Coaching Carousel: Iverson to Eau Claire
Hannah Iverson, who took UW-Stout to the 2025 Final Four, is staying in the WIAC but will be leading UW-Eau Claire when the 2026-27 season tips off.
In quite possibly the biggest move of this entire coaching cycle, Hannah Iverson is heading to UW-Eau Claire.
After a tremendous eight-year run at UW-Stout, where she lifted the program to historic heights and a 2025 Final Four appearance, Iverson was announced as the Blugolds’ next head coach on Friday morning. She went 125-74 in Menomonie, turning the program around entirely as Stout entered the national spotlight, highlighted by back-to-back 23-win seasons in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
“Hannah is a proven winner who reflects the competitive standards we expect at UW–Eau Claire,” said UWEC Director of Athletics Jason Verdugo in a news release. “She builds strong, authentic relationships with her players, develops student-athletes at a high level, and creates a team culture that competes relentlessly. Her track record in the WIAC shows she knows how to win, and we believe her leadership positions our program to be successful moving forward.”
The move is significant on a national scale, especially as it is an intra-conference hire within one of the strongest leagues in the country and in recent years, Iverson has separated herself amongst the top rising head coaches in Division III. She was a first-time head coach when she took the job at Stout in 2018, and immediately made a name for herself as a top-notch program-builder, winning big on the recruiting trail in addition to the on-court success.
Stout went 18-9 in Year 1, and posted winning seasons in seven of her eight years at the helm. Around 2020, Iverson assembled the group that would lead Stout to national prominence, including All-American Raegan Sorensen, All-Region honoree Anna Mutch, and All-WIAC guard Sam Schaeffer.
The Blue Devils won their first WIAC regular season title since 2007 during the 2022-23 campaign, and followed that by winning the WIAC Tournament in 2024, carrying that success over to an NCAA Tournament run that featured wins over WashU and Puget Sound. Stout came back in 2024-25 and surpassed that level of success, going all the way to Salem and the Final Four, with their Cinderella postseason run including an upset of powerhouse Scranton on the Lady Royals’ home floor in the Elite Eight.
"Hannah's connection to Eau Claire and her vision for this program made this a really special hire," said Kyle Seyer, UWEC Assistant Athletic Director and chair of the search committee, in the release. "She grew up around this program and now has the opportunity to lead it. That full-circle journey, combined with her success as a coach and ability to build relationships, makes her a natural fit to take this program to new heights."
The fact that Iverson grew up in Eau Claire and became one of the city’s most decorated high school players in history made this a logical hire from the beginning. Paired with her proven WIAC success just 28 miles down the road in Menomonie, it seems there wasn’t a better fit for this job than Iverson. A two-time All-State point guard at Eau Claire North High School, she went on to play her college ball in-state at UW-Green Bay, helping the Phoenix to four NCAA Tournaments.
“I am incredibly honored to be named the head women's basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire," Iverson said in the release. "I want to thank Jason, Chancellor Carney and the rest of the search committee for the trust and belief they've placed in me to lead this program. UW-Eau Claire is a special place with a strong tradition of academic and athletic excellence. I proudly stand with all of the coaches and players who have left their mark on this program and look forward to creating a culture rooted in accountability, toughness, trust and togetherness. My family and I are thrilled to join the Blugold family and we can't wait to get started."
The timing of this hire, as I noted earlier on X, is very ideal for UWEC. Tonja Englund announced her retirement on March 11, and just 16 days later, the Blugolds already have their next head coach in place. The speed of the search process should give Iverson more time to pull together a strong recruiting class for the 2026-27 season as she looks to elevate UWEC back to being a consistent WIAC title contender. Scott Peterson’s 2026-27 Preseason Rankings have UWEC slotted to return 66.1% of its production, though that could obviously change with Englund retiring and Iverson taking over the program.
The other big question becomes where Stout goes from this point. Iverson really transformed the program into one that proved it can win on a big stage and showed it to be a place that strongly supports its women’s basketball program. There is no doubt there will be an abundance of quality candidates aiming at this one, similar to how the UWEC job was viewed when it came open a couple weeks ago. The proximity to Minnesota allows Stout to recruit the Twin Cities in a way few other WIACs can (River Falls and Eau Claire being the others), and again, the recent success makes this an incredibly appealing job. It’s very possible that Stout ends up being a Top 3 job in this cycle, though this offseason has the potential to be one of the biggest in terms of high-tier openings, a list that also includes Springfield and Ithaca.
More to come on the coaching news front, including a more in-depth coaching carousel update sometime over the weekend. I also have my final Top 25 ballot breakdown in the works. Stay tuned!