Kiera Wooden enters her 12th season in the first chair on the Golden Rams' bench. The former Golden Rams standout won the most games by any WCU women's head coach over their first five years running the program and landed her charges in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Tournament all five times while adding an NCAA Tournament appearance three times.

She could not have set the bar any higher for herself, after leading West Chester to a combined 45-14 record in her first two campaigns. The WCU alumnae has picked up a PSAC East regular season title (2016), a spot in the PSAC Championship Game (2015) and three trips to the NCAA Tournament (2015, 2016, 2018) in her first six seasons at the helm before making back-to-back trips once again in 2023 and 2024. 

Wooden' brings an overall record of  175-119(.595) into the 2025-26 campaign and an 136-83 (.621) mark against conference competition. Additionally, Wooden shows a 8-9 record in the PSAC Tournament and a 2-5 record in her four trips to the NCAA Atlantic Regional.

Wooden has been instrumental in the success of the Golden Rams’ program over the past decade and a half, helping West Chester to reach the postseason 14 times, including the NCAA Division II Tournament in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2023, and 2024. She was hired as the first full-time assistant coach in the history of the women’s basketball program prior to the 2004-05 campaign.

Last season, Wooden helped lead an impressive reload as the Golden Rams dealt with the departure of a large senior class, including the leading scorer in program history in Leah Johnson, Through this, West Chester went 15-15 overall and 11-10 in league play, returning to the PSAC Tournament and winning its PSAC Tournament First Round matchup at Millersville in dominating fashion before falling to eventual Champion Kutztown by a 63-50 final in the PSAC Quarterfinals. Wooden mentored a pair of All-League players in Michelle Kozicki and Anna McTamney, as both players earned First Team All-League honors. Kozicki had a season for the ages, earning WBCA Honorable Mention All-American honors after averaging 20.8 points and 10.6 rebounds per game, with 18 double-doubles on the year. Kozicki finished the year second in team history in points in a single season with 623, trailing only Mitzi Reitnouer, who scored 698 points in 1981-82. Kozicki also became one of three players in team history to score 35 points or more twice in a single season, joining Johnson and Reitnouer on this exclusive list. 

In 2023-24, Wooden helped engineer another historic season for West Chester women's basketball, guiding the Golden Rams to a record of 24-7 overall and 18-4 in league action. This record led to West Chester returning to the PSAC Semifinals and NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row, while also ending the season tied with the 2023 and 2015 teams for the most wins in a single season under Wooden. West Chester fell in the PSAC Semifinals to eventual Tournament and Regional Champion, Gannon at Lock Haven before giving second-seeded Fairmont State all it could handle in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Fairmont, W.V. a few days later. West Chester went unbeaten at home in 2023-24 and set a new program record for the longest home winning streak in program history with a 46-39 victory over Kutztown on February 14. West Chester enters 2024-25 with a 24-game home winning streak, which is third longest in Division II women's basketball. On the court, Wooden mentored PSAC East Player of the Year Leah Johnson, as she became the first Golden Ram to earn Player of the Year honors since Dana Weems in 2008 after rewriting the WCU record books in scoring, assists, and triple doubles in 2023-24. Johnson was one of four All-Conference honorees for the second year in a row as Emily McAteer repeated as a first team selection, while Michelle Kozicki and Anna McTamney were second team honorees. 

In 2022-23, Wooden engineered one of the most impressive year-to-year turnarounds in program history, leading West Chester to a share of its first PSAC East Regular Season title since 2017-18, a PSAC Tournament Semifinal appearance, its first NCAA Tournament win in 20 years, and its first Regional Championship appearance in program history. Ending the year with a record of 24-9, which is tied for the most wins Wooden has recorded in a single season since her first year in 2014-15 when the team went 24-6, the Golden Rams returned to the NCAA Tournament as a three seed, the team’s highest seeding since the field expanded to 64 teams in 2003. Wooden, who was named PSAC East Coach of the Year for the second time in her career, mentored four All-Conference honorees, including first-team selections Leah Johnson and Emily McAteer, along with second-team honorees Anna McTamney and PSAC East Defensive Player of the Year Michelle Kozicki. With her Defensive Player of the Year honors, Kozicki became the first Golden Ram to receive this award since Alexandra Lennon in the 2012-13 season. Johnson, who joined the 1,000-point club during the season and finished the year with the third most points in single-season history (542), also earned DIICCA Second Team All-Region honors, becoming the first Golden Ram to earn this award since Brittany Sicinski in 2015-16. As a team, West Chester boasted one of the top offensive units in the PSAC, averaging 72.8 points per game, thanks to a 44.2 % field goal percentage and a program DII record 77.2 % free-throw shooting percentage.

