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.