MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Almost one year to the day after hiring the sixth head coach in program history, West Virginia has settled on a seventh women’s basketball head coach.
The Mountaineers have chosen Mark Kellogg of Stephen F. Austin as their next women’s basketball coach, sources confirmed to MetroNews. The team was informed Monday.
Kellogg replaces Dawn Plitzuweit, who helped guide the Mountaineers to 19 wins and a berth in the NCAA Tournament this season before leaving for the head coach position at Minnesota.
WVU Director of Athletics Wren Baker announced two weeks ago the search was underway for Plitzuweit’s replacement, and while Baker didn’t want to put an exact timeline on his first head coaching hire in Morgantown, he expressed a desire for it to be done in “significantly less than a month.”
We are excited to announce Mark Kellogg as the seventh women’s basketball coach in program history!
Welcome to #AlmostHeaven, @CoachKellogg12!
📰 https://t.co/5tNo3htosc#HailWV pic.twitter.com/b1OYBy2cgQ
— WVU Women’s Basketball (@WVUWBB) April 3, 2023
“I don’t like uncertainty for the women in that locker room,” Baker said on March 20, the same day Plitzuweit was introduced at Minnesota.
As the athletic director as Northwest Missouri State, Baker hired Kellogg as head coach in 2012.
“Mark Kellogg is an established winner who has made a name for himself by building championship programs and preparing his student-athletes to be leaders on and off the court,” Baker said Monday afternoon. “He has had tremendous success at every stop along his coaching career journey and has done so with great integrity.
“What became clear to our search committee was that Mark possesses the work ethic, passion and character traits that will resonate with all West Virginians and the student-athletes in our women’s basketball program. Mark and his wife, Trisha, along with their children Camden and Kayli will make outstanding additions to our community, campus and state.”
“We are thrilled to join the Mountaineer family and are excited to get to Morgantown,” Kellogg said. “I want to thank President Gordon Gee and Wren Baker for the opportunity to continue the tradition of West Virginia women’s basketball. We will work tirelessly every day to build a program that competes for championships with quality student-athletes who will make all of West Virginia proud.”
The most recent of Kellogg’s four head coaching stops was at Stephen F. Austin, where over eight seasons, Kellogg helped guide the Ladyjacks to seven consecutive appearances in a postseason event and at least 23 victories each of those seasons.
A 1998 graduate of Austin College who earned a Master’s degree in sports and exercise science from West Texas A&M in 2000, Kellogg’s coaching journey began with stops as an assistant at West Texas A&M and Montana State.
Kellogg then accepted his first of three Division II head coaching positions at Fort Lewis College in 2005. Over seven seasons with the Skyhawks, Kellogg was 173-46, including a national runner-up finish in 2010 during a 35-win campaign.
Kellogg then became head coach at Northwest Missouri State before returning to guide West Texas A&M for two seasons. During those two seasons, the Lady Buffs finished 62-6. They were 32-3 and national runner-up in 2013-14 and followed it up with 30 wins and an Elite Eight appearance.
That success helped lead Kellogg to a Division I head coaching opportunity, and he made the most of his first chance at Stephen F. Austin.
The Ladyjacks won 18 of 30 games in 2015-16 — Kellogg’s first season as head coach. They followed that with a 25-8 campaign and then put together consecutive 25-7 seasons that ended in the WNIT.
Following a 23-6 mark in 2019-20, SFA broke through and won the Southland Conference and Western Athletic Conference in consecutive seasons to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
During its final season in the Southland, Stephen F. Austin was 14-0 in league play and 24-3 overall. The Ladyjacks narrowly missed out on a second-round matchup with West Virginia that year by losing their NCAA Tournament opener to Georgia Tech, 54-52.
SFA was 28-5 and lost only one of 18 conference contests in the Southland the next season, which also ended with a loss in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Kellogg was named Southland Coach of the Year in 2021 and garnered the league’s top coaching honor the next season in the WAC.
This season, SFA finished 27-7 and reached the second round of the WNIT.
Kellogg compiled a record of 195-55 over eight seasons with the Ladyjacks and has a career mark of 445-120 as head coach.
A native of Richardson, Texas, Kellogg and his wife Trisha have a son, Camden, and a daughter, Kayli.
It marks the second consecutive offseason West Virginia has undergone a coaching change. Plitzuweit was hired after Mike Carey led the program for 21 seasons, during which time he amassed a program record 447 victories.