Kiera Wooden

Kiera Wooden enters her ninth 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.

Wooden' brings an overall record of 112-83 (.574) into the 2020-21 campaign and an 89-65 (.578) mark against conference competition. Additionally, Wooden shows a 5-6 record in the PSAC Tournament and a 0-3 record in her three 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 12 times, including the NCAA Division II Tournament in 2015, 2016 and 2018. 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.

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 (13) and twins Carter (4) and Christina (4).