Fresh off of a CCAA national championship, the Lethbridge College Kodiaks are keeping it in the family as Deanna Dotts has been named the new head coach of the women’s basketball team.
Dotts has served as an assistant coach to long-time bench boss Brad Karren in each of the last two seasons. The Kodiaks went 50-1 over that span, winning both the ACAC and CCAA championships last season. Prior to that, Dotts spent two seasons playing with the Kodiaks, helping the team to an ACAC championship and national silver medal in 2014-15. She was named an ACAC south division first team all-star in 2013-14.
"I am excited to have the opportunity to continue to grow a program that I have been involved with for the past four seasons, both as a student-athlete and a coach,” says Dotts. “The expectations of the program will not change from what they have been previously, as we expect to be competing for championships at both the provincial and national levels."
Dotts hails from Hayden, Idaho, and attended Coeur d’Alene High School. She began her post-secondary basketball career by playing three seasons with her hometown North Idaho Junior College Cardinals, before transferring to join the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns for the 2011-12 season. In her two seasons after transferring to the Kodiaks, Dotts averaged 10.5 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game.
“We are very excited to have Deanna increase her role with our Kodiaks team,” says Todd Caughlin, manager of Kodiaks Athletics. “Her combination of student-athlete experience while playing in the United States, at the U of L and her two years as a Kodiak, along with the lessons learned from being an assistant coach with the program for the last two years made her a great candidate for the job. Deanna knows what it takes to win and will do what it takes to build a program that is based on the Kodiaks Athletics three pillars - academic accountability, athletic excellence and student-athlete experience.”
Dotts is the first female head coach of the Kodiaks women’s basketball team since Dawn Keith in 1998-99. The Kodiaks will begin the defence of their CCAA championship, and Dotts will make her head coaching debut, when the Kodiaks new ACAC season tips off at home on Oct. 20.