Mercyhurst Names Brooklyn Kohlheim New Women’s Basketball Coach

Mercyhurst University is proud to announce the hiring of the school’s new women’s basketball coach, Brooklyn Kohlheim. Kohlheim joins the Laker program after a stint as head coach at Lake Erie College. She has more than 14 years of playing and coaching experience in either NCAA Division I or Division II.

Kohlheim will be introduced to the Mercyhurst University community Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. at a press conference in the Waterford Room in Ryan Hall. The press conference, which will feature multiple historic basketball announcements, will be streamed live at hurstathletics.com and is open to the public.

“I am grateful for the opportunity that President Victor, Brad Davis and the Mercyhurst community has given me to lead this program,” Kohlheim said. “Their vision for Mercyhurst women’s basketball is aligned with my own. I knew this was a special place the moment I stepped onto campus. The commitment to developing every individual as a whole is evident in the atmosphere and resources available throughout campus. This is the perfect fit for me, and I am honored to be named the head women’s basketball coach.”

Kohlheim was head coach at Lake Erie College for one season. Her team, which competed in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, defeated conference regular-season-champion Walsh and held the department’s highest team grade-point-average.

“Brook is a winner on and off the court,” said Director of Athletics Brad Davis. “She is a learner, communicator and competitor and embraces the student-athlete experience. She has been a part of five NCAA Tournament teams, three Conference Champions, 2 Elite Eight appearances, and one Final Four in her nine years with Division II programs. We are confident in our women’s basketball program under Brook’s leadership and cannot wait to introduce her to the Mercyhurst and Erie community.”

Prior to her arrival at Lake Erie, Kohlheim was an assistant coach at Michigan Tech, in Houghton, Mich.  As an assistant, she spent the 2017-18 season with the Huskies and helped lead them to a 23-6 overall record and a 17-3 record in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Huskies climbed as high as 13th in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Poll.

After a great regular season, Michigan Tech was crowned the GLIAC North Champions and received an at-large bid into the 2018 Division II NCAA Tournament. The team finished the season with the highest team GPA in Division II.

Prior to coaching at MTU, Kohlheim was an assistant at Nova Southeastern, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. She helped lead the Sharks to back-to-back Sunshine State Conference Tournament titles (2013-14 and 2014-15) and, also, two regular season conference titles (2012-13 and 2014-15). During that time, NSU made two Elite Eight appearances – in 2013-14 and 2014-15 – and reached the Final Four, as well, in 2013-14.

At Nova Southeastern, Kohlheim helped build the program into one of the premier programs in NCAA Division II with three consecutive years in the Top 25, including, at one point a No. 1 ranking on the WBCA Poll.

Kohlheim spent four years at Nova before taking an assistant job at Division I Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton before returning to NSU for one final season.

She began her collegiate coaching career with two seasons at the University of Indianapolis, where she assisted the team to a NCAA Tournament appearance in 2009-10.

As a student-athlete, Kohlheim played basketball at Florida Southern College, an NCAA Division II school where she was a four-year starter. She earned SSC All-Freshman Team honors in 2002 and led the Mocs to an SSC tournament title and NCAA appearance in 2003. She is the program’s all-time leader in free throw percentage and 3-pointers made.

https://hurstathletics.com/news/2019/4/15/mercyhurst-names-brooklyn-kohlheim-new-womens-basketball-coach.aspx