Concordia Chicago names Joshua Steffen as women's basketball coach
RIVER FOREST, Ill. -- Concordia University Chicago announces the appointment of Joshua Steffen as head coach for the women's basketball team, effective June 2. Steffen takes over for Tamlyn Tills who accepted the head coach's position at Lake Forest College following the 2007-08 season.

Steffen comes to River Forest after coaching the women's basketball team at sister school Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Michigan for the past four and a half years. He began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant under Greg Rehberg before moving into the interim head coach's position in January of 2004. Ironically, his first win came against the Cougars in that year's Concordia Invitational Tournament, and he finished the season with a 2-7 record. Steffen became the full-time head coach at Concordia Ann Arbor prior to the 2004-05 campaign and led the team for the next four seasons, increasing the Cardinals' win total each year. Steffen's final season in Ann Arbor resulted in a 14-17 overall record and 6-8 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletics Conference (WHAC) record, the team's best in the history of the program.

Steffen will inherit a Cougar team that is coming off of a 17-10 season, the third-best in their history, a 13-5 finish in the Northern Athletics Conference, and an appearance in the conference tournament semifinals. The team will return a solid nucleus of players including guard Marche Smith, the regional and conference Rookie of the Year, and forward Krista Woldeit, a second-team all-conference player.

"I'm aware of the fine season that the Cougars had this past year, and I'm excited about the opportunity to come in and coach this group of players," says Steffen. "I will look for us to build upon the success that they have enjoyed already and continue to move toward the goals of winning the conference and reaching the NCAA tournament."

The Cougars' new coach also looks forward to working with an NCAA Division III program, following on his experience with the Cardinals, who were part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). "I played at a Division III school, and I'm excited to return to a D-III setting," remarks Steffen. "I think that this is small college basketball in its purest form." Steffen also notes his Lutheran background and the challenges of the two-year-old Northern Athletics Conference as points that make his new position an attractive one.

Steffen, a native Illinoisan who was born in Champaign and grew up in Peoria, moved with his family to Germantown, Wisconsin when he was seven. He attended Milwaukee Lutheran High School where he played two years of varsity basketball. Steffen played collegiately at Wisconsin Lutheran College (now a conference rival of Concordia Chicago) for four seasons under Edward "Skip" Noon. While at Wisconsin Lutheran, Steffen worked two years as a video scouting intern for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and gained early coaching experience with Brookfield Academy High School (junior varsity team) and the JS Warriors AAU Basketball Club.

Steffen earned his B.A. in communications from Wisconsin Lutheran in 2001 and his Master's degree in sports science with an emphasis in coaching from the United States Sports Academy in 2006.

Courtesy of Concordia University Chicago, Sports Information Department, May 22, 2008.