With five games remaining in the regular season, St. Ambrose University had made a coaching change in its women’s basketball program.
Krista Van Hauen, who guided the Fighting Bees to 10 winning records over the past 13 seasons, cleaned out her office at Lee Lohman Arena on Thursday and director of athletics Mike Holmes confirmed Friday that Van Hauen is no longer leading the program.
Holmes said he was "not allowed" to comment further on the situation.
Reached Friday, Van Hauen said only, "I’m declining comment."
Holmes said any additional information on the situation would come from university administrators who offered little on what had taken place.
“I can confirm coach Van Hauen is no longer with our institution but am unable to comment any further on university personnel matters," Jackie Celske, director of public relations and strategic communications for St. Ambrose, wrote in an email.
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Toby Arquette, the university’s vice president of marketing and communications, did not return phone or email requests from the Quad-City Times on Friday.
Van Hauen’s photo and biography have been removed from the St. Ambrose athletics website, which lists only three first-year assistant coaches who played for the Fighting Bees a year ago — Maddy Cash, Sarah Goldensoph and Madeline Prestegaard — as coaching staff members.
The head coaching position is the only full-time coaching position in the program.
The late-season coaching change takes place as St. Ambrose is in the midst of a 15-8 season, sitting in sixth place in the 14-team Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference standings with an 11-5 league record.
With a winning record this season secured with a pair of road victories last week, the Fighting Bees have five games remaining on their regular-season schedule, including Saturday’s 1 p.m. game against Judson. St. Ambrose is scheduled to honor the seniors in its program prior to the game.
Holmes, who has 20 years of coaching experience at the high school, junior college and college level, will oversee the St. Ambrose team for the remainder of the season.
He last coached at the college level at the University of Maine-Presque Isle, coaching the men’s team for three seasons before leaving in 2017 to become the athletic director at Franciscan University in Ohio.
His resume also includes six seasons as the men’s coach at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa.
Van Hauen guided St. Ambrose to a 241-137 record during her tenure, leading St. Ambrose to three NAIA National Championship tournament appearances and three conference titles.
The Fighting Bees reached the NAIA national tourney in 2011, 2013 and 2016, the program’s first season in the CCAC.
St. Ambrose won league titles under Van Hauen in 2011, 2013 and 2015, all while competing in the Midwest Collegiate Conference. The Bees’ best finish in the CCAC came last season when a 24-6 team tied for third in the league.
Van Hauen was named the 10th head coach of the St. Ambrose program on June 16, 2010 after spending two seasons as an assistant coach at Northern Colorado.
She previously worked as the director of basketball operations at Bradley University from 2006-08, was an assistant coach at Cornell College during the 2005-06 season and was the head coach at Grundy Center High School for one season after beginning her career in 2003 as a student assistant at Waldorf College, her collegiate alma mater.
