Alex Ivansheck has been named the head coach of the women's
basketball team at the United States Coast Guard Academy.
Ivansheck spent the last six seasons as an assistant coach at
Ithaca where she helped the Bombers post a 116-50 record, including
a 81-11 mark in Empire 8 games. Ithaca made three NCAA playoff
appearances, won four conference regular-season titles and two
postseason tournament championships and recorded the league's first
16-0 record ever in any sport during her time there.
Ivansheck replaces Rick Gaines, who went 15-58 (.205) in three
seasons. The Bears have gone 2-34 in the NEWMAC over the past two
seasons.
She is no stranger to Southeastern Connecticut, growing up in
Salem and graduating from Norwich Free Academy in 2000. While at
NFA, she played for coach Bill Scarlata and won a pair of Class LL
state championships while the team qualified for the ECC and state
championship in each of her four seasons on the basketball team.
Ivansheck was also a four-year member of the cross country team
that participated in both the state and New England championships
for four consecutive seasons.
"I'm confident and excited that our women's basketball program
will return to a high level of success and achievement under the
leadership of Alex Ivansheck," said Tim Fitzpatrick, Coast Guard
athletic director. "Her credentials as a coach and a
student-athlete are very strong indeed. She is a person of great
enthusiasm, basketball knowledge and integrity whose presence will
immediately elevate our program - a proven winner in each and every
way. Our cadet-athletes will benefit greatly from her expertise and
guidance."
Prior to arriving at Ithaca, Ivansheck spent the 2005-06 season
with the women's basketball staff at William Smith, where she
helped the Herons to a second round of the NCAA playoffs. William
Smith finished 22-8 and won the Liberty League's regular-season and
championship tournament titles.
Ivansheck played at Ithaca from 2000 to 2005, including a medical
redshirt season. A point guard, she helped the Bombers to a record
of 109-28 during her career, with NCAA playoff berths each season.
Ithaca won Empire 8 titles in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005. In her
career, Ivansheck scored 567 points and pulled down 309 rebounds.
Her career totals of 333 assists and 253 steals are both fourth on
the program's all-time lists (she was third in both categories
after finishing her career). She received honorable mention to the
Empire 8 all-star team in 2002 and 2005.
She interned with the Women's Sport Foundation as an undergraduate
at Ithaca. Ivansheck earned her bachelor's degree in sport
management, with a minor in coaching, in 2004 and received a
master's degree in business administration in 2005 at Ithaca.
Ivansheck will also serve as an instructor in the academy's health
and physical education program.
"I am excited for the opportunity that athletic director Tim
Fitzpatrick and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy have provided me to be
the next head coach of the women's basketball program," said
Ivansheck. "It is a privilege and an honor to represent such an
outstanding service academy. Although I am sad to leave Ithaca
College, I am very grateful for the many opportunities I've had
that prepared me for this new phase of my career."
Coast Guard was 5-19 overall last season and 1-17 in the New
England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference after going 3-21
overall and 1-17 during the 2010-11 season.
The Bears return all five starters from last year's team and will
open the season at home on Thursday, Nov. 15 vs. Mitchell.