Portage County Gazette

Former Pacelli High School standout Kelly McNiff was named the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (UW-Platteville) women’s basketball head coach Wednesday, Aug. 7.

McNiff was the lead assistant coach for the women’s basketball team at her alma mater, UW-Oshkosh, for the last six seasons. During that time, the Titans totaled six seasons of more than 20 wins, five NCAA Division III Tournament appearances and six Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament Championship appearances, while she was a member of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association 2019 Staff of the Year under the leadership of head coach Brad Fischer.

Kelly McNiff

“I would first like to sincerely thank (UW-Platteville) interim athletic director Mike Emendorfer, the search and screen committee, and everyone else involved in selecting me as the next UW-Platteville head women’s basketball coach,” said McNiff. “I also owe thanks to coach Brad Fischer, all my former players, and the entire UW-Oshkosh community.

“My experience as an assistant coach under coach Fischer has made me a stronger, better prepared, and more confident coach,” she said. “Without all of them, this opportunity would not be possible.”

McNiff takes over as the UW-Platteville head coach for Megan (Hodgson) Wilson, who was a member of the 2002 NCAA Division III National Champion UW-Stevens Point (UWSP) women’s basketball team and served as the top assistant coach at UWSP before she was named the head coach at Platteville in 2010. Last September, Wilson’s six year-old daughter Palmer was diagnosed with stage three Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma and continues to receive chemotherapy. Earlier this summer, Wilson moved into the position of full-time associate athletic director at UW-Platteville, after she split time the last two years as associate athletic director, senior woman administrator and women’s basketball head coach.

A member of the Pacelli Athletic Hall of Fame, McNiff played in college for the UW-Oshkosh women’s basketball team, which went 98-15 during her four-year career. Oshkosh reached the NCAA Division III Tournament each of those four years, including a pair of trips to the Sweet 16 when it went 26-2 in 1997-98 and 27-2 in 1998-99.

McNiff started 52 of the 99 games that she played for Oshkosh, while she also competed on Oshkosh’s 1997 softball team that reached the NCAA Division III Tournament.

After graduating from Oshkosh in 2000, McNiff served one season as a student assistant coach for the Oshkosh women’s basketball team, which won the WIAC Title and finished the 2000-01 season with a 19-6 record.

McNiff spent two seasons as an assistant softball coach at Oshkosh North (2001-03) and NCAA Division 1 UW-Green Bay (2005-06), and was an assistant coach for the Oshkosh North High School girls basketball team in 2002, and the junior varsity girls basketball team at De Pere from 2003-07.

She followed as the head coach of the Green Bay Southwest girls basketball team for two seasons, before she was the head coach of the De Pere High School girls basketball team from 2010 through 2013.

The 2012 Associated Press High School Girls Basketball Coach of the Year, McNiff guided De Pere to a 96-11 record, including the 2012 WIAA Division 1 State Championship, a State Runner-up finish in 2010, and three Fox River Classic Conference Titles.

In her final season at De Pere in 2012-13, the team won its first 24 games, before a loss to Kimberly in the Sectional Semifinal snapped a 44-game winning streak.

McNiff was named the lead women’s basketball assistant coach at UW-Oshkosh the following season, and over the last six seasons the team made five NCAA Division III Tournament appearances, including three trips to the Sweet 16 (2014, 2017, 2019), and won WIAC Tournament Titles in 2017 and 2019.

Oshkosh finished 26-4 overall in 2018-19 and won the WIAC Title with a 12-2 record, before McNiff was named the head coach at Platteville.

“I am honored and excited to lead a program I believe is on the rise,” said McNiff. “Having scouted this team for the past six years as my opponent, I have a familiarity with the players that will allow me to hit the ground running. Last year I saw a team that made great improvements from the year before, and with a majority of the that group returning, I cannot wait to get started.”

“We are excited to have Kelly join our team and lead the Pioneers’ women’s basketball program,” said Emendorfer. “She knows the WIAC and comes from a program that is synonymous with success and developing talent.”

McNiff earned bachelor’s degrees in exercise and fitness management (2000) and physical education (2004) from UW-Oshkosh. She went on to earn a master’s degree in educational technology from Marian University in 2009.

Platteville students report for the fall semester on September 3, and McNiff will officially begin her role as head coach on August 19.

“Platteville is a tight-knit community,” said McNiff. “Becoming a head coach, in the nation’s most competitive conference, and here at UW-Platteville, is a dream achieved.

“We will continue to build a women’s basketball program that the university, the athletic department, the alumni, and the community can be extremely proud to call their own,” she said.