Regional Polls. Curfman has mentored 10 All-Conference selections as a head coach including 2000-01 NSIC Newcomer of the Year and 2001-02 Player of the Year Jessica Forsline and was himself named as the 2002 NSIC Coach of the Year.

Curfman’s teams have done equally as well in the classroom. During his tenure at UMC, the Golden Eagles posted at least a 3.0 team grade point average and finished in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Top 10 Academic National Rankings with a team G.P.A. of better than 3.4 in 2004-05.

Previous to taking over the UMC program, Curfman was an assistant coach at St. Cloud State University (1994-99), serving as Dr. Lori Ulferts’ top assistant for five seasons. He also coached under Dr. Ulferts at Moorhead State University (1992-94) as an assistant while serving as the head coach of the junior varsity team. He has presented at a number of camps and clinics and is a member of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and the Minnesota State High School League Coaches Association.

A native of Fosston, Minn., Curfman was an Academic All-America selection for the UMC basketball team while earning his A.A.S. degree. He then moved on to Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. where he graduated in 1992 with his B.A. in Business Administration while captaining the Cobber men’s basketball program. In 1994, Curfman earned his MBA in business administration from Moorhead State University (now Minnesota State University Moorhead) while acting as an assistant coach for the Dragons’ women’s basketball program.

Curfman currently resides in Fosston with his wife Michelle, his son Caleb and his daughter Emily.