Kira Mowen was named the head coach of the Millersville University women's basketball program on June 6, 2023. A native of Waynesboro, Pa., and former Division I basketball player, Mowen has led the Marauders to back-to-back postseason appearances and playoff win in both seasons.
Mowen came to Millersville after building an extensive coaching resume with 12 seasons as a Division I assistant and two as a championship-winning coach at Division III Knox College.
Mowen served as assistant at Davidson, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Monmouth before becoming head coach at Knox. There, she quickly led a dramatic turnaround that resulted in the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance and a first conference championship in 2022-23. She arrived at Knox just before the 2021 fall semester began, inheriting a program that had not won more than 16 games in 30 years. In her first season, Mowen guided the team to a conference tournament appearance, laying the groundwork for a historic 2022-23 campaign. With the Midwest Conference's No. 1-ranked defense allowing just 57.6 points per game, Knox's team rolled to a school-record 22 victories, including a 15-1 conference mark. Knox also led the conference in rebounding, blocks, assists and assist-to-turnover ratio en route to a Midwest Conference Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament berth. Mowen was selected as the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year. She recruited and coached the MWC Newcomer of the Year in 2022-23.
Mowen made an impact on the success of her teams at every stop of her career. While at Davidson from 2010-17, she helped the team to a pair of 20-win seasons and a Southern Conference Regular Season Championship in addition to two WNIT appearances. She served as the recruiting coordinator, and was the program's interim head coach for a time in 2017. At Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Mowen assisted the team to the most regular season wins in program history and followed that by signing what was ranked as the No. 1 recruiting class in the Horizon League. From there, Mowen became the associate head coach and recruiