When Saint Anselm College breaks for Summer, it will mark the end of an era in the Athletic Department. Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator Donna Guimont has announced her retirement and will step down at the end of May.

Guimont arrived on the Hilltop in September of 1976 and never left. The Manchester, N.H., native served as the head coach of the women’s basketball, volleyball and softball teams, in addition to her duties as the Athletic Trainer, Assistant Director of intramural and recreational sports, and Equipment Manager in her first year at Saint Anselm.

In 1992, Guimont was promoted to Assistant Director of athletics, remaining the head coach of the women’s basketball team until she retired from the coaching ranks in 1996. She then became a full-time administrator, holding titles of Assistant Director of athletics, Compliance Director and SWA.

Though she has served as an Athletic Administrator for the past 20 years, it was as the head women’s basketball coach that Guimont made her greatest mark. She is one of the coaches with the greatest wins in the history of Division II basketball, as she holds a 336-165 record for an impressive .671 winning percentage that ranks 43rd all-time.

Guimont has also been recognized in a number of halls of fame. She became the first woman, first coach and first non-graduate of Saint Anselm to be inducted into its Anselmian Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986. In 1995, Guimont was enshrined in the Manchester, New Hampshire Queen City Hall of Fame and became a member of the New Hampshire Union Leader “Parade of Champions” two years later.

In 2003, Guimont and her 1990-91 women’s basketball team were inducted into the Saint Anselm Anselmian Athletics Hall of Fame, becoming the first team to receive that honor. Guimont was also inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, housed at the University of Rhode Island, in 2004. Finally, in 2007, she was Saint Anselm’s first inductee into the Northeast-10 Conference Hall of Fame.

At the same time that Guimont was becoming the head coach with the most wins in the school’s history and creating one of the region’s most respected programs, she was wearing many other hats for the Hawks as well. In addition to the duties she tackled in her first year, Guimont also held positions as Facilities Coordinator and women’s Athletics Coordinator at one time or another.

Guimont has been a fixture on the Hilltop through four Athletic Directors – and seven U.S. Presidents – and held every position in the athletic department except for Athletic Director and Sports Information Director. Of all of her roles, there were two in the later part of her career that held great importance to her.

As the SWA – the school’s highest-ranking woman in athletic administration,

which is mandated by the NCAA – Guimont was responsible for the department’s compliance with Title IX and gender equity issues. The role is intended to encourage and promote the involvement of women in decision-making, enhance the representation of women’s experiences and perspectives, and support women’s interests in intercollegiate athletics.

“I did not graduate from Saint Anselm College, but I am an Anselmian,” Guimont says. “It is a word I’ve chosen to live by and something I will continue to live by as I expand into another phase of my life. It has provided me with a sense of community, with respect for my colleagues and the monastic community, as well as respect that I believe I earned from them. It has given me a lot of compassion with which to do my job.”

Now, after a career that has seen her accomplish just about all there is to accomplish in the world of collegiate athletics, Guimont will step away from the courts and fields at Saint Anselm that she has called home for the past 36 years. Guimont will be back, however, and learn to serve in a new role – as a fan.

“It will be nice to come back for some games and just enjoy them, without having to manage them.”

But Guimont will most likely be spending the majority of her time at her home in Laconia, where she will be on her boat on Lake Winnipesaukee.

“Boating is my other passion and it has been for a while,” Guimont says. “It’s why I moved to the lakes region. I’ve had many people visit me over the years and I never visit them. I always say, ‘Wait until I’m retired and I’ll come visit you.’ And now payback is coming for me.”

“But,” she continued, “Saint Anselm College will remain so very special to me. Not only for the opportunities I have had, but mostly for the people that will remain so important in my life.”