Head Coach - Laurel Wartluft
Laurel Wartluft begins her fourth season as head coach, assistant athletic director and senior women’s administrator at Walsh University. The Cavs finished 5-21 in Wartluft's first season, followed by an eight-game improvement (13-15) in her second year. Last year, the Cavs improved to 19-12 and 11-4 in the American Mideast Conference, with their first post-season appearance under Wartluft. The energetic Wartluft has spent countess hours in an effort to elevate Walsh to the national limelight. The improved displayed the last two years have the Cavs going in the right direction..
A native of Alliance, Wartluft was her high school basketball team's leading scorer and won a scholarship to NAIA powerhouse John F. Kennedy College in Nebraska. She won her scholarship in a time when women's grants were unheard of in most of the country. She participated on JFKC's national championship team in 1972 and 1973. Wartluft also ran track and played fast-pitch softball and graduated in 1975 (2˝ yrs.).
After graduation, Wartluft returned to Alliance and did graduate work at Mount Union College, before serving as an assistant basketball coach at Kent State University from 1975 to 1977. In 1978, she was elevated to head coach and served the Flashes for nine years (135-119). While at Kent State, Wartluft guided the Flashes to the NCAA National Tournament in 1982 and back-to-back Mid-American Conference championships (1981-82). Her 1980-81 team won 24 games. She was named Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year in 1981 and still holds the second best winning percentage (.531) in the program's history. During her tenure at Kent State, she recruited some of the nation's top talent, including Bonnie Beachy, who is still recognized as the program's all-time scoring leader. Wartluft took her 1982 team to the NCAA Division I-A National Tournament, where they lost to the University of Southern Cal Trojans. It was the first time in school history that the women's team had reached the NCAA Tournament.
After leaving Kent State, Wartluft became Head Coach at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois from 1987-1993. Her teams were National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) District IV champions and national tournament qualifiers from 1988-92, including a national runner-up finish in 1988. Wartluft was named NCCAA District IV Regional Coach of the Year in 1990 and 1992, and NCCAA National Coach of the Year in 1992. She most recently served as Head Coach at Feather River College in Quincy, California.
Wartluft's extensive experience in athletic administration includes NCAA Division I-A stops at Kent State and Wright State University. She returned to Kent in 1995 and served until 1998 as Assistant Compliance Director, Athletic Department Administrative Assistant and as a part-time instructor. Wartluft also served as assistant athletic director/senior women's administrator at Wright State University in 1999-2000 and received a promotion to associate athletic director in 2000-01.
Wartluft returned to her first passion, coaching, in 2001 as an assistant high school coach (basketball, volleyball and track) at Conroe High School in Conroe, Texas. She then returned to the collegiate ranks as an assistant basketball coach at NCAA III Plattsburgh State University in Plattsburgh, NY in 2003-04, before accepting the job at Feather River College.
Three of Wartluft's former staff members are now affiliated with NCAA D-I programs (June Daugherty, Head Coach at the University of Washington State; Joe McKeown, Head Coach at Northwestern University and John Sutherland, former Head Coach at the University of Arkansas and New Mexico State, and currently at Marshall University).
Wartluft earned her master's degree in athletic administration in 1977 and an EDS degree in educational administration in 1998 from Kent State. In February of 2007, she was inducted into the Kent State University Varsity "K" Athletic Hall of Fame. Wartluft resides in Alliance, Ohio.
