Story Courtesy: Sydney Smith, FightingHawks.com
North Dakota women’s basketball head coach Dennis Hutter has announced the addition of a familiar face to the Fighting Hawks coaching staff as Adam Jacobson is set to return as an assistant coach in Grand Forks.
“We are very excited to have Adam join our coaching staff here at North Dakota,” said Hutter. “Adam brings a wealth of knowledge and head coaching experience to our staff. I have known Adam for a long time and have great respect for him as a person and a coach. He makes our family better. Excited to get going with him and our entire staff.”
Jacobson returns to Grand Forks after four seasons as the head coach of the Western Colorado women’s basketball team. He led the Mountaineers to their first 20-win season in five years during the 2024-25 season—improving by 14 wins from the previous season—and finished second in conference play while reaching the quarterfinals of the RMAC Tournament. WCU secured its first-ever win over a Division I opponent in 2023 after defeating Utah State, 51-49, under Jacobson’s direction and he led the development of six RMAC All-Conference selections, highlighted by two first-team selections in Rachel Cockman and Ivey Schmidt.
“I want to thank Coach Hutter for the opportunity to come back to UND and be apart of this great program,” said Jacobson. “UND women’s basketball has traditionally been such a strong program, and I look forward to helping continue that tradition.”
Prior to his time at Western Colorado, Jacobson spent two seasons as the head coach at North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS). The Wildcats accrued a 44-12 record overall during his time in Wahpeton—including a 34-9 mark in conference play—and in 2022, saw a program-best 30-3 season record, a MonDak Conference Championship, a 20-1 league record, an NJCAA Region 13 Championship and North District Championship as well as an NJCAA National Tournament appearance.
Jacobson earned multiple coach of the year distinctions in 2022 as the MonDak Conference, NJCAA Region 12 and NJCAA District Coach of the Year recipient and played a direct role in the recruitment and development of Ivane Tensaie, a 2022 Third Team NJCAA All-American, MonDak Player of the Year and Region 13 Player of the Year.
Before his time with NDSCS, Jacobson has spent numerous seasons on the sidelines as an assistant coach, an associate head coach and a graduate assistant. This includes stints at Scottsdale Community College (men’s assistant, 2006-07), Augustana University (men’s graduate assistant, 2007-08), University of Jamestown (men’s assistant, 2008-09), Gillette College (women’s assistant, 2011-12) and University of Mary (women’s assistant, 2012-14; women’s associate head coach, 2018-2020).
In between stops at University of Mary, Jacobson spent 2014-18 as an assistant women’s basketball coach at North Dakota. UND collected a 2017 Big Sky Conference Regular Season Co-Championship and a 2017 WNIT post-season appearance during his time on the sidelines in addition to 2015 and 2016 appearances in the Women’s Basketball Invitational. Jacobson also led the recruitment of Big Sky and Summit League First Team All-Conference selections Fallyn Freije and Lexi Kalbo, who was a 2019 Cheryl Miller Award finalist.
Jacobson earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of North Dakota during which he was a member of the men’s basketball team. He spent two seasons on the team in Grand Forks after two seasons at Northern Iowa, appearing in all 58 games for UND.
