Coaching Carousel Update: Scranton has announced its next head coach
Kaitlyn Lewis will lead the 2026 national runner-up in its 2026-27 campaign
One of the most sought-after jobs in this year’s coaching cycle has been filled by a familiar name.
Three months removed from its first national championship game appearance since 1985, Scranton found its next head coach in a former assistant, appointing Kaitlyn Lewis to the position on Tuesday. Lewis coached with the Lady Royals from 2019 to 2022, and was part of three Landmark Conference title teams in that span.
“Returning home to Scranton and to the University that means so much to me is truly a dream come true," Lewis said in Scranton’s press release. "I'm excited to begin building relationships with our student-athletes and helping provide them with an outstanding experience both on and off the court.”
Lewis heads back to Scranton after three Division I stops in the last four years. She joined the staff at Lehigh in 2022 before moving to her alma mater, American University, as an assistant in 2024-25. Last winter, she coached at Rider alongside former Arcadia head coach Jackie Hartzell.
Her Division I tour concluded by earning her first career head coaching job at Scranton, long known as one of Division III’s women’s basketball powerhouses. In her first stint with the Lady Royals, she proved key on the recruiting trail, helping Scranton secure its rising senior class of Katie Gorski, Meghan Lamanna, Elizabeth Bennett, and Natalie Stoupakis, a group that will serve as the foundation of Lewis’ squad in 2026-27.
"Her ability to build relationships and recruit quality student-athletes makes her the ideal person for this job,” Scranton AD Dave Martin said in the release. “She helped the Lady Royals achieve tremendous success as an assistant coach here, and we are excited to welcome Kaitlyn back to Scranton."
Lewis takes the helm after Ben O’Brien departed for Division I Lafayette in April. In four seasons, O’Brien went 117-7, winning the Landmark Conference regular season title in all four years.
For a number of reasons, this hire appears as a strong one, even with Lewis having not previously been a head coach. A name that has been present in coaching circles for several years, she was a WBCA Thirty Under 30 honoree as an assistant at Scranton and has not only familiarity with the Landmark Conference and the program, but also with a handful of the current players on the roster. That connection has the potential to be vital in Year 1, allowing for more immediate chemistry between Lewis and her players as Scranton aims at a return trip to the Final Four.
Lewis will be the ninth coach in program history, per Scranton’s release.
“I am incredibly grateful to join a program built on years of tradition and success,” Lewis noted in the announcement. “I will do everything in my power to honor those who have come before me and helped shape the program into what it is today."
Additional Coaching News & Notes
Franciscan made a solid (and unique) hire in Tracy Guerette, announcing the news on Tuesday. Guerette will be a college head coach for the second time in her career with the Barons, having previously spent a stint leading the program at Maine-Presque Isle (UMPI) before joining the staff at Division I Maine as an assistant/DOBO. A former walk-on at Maine, she eventually worked her way up to scholarship status with the Black Bears, and following her basketball career, took up distance running, a pursuit that ultimately landed her a spot in the 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials. She recently worked in a role with FIERCE Athletics, “helping equip coaches through the teachings of the Catholic Church.” Per Franciscan’s press release, it was through FIERCE that she took a trip to Franciscan last fall, setting the groundwork for her to take over the women’s basketball program. She’ll have her work cut out for her in Steubenville, taking over a program that went 3-22 in 2025-26.
For the second time this offseason, a sitting head coach has left their current job for another one in the same league, with the most recent occurrence coming in the Pacific Northwest. Late last week, Whitworth hired away Pacific head coach Alecia Parker in a great move that keeps Parker in the Northwest Conference. At Pacific, she went 106-84 in eight seasons, notably taking the Boxers to three consecutive NWC Tournament title games from 2022-2024. She raised the profile of Pacific’s program during her time there, leading the Boxers to the NWC Tournament for the first time since 2009 when they earned the tournament’s No. 2 seed in 2020. The hire also makes sense considering Parker’s last assistant job before taking over at Pacific came at Whitworth, where she was part of two NWC Tournament semifinal appearances for the Pirates. She will aim to get Whitworth back to that tier of the NWC starting in 2026-27, with the Pirates having posted a winning percentage of .360 or below in each of the last three seasons.
Keeping with the theme of regionally-focused hires, Mount Union didn’t go far to find its next head coach, hiring John Carroll assistant Emily Taylor. The decision is a smart one for the UMU administration, as Taylor played a role in JCU’s tremendous Sweet 16 run this past season and knows the OAC, having played on JCU’s first OAC regular season title-winning team in 2013-14. While JCU is no longer in the OAC, Mount Union still is, and Taylor knows the Ohio recruiting landscape well from her four years on staff with the Blue Streaks. She was with JCU for three years initially before stints at Merrimack and Cleveland State. She then returned to University Heights for the 2025-26 season as the program’s assistant coach.
Peyton Whitted has been hired at Westminster (MO). Her background is largely as a player, starting with a four-year career at Penn State before playing professionally from 2017-2025, with stints in Greece, Romania, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Italy, Indonesia and the Czech Republic. Her coaching experience has come at the high school level (Georgia’s North Gwinnett High School) and with the ATL Bucks AAU program. Westminster announced the hire on May 29.
St. Scholastica announced Rob McDonald as head coach on Wednesday afternoon, as the Saints look to build on their first-ever MIAC Tournament appearance this past season. McDonald takes over after a four-year run on the staff at D2 Saginaw Valley State, where he coached as an assistant. The bulk of his coaching experience to this point has come in D2, with previous stops at Saint Leo (FL) and Lincoln (MO). However, he does have personal ties to the MIAC, having played in the league as a dual-sport athlete at St. Olaf (football and basketball).