Effective July 1, 2022, Lois Heeren assumed the role of Associate Athletic Director as she begins her seventh academic year at Madison College. Heeren was the head women's basketball coach for six seasons with the WolfPack after being hired in August 2016. After 17 years as head coach at NCAA Division III University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UWL), she has led the WolfPack to a 81-54 record in her first four years. In addition to taking over the women's basketball program, Heeren was also a physical education instructor at Madison College.
Following the 2017-18 season, Heeren was named the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Junior College-Women Coach of the Year. At Madison College, she has coached three All-Americans, one conference and region player of the year, 11 all-conference, and 12 all-region players.
Heeren left UWL after becoming the winningest coach in school history with 209 wins, a number that is also the ninth most all-time in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). In 2010-11, UWL earned an at-large bid for the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in 23 seasons, matching a school record with a dozen league victories in the process. Heeren was named the WIAC Coach of the Year following the 2005-06 season, and coached 33 All-WIAC players, including one WIAC Player of the Year and a D3 Hoops Honorable Mention All-American candidate.
Heeren's coaching career began as an assistant at UW-River Falls (NCAA Division III) in 1987, and quickly led to her first head coaching position just two years later at her alma mater, Truman State University. Heeren guided Truman State (NCAA Division II) for three seasons, and then stepped into the NCAA Division I coaching ranks as an assistant at Southwest Texas State University. She quickly returned to being a head coach at St. Mary's University of Minnesota (NCAA Division III). After three years, she accepted an assistant position with the United States Air Force Academy (NCAA Division I). Heeren would spend two seasons with the Falcons before UWL brought her back to the Midwest in 1999.
Throughout her tenure at UWL, Heeren was a member of the faculty teaching a variety of classes in the Sport Management and Physical Education programs, she was the senior women's administrator and advisor for Student Athlete Winner's Council from 2003 to 2004, and she served a three-year term on the L-Club Board, a fundraising program for the athletic department. Heeren spent 13 years as the Assistant Director for External Operations during the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association State Track and Field Meet.
Heeren earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education/Coaching at Truman State University in 1984, and later received her Master of Arts in Administration of Fitness/Wellness Programs from the University of Iowa in 1986. She is a native of Greene, Iowa, and currently lives in Sun Prairie, WI.
