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Head Coach Nathan
Altenhofen
It’s been an exciting first two seasons for head coach Nathan Altenhofen.
In 2007-08 in his debut, Altenhofen guided the Queen Bees to a Sweet 16
appearance at the NAIA National Tournament. Saint Ambrose finished with a 29-6
record, the most wins by a first-year coach in school history, on his way to
being named 2008 MCC Coach of the Year. He followed that up with a 20-11
campaign in 2008-09.
Altenhofen joined the Queen Bees after serving as the head women’s basketball
coach for the Odessa College Lady Wranglers from 2004-07. He led them to an
impressive 80-15 record during his tenure. In 2007, Altenhofen was named the
NJCAA Division I National Coach of the Year after guiding Odessa College to a
32-2 record and the 2007 NJCAA National Championship.
Altenhofen left Odessa to come to St. Ambrose after guiding the Lady
Wranglers into the NJCAA Top 10 for 16 consecutive months and to a 24-game home
winning streak. He finished his final two seasons at Odessa College with a 66-3
record, which was the best mark in all of college basketball.
Altenhofen’s first collegiate coaching position was at Arkansas State
University, where he served as an assistant women’s basketball coach and
recruiting coordinator from 1999-02. In his first year as an assistant coach at
Arkansas State, Altenhofen helped the Lady Indians to their first-ever Top 25
ranking and a berth in the 2000 WNIT tournament.
From 2002-03, Altenhofen worked as a talent scout for the All Star Girls
Report, where he evaluated national girls’ high school basketball talent.
Following his stint with the All Star Girls Report, Altenhofen served as an
assistant Women’s Basketball Coach at Murray State University in 2003-04.
Altenhofen began his coaching career at the high school level in 1993 and was
a summer AAU coach from 1994-99. During this stint he guided such players as
2000 L’adidas High School All-American Tera Bjorklund and 2002 Big Ten MVP,
Lindsay Whalen. Overall, Altenhofen helped develop over forty future Division I
players during his five years as a summer AAU coach.
Altenhofen is a three-time Conference Coach of the Year recipient, earning
the award in 2006, 2007 and 2008. He has coached ten all-conference players and
five All-Americans. In only five seasons as a head collegiate coach he has
already helped guide four different conference MVP’s, the two most recent being
Jenny Clark in 2008 and Ali Dolphin in 2009.
The Springfield, Minn., native is the ninth head coach in the program's
history, has an overall record of 129-32 and a MCC ledger of 25-7. He graduated
with a Bachelor of Science degree from Arkansas State University.
Altenhofen and his wife, the former Christina Mendoza, have one son,
Christian Michael.
Assistant Coach Jennifer Goetz
After a successful playing career at St. Ambrose, Jennifer Goetz joined the
Queen Bees coaching staff in 2007-08. Since joining the staff, she has helped
the Queen Bees tally up a 49-17 record along with a conference championship and
a NAIA Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2008.
A four-year all-Midwest Collegiate Conference selection, Goetz is currently
fourth in all-time scoring with 2,032 career points and third in all-time
rebounds with 1,156 career boards. Goetz earned NAIA Second Team All-American
honors as a senior in 2006-07.
Before heading to St. Ambrose, Jennifer was named First Team All-State three
years and was named Class 1A Player of the Year in 2003. She is the only player
in the history of Iowa girls basketball to record over 2,000 points and 1,000
rebounds in a career. This March she will be inducted in the Iowa Girls
Basketball High School Athletic Union Hall of Fame.
The past two summers, Jennifer created and coached two summer AAU basketball
teams, QC Select. One team was girls entering 9th grade and the other team was
girls entering 11th grade in high school.
Originally from Keokuk, Iowa, Goetz graduated from Cardinal Stritch High
School in 2003. She earned her degree in Early Childhood Education with a
Special Ed endorsement in December of 2007. Goetz will graduate in May 2010 with
her Master’s of Organizational Leadership from St. Ambrose University.
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