Bob Amsberry
Division Leader
Bob Amsberry enters his 19th year as head women’s basketball coach at Wartburg College in 2024-25 and has established one of the strongest programs in the country.
The Knights have advanced to the NCAA tournament for eight consecutive years, including the only three trips to the NCAA Final 4 in 2016, 2018 and 2024. As well as an Elite 8 appearance in 2019 and a Sweet 16 appearance in 2023.
The 2017-18 team recorded the first undefeated regular season in program history. The Knights were ranked as high as No. 2 in both the WBCA and D3hoops.com polls, which is the highest ranking in program history. The team posted a school-record 31 consecutive victories to start the year before falling in the Final Four and finishing the season 31-1. Amsberry was awarded the prestigious Pat Summit Trophy that year, as he was named the 2017-18 US Marine Corps/WBCA Division III National Coach of the Year. He was also a finalist for the award in 2016, 2019 and 2024. In addition, he has been awarded the Iowa Basketball Coaches’ Association Paul Maske Memorial Coach of the Year four times.
Prior to Wartburg, Amsberry resurrected the Rockford College women’s basketball program. In the midst of a national record 70-game losing streak when he was named head coach in 1997, the Regents posted one of the best turnarounds in NCAA history and an NCAA tournament bid in just his fourth season. Over the course of his nine-year tenure as head coach, the Regents won the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference regular season and tournament titles three times and were awarded four bids to the Division III NCAA tournament. He earned four NIIC Coach of the Year honors and was also named Illinois Basketball Coaches’ Association Coach of the Year in 2003 and 2006.
Amsberry started his coaching career as an assistant at NCAA Division III MacMurray College in Illinois, where he spent five seasons and helped lead the team to two conference titles and its first ever NCAA tournament appearance.
A native of Dunlap, Iowa, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990 from Buena Vista University and his Master of Science degree in Physical Education from Western Illinois University in 1996.
Amsberry and his wife, Erin, are the parents of two children, Joseph and Paige and have three grandchildren, William, Sophia and Violet.