A record-setting and championship-winning coach with more than 20 years of experience at the NCAA Division II and Division I levels will be the next Head Women’s Basketball Coach at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Lynn Plett, who was most recently the assistant coach at Northern Kentucky University, will be the Mountain Lion head coach starting in the 2016-17 season.

“I’d like to thank Athletic Director Steve Kirkham, Senior Associate Athletic Director Nathan Gibson and Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak for giving me the opportunity to direct the women’s basketball program at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs,” Plett said. “I am thrilled to have been selected as the Head Women’s Basketball Coach at UCCS and recognize the potential that exists at the university for developing student-athletes both academically and athletically.

“The continued development of the campus over the years has been incredible and I sensed a genuine camaraderie among the coaches and athletic department administration. I am looking forward to competing in the RMAC with the players who are returning and believe that they have high expectations of themselves for the coming season.”

Plett spent the last four seasons at Northern Kentucky, where the Norse qualified for the Women’s Basketball Invitational postseason tournament each season during the transition from NCAA Division II to Division I. The Norse finished as the runner-up in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament in 2015 and reached the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament in 2016.

Plett spent five seasons as the head coach at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri. The Griffons reached the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association tournament three times while on NCAA probation from major violations made before he was the Head Coach. His team ranked in the top 20 of NCAA Division II for grade point average in the 2008-09 season and he coached three All-MIAA student-athletes. He served on the NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee from 2007 through 2011.

Plett was the head coach at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, from 2002 through 2007, and his teams qualified for three NCAA Division II Tournaments in his career. The Flyers hosted the regional championship in the 2006-07 season and were ranked as high as No. 7 in the national polls. He coached two All-Americans, two Great Lakes Valley Conference Players of the Year, two All-GLVC Academic Players of the Year and the program’s all-time leading scorer. He was the Region 4 and GLVC Coach of the Year in 2007 and was the conference representative for the Women’s Basketball Officials Consortium, the supervising body for officials in seven conferences including the Big Ten Conference.

Plett entered Division II coaching at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana, in 1994, where he also doubled as athletic director. He won the GLVC championship and was named GLVC Coach of the Year in his first season and coached an All-American, two-time conference player of the year and a two-time NCAA Division II scoring leader. He served as the director for the Chicago Bull’s Basketball Camp in 2000 and 2001. As athletic director, he led programs that hosted NCAA championships in basketball, baseball, soccer and cross country.

Plett has also coached men’s basketball at Huntington College in Indiana from 1989 through 1994, at Marymount College in Kansas from 1986 through 1989, and at Tabor College in Kansas from 1983 through 1986.

Plett earned bachelor’s degrees from Tabor in 1975 and 1981, where he also played basketball and soccer. He and his wife Brenda have a son, Matt, and a daughter, Stacy.

“Lynn has a tremendous history in developing programs that maintain high levels of success, and we’re excited that he will become a member of the Mountain Lion family,” Kirkham said. “We expect him to build upon the success that we’ve experienced in the last two seasons and develop UCCS in a national contender in women’s basketball.”

http://gomountainlions.com/news/2016/5/12/lynn-plett-named-head-womens-basketball-coach.aspx

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