In 2018-19, Wooden engineered an impressive turnaround in the second half of the season that saw the Golden Rams go 11-3 in PSAC East play to earn the No. 3 seed in the PSAC Tournament, thus, extending the Golden Rams PSAC Tournament appearance streak to 12 years in a row. West Chester won its first postseason game that year with an impressive win over Millersville to punch its ticket to the PSAC Quarterfinals for the second year in a row. The Golden Rams season came to a close in the quarterfinals as West Chester fell to Bloomsburg on the road to end the season with an overall record of 16-14 and a mark of 11-9 in PSAC play. Wooden also mentored a trio of PSAC East All-Conference selections in Destiny Jefferson and Madison Torresin, who earned first team honors for the first time in their careers while Gabrielle Troisi earned second team honors.

Upon succeeding her mentor, former head coach Deirdre Kane in July 2014, Wooden quickly began applying her personal stamp to the Golden Rams women's basketball program. When she accepted the reins of the program, she became the first African-American women's basketball head coach at West Chester University and only the 19th African-American female head coach in all of Division II.

During the 2014-15 season, the Golden Rams finished second in the PSAC Eastern Division and upset nationally ranked Indiana (Pa.) in the semifinals of the conference tournament that put the Golden Rams in the PSAC title game for just the second time in school history. She guided the Golden Rams to a 24-6 mark that first year on the job, falling one win shy of the school's single-season wins record. She followed up that effort with a 21-8 showing in 2015-16 and a 17-5 slate in conference play and another NCAA Tournament bid.

Wooden has helped to recruit some of the top talent in the state to the Delaware Valley, doing her part to guide the Golden Rams to three 20-win seasons while suffering through just one losing season during her 10-year stint as an assistant coach.
 
The Wilmington, Del., native played all four years at WCU under Deirdre Kane, earning PSAC Eastern Division first team honors on three different occasions. During her first season in 1999-2000, Wooden, who played under her maiden name, Kiera Manlove, was named the PSAC East Rookie of the Year.
 
Wooden was named the team’s MVP on three different occasions and claimed outstanding scholar-athlete honors twice. She currently ranks fifth all-time in scoring with 1,378 points and stands 11th in scoring average at 12.2 points per game.

Wooden holds the school record for field goals made (569), ranks fourth in field goal attempts (1,300), sixth in free throws made (240) and fourth in free throws attempted (408). Wooden also ranks second all-time in WCU history in rebounds (871) and third in steals (259) while her 7.7 rebounds per game average stands fifth. She was inducted into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014

Wooden was a four-time PSAC scholar-athlete, an eight-time member of the WCU Athletic Director’s Academic Honor Roll, a two-time PSAC Winter Top 10 selection and a 2002 Arthur Ashe Award winner. She served two years as team captain and was a regular on the Dean’s List.

Wooden, a 2003 graduate of West Chester University with a degree in Exercise Science/Kiniesiology and three minors (Nutrition, Health, Coaching) went on to earn her master’s degree in Sports and Athletic Administration at West Chester University in 2006.

She currently resides in Wilmington, Del., with her husband, Charles, son, Christopher, and twins Carter and Christina.
 

YEAR	SCHOOL	OVERALL	PCT	CONFERENCE	PCT	NOTES
2014-15	West Chester	24-6	.800	18-4 (2nd)	.818	PSAC Championship Game ; NCAA Tournament
2015-16	West Chester	21-8	.724	17-5 (1st)	.773	PSAC Semifinals ; NCAA Tournament
2016-17	West Chester	10-17	.370	10-12 (T, 3rd)	.455	PSAC 1st Round
2017-18	West Chester	23-6	.793	19-3 (1st)	.864	PSAC Semifinals ; NCAA Tournament
2018-19	West Chester	16-14	.533	11-9 (3rd)	.550	PSAC Quarterfinals
2019-20	West Chester	9-13	.333	7-15 (7th)	.318
2020-21	West Chester					season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021-22	West Chester	9-19	.321	7-17 (6th)	.333	PSAC 1st Round
2022-23	West Chester	24-9	.727	18-4 (T, 1st)	.818	PSAC Semifinals, NCAA Tournament
2023-24	West Chester	24-7	.774	18-4 (1st)	.818	PSAC Semifinals, NCAA Tournament
2024-25	West Chester	15-15	.500	11-10 (5th)	.524	PSAC Quarterfinals
10 years		175-119	.603	136-83	.621	3-time PSAC East Coach of Year