Karl Smesko - Head Coach - Women's Basketball Coaches

Karl Smesko

Title:
Head Coach

Karl Smesko orchestrated one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the country last year in his first season as IPFW head coach. Smesko inherited a 2-24 team that was predictedto finish last in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Smesko guided the youngest team in the conference to a 13-14 record and to a berth in the GLVC tournament. Thriteen wins are the most in a season since 1995-96. In fact, the Mastodons had only won 13 of their previous 67 games before Smesko arrival.

Turnarounds are nothing new to Smesko. In 1997-98, in his first year as head coach at Walsh University (North Canton, OH), he inherited a Walsh team that was predicted to finish sixth in the nine-team Mid-Ohio Conference. Smesko and the Cavaliers posted a 29-5 record and won the 1998 NAIA National Championship that season. It is the only National Championship in Walsh's history. Smesko earned 1998 NAIA National Coach or the Year and Mid-Ohio Conference Coach of the Year awards.

During the 1998-99 season, Smesko was an assistant to Head Coach Chris Weller at the University of Maryland in the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference. Weller is one of the all-time winningest coaches in women's college basketball history.

Smesko earned his Bachelor of Arts in broadcasting news journalism from Kent State University in 1993 and a masters degree in education from Walsh University in 1998.