Coaching Carousel Update: April 3, 2024
We’ve officially reached the month of April, and the coaching carousel has already been spinning. We’ve had 17 head coaching jobs come open since late February, with three of those positions already filled. Additionally, Grove City now has a permanent head coach, as the college announced Jason Baker (who had been the interim) will officially be taking over the program moving forwards. Congratulations to him, as he recently wrapped up his third year on the staff, and was the interim for the entirety of last season’s campaign. GCC went 11-14 overall and 10-10 in the PAC, marking the ninth straight season for the program with 10+ league victories.
Moving on to the other hires that have been made, starting with the most recent…
Marywood will have a familiar face leading the program once again, as Tara Macciocco was named head coach in a press release yesterday. It isn’t often you see the all-time winningest coach in a program’s history leave and then return again five years later, but that is the case here.
Macciocco won 206 games at Marywood in a 14-year span from 2004-2018, and led the Pacers to a 41-7 record in conference play over her final three seasons. The hire makes sense for several reasons, including the fact that Macciocco knows how to win at Marywood and has an unmatched level of familiarity with the program, which should aid in recruiting efforts. She turned the Marywood program around during her previous stint at the helm, and could certainly do the same again for a team that went 8-16 in 2023-24.
She took over as the head coach at Wilkes from 2018-2023 after leaving Marywood. Then last season, served as the Director of Basketball Operations as well as an assistant coach with the Keystone College men’s program.
CCNY also has a new head coach in Marcello Di Russo, though no official announcement has been made by the athletics department, outside of changing his title on the staff directory. He replaces Varrell Eddie as head coach, and this was an internal hire, as Russo joined the CCNY coaching staff in October of 2021.
With a unique background as an Italian composer and former professional coach in Italy, Russo a good fit, and his familiarity with the program and recruiting in NYC should help. This is a program that hasn’t won more than four games in a season since 2018-19, but you never know when the tide will turn.
Buena Vista has turned to an alum after David Wells resigned following his fifth season as head coach. Kylee Boettcher, a 2002 BVU grad, most recently head coached at the high school level with Panorama (Iowa) HS, and will now make the jump to college head coach after five seasons there. She clearly knows how to build a winning culture, having gone 111-16 at Panorama, which included a state championship game appearance this past season.
I really like this move, considering Boettcher knows the BVU program well as an alum, and as a high school head coach (and previously a junior high and high school varsity assistant), she has connections that will prove valuable in recruiting. With a background at the high school level in Iowa, and at a hugely successful program at that, I would guess Boettcher has a great feel for the high school landscape in the state and is connected with a wide range of top HS coaches across the state that should help Buena Vista when it comes to finding talented recruits. So many currently D-III head coaches spent time as high school head coaches, and I certainly look forward to seeing how Boettcher leads this program into the future.
So what are the other 14 jobs still open? I say “open”, though some of these are no longer publicly listed on the NCAA job board, and likely already determined or in the interview process with an announcement coming soon.
We have two Empire 8 head coaching vacancies with Russell Sage and Keuka. Both are still listed on the NCAA job board.
The Liberty League also has two openings with RIT and William Smith. Both came open in February, almost as soon as the regular season concluded. We’ll see how soon an announcement comes on these positions.
One of the more intriguing head coaching jobs currently out there is the one at Carnegie Mellon. Considering its position within the UAA, there is quite a bit of interest as this is a big-time league and program that can and does recruit nationally. CMU is going to be a solid job for whoever takes over the program and while the Tartans were 3-11 in the UAA the last two years, you can definitely imagine a situation where CMU becomes a contender in that league fairly quickly with the right person leading the program. I’m keeping a close eye on this one.
Virginia Wesleyan also opened in early March, and feels like a program that could have significant success in the ODAC with the right leadership. I would expect there was some significant interest in this one, and it is no longer listed publicly by the NCAA, which likely indicates the interview process is ongoing or they have settled on a candidate.
The Landmark Conference saw a pretty notable retirement announcement in early March, as Lycoming’s Christen Ditzler is stepping away after a 32-year career at Lycoming, where she was the all-time winningest women’s basketball coach. She was also an Assistant Director for Athletics and the Senior Woman Administrator as the fifth-longest tenured employee in Lycoming’s athletic department history. She won 366 games in women’s basketball, those coming in addition to the 235 she won as head softball coach and the 13 she tallied during a stint as the volleyball head coach. When Lycoming left the MAC in 2023, she had 354 career victories, the sixth-most all-time amongst women’s basketball coaches in that league. She helped advance the entire Lycoming athletics department, both in her coaching success in basketball and softball, as well as through her tireless work as an administrator. Congratulations to her on a memorable career!
Amongst the others I have written down: Heidelberg (OAC), Saint Mary’s (MN) (MIAC), Pratt (C2C), Juniata (Landmark), Endicott (CCC), and Mount Holyoke (NEWMAC).
So that is that for the current head coaching carousel in D3 women’s hoops. I also noticed full-time assistant coaching positions now open (listed just this week) at Scranton and WashU. Both are obviously high-profile programs, and I would think both positions will garner quite a bit of interest. Great opportunities there.
That will wrap this up, but I have lined up several offseason interviews that will be published here with coaches and student-athletes, and my goal is to have consistent coverage throughout the offseason. I’m looking forward to having these offseason conversations and highlighting outstanding programs across the country in the process!
If you have any notes on the coaching carousel or D3 women’s basketball in general, along with thoughts/feedback, feel to reach out via email at rileyzayas@gmail.com or on X/Twitter (@ZayasRiley). You can also send a direct message via Substack, and as usual, you can leave a comment below. Have a great rest of your week!