Jennifer Agosto is just one of the boys

April 14, 2025 Andy Furman

Jennifer Agosto with the New Utrecht High School varsity team. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Agosto

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BENSONHURST — If anyone had doubts about Jennifer Agosto becoming a successful coach – well, they don’t know her well.

“When Midwood won the [Public Schools Athletic League] basketball title in 2011,” she told the Brooklyn Eagle last week, “We were the only team to beat them.”

We – that’s New Utrecht High School. A place Agosto has called home for 20 years – 17 as basketball coach.

Boys’ basketball coach.

Agosto, who guided the Green and White to the Sweet 16 this year and a 12-2 record, is the boys’ basketball coach at New Utrecht High School.

“I coached junior varsity for two years,” she said, “That was 2008 to 2010, and took over the varsity in 2011.”

And oh was she qualified.

She played basketball in high school — Midwood — and as a collegian she was regarded as one of the best shooters in the City University of New York Athletic Conference as a Hunter College Hawk.

She contributed to three CUNYAC Tournament and regular season championships and finished her Hunter career with 1,345 total points – fourth in school history.

“One of most memorable experiences was my senior year basketball season championship game versus the College of Staten Island when I hit a running jump shot with two seconds left in the game for the win,” she said.

She is presently the all-time leader in career three-point field goals made and three-point field goal percentage and holds the single-season record for most three-point field goals made.

Basketball followed Agosto after her May 2004 graduation. “I went on to attend a few semi-professional team tryouts and landed a spot with the Ponce Leonas a professional team in Puerto Rico,” she said. “I played for them a year.”

Her trophy cabinet is loaded with awards – City University of New York Athletic Conference Tournament MVP, CUNYAC MVP, CUNYAC All-Star, Eastern College Athletic Conference All-Star, Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association All-Star and Hunter College Alumni Tip-Off MVP. She was also chosen for the CUNYAC-New Jersey Athletic Conference All-Senior Challenge and D3hoops.com All-Region Team.

None of those awards meant a thing to the youngsters she coached early on, she remembers. “Yes, I’ve had some incidents early on coaching boys,” she recalled. “I had one youngster who decided not to play at all seeing a female coach; and another just quit for religious reasons. Some of the kids would just test me early on.”

Time, as they say, heals all sorts of wounds.

“The kids look at me as coach these days,” Agosto said. “I know boys will be boys, and at this age they have an ego. They used to say, ‘What does a woman know about basketball?’”

The youngsters weren’t the only doubters early on, she says. “I’ve had incidents with the game officials as well,” she said. “After games some of the male officials wouldn’t even shake my hand. But now, they know me.”

So do the other schools in the Brooklyn division.

Last year Utrecht went to the playoffs – losing to the College of Staten Island in the first round. This past season, it was a loss to Architect – the eventual city champion – and Utrecht rolled to a 13-game winning streak during the process.

Agosto credits the growth of the Women’s National Basketball Association for the respect she’s gotten over the past several seasons. “Women’s basketball has gotten much exposure and has opened the eyes of the uninformed,” she said.

She teaches Physical Education at New Utrecht and coaches girls’ Badminton.

Jennifer Agosto didn’t need any help gaining respect – she did it all by herself.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] X: @AndyFurmanFSR.