Director of Athletics Bill Pilgeram has announced the next head coach to lead the Corban University Women’s Basketball program chosen by the Warrior Selection Committee, as Kylie Frizell will be bringing her talents to the mid-Willamette Valley in order to facilitate the team’s constant pursuit of athletic, academic, and spiritual success at both the conference and national level.
“We are excited to welcome Kylie to lead our women’s basketball team in this next stage of their journey,” shared Pilgeram. “Kylie’s energy and passion will lead this program forward in a big way. Her character, faith, and vision for leading this program while educating Christians to make a difference in the world for Jesus Christ advanced her to the top of the committee list as the choice for this position.”
As a collegiate student-athlete at NCAA DII Wheeling University aboard the women’s basketball program, Frizell played in 121 contests for the Cardinals and started in nearly half of them, including all but one in her senior season where she served as team captain. She averaged over 23 minutes per game across her four-year career, with lifetime shooting percentages of 41.3% from the field, 36.9% from three-point range, and 89.3% from the charity stripe. From the shooting guard position, Frizell averaged nearly four rebounds per game and fell just shy of the 1,000 career point club at 884 with 143 assists to her name.
Her junior and senior seasons, the Cardinals won back-to-back MEC Tournament Championships, with Frizell earning All-Tournament team accolades during her second title run and was a part of two NCAA Tournament appearances. Academically, she was a four-year Dean’s List honoree at Wheeling and graduated with a double degree in Spanish and Communications alongside a minor in Literature.
Following her successful basketball career as a student-athlete, Frizell made her first collegiate coaching stop at NCAA DII Ashland University out of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference as a graduate assistant. In two seasons, Frizell and the Eagles achieved a 60-3 overall record with back-to-back regular season and tournament conference championships and were slated to appear in their second-consecutive NCAA Tournament as the No. 2-overall seed out of the Midwest region prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. She would go on to earn her master’s in business administration after two years at Ashland with an emphasis in project management.
Her first full-time coaching gig in higher education came the following season when she joined the women’s basketball staff at Ursuline College, a program she was more than familiar with having coached against the Arrows at Ashland as a conference opponent. Frizell would stay on staff as an assistant coach with Ursuline for three complete seasons before making her way over to the west coast.
In her six years of various assisting roles, Frizell has coached five All-Americans, four All-Regional selections, ten All-Conference players, a pair of Academic All-Americans, and 21 separate academic award winners from the conference and individual university levels.
“I am extremely honored to be joining the Warrior family and lead the women’s basketball team,” Frizell shared. “This opportunity means so much to me, and I would like to thank the search committee, Bill Pilgeram, and Brian Jaworski for believing in me and my vision. Throughout the entire process, I could sense how genuine and driven the people are at Corban, and The Lord has been so faithful to lead me here. I can’t wait to get started and join in on what God is doing at Corban University.”
Frizell continued the explanation of her coaching passion by stating, “I coach basketball because I genuinely love the game and how it provides me with a unique opportunity to positively impact my players and those around me. I would also like to thank my husband, Micah, for his unwavering support of me, and my dad who has been a coach my entire life and showed me how I can integrate faith and basketball with humility, tenacity, and relentless effort.”
Frizell is scheduled to begin her tenure as the newly appointed Corban head coach this upcoming week and will pick up the 2024-25 season preparations right where Pilgeram and his staff left off.
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