Coe College Director of Athletics John Chandler has announced the hiring of Nate Oakland as the new head coach of the Kohawk women’s basketball program.

Oakland, a former assistant coach at Coe, returns to Cedar Rapids after spending the past four years as an assistant at Wartburg College.

Oakland’s day-to-day duties at Wartburg included recruiting, scouting, individual  instruction and film editing. The Knights led the nation in 3-point shooting percentage at 38.8 during the 2011-12 season.

During his time at Wartburg, Oakland also served as the head coach for the men’s golf team for three years.

Prior to working at Wartburg, Oakland spent two years on the staff at Coe College under Randi (Peterson) Henderson. During his two years, the Kohawks shared the Iowa Conference regular season championship in 2010 and 2011.

The 2011 team won a school-record 26 games and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Oakland also spent three years as an assistant coach at Northern Iowa and one season as the assistant coach at Minnesota-Morris.

Oakland has also worked numerous basketball camps during the summer, including Snow Valley, Fred Hoiberg Basketball Camps, Northern Iowa Basketball Camps, Tim Floyd/Larry Eustachy Basketball School, North Dakota State and the Chicago Bulls Basketball Academy.

“We are pleased to welcome Nate back to Coe and have him run our program,” Chandler said. “Nate has a wealth of knowledge from his time as an assistant coach at some successful programs. We look forward to Nate carrying on the winning tradition of Coe women’s basketball.”

Oakland takes over for Henderson, who has taken an assistant coaching position with North Carolina-Charlotte after nine years at Coe.

The Kohawks return four starters and two All-Iowa Conference players to the 2015-16 squad. Junior-to-be Mickey Hansche earned D3hoops.com All-West Region honors last year and sophomore-to-be Aleena Hobbs was named the D3hoops.com West Region Rookie of the Year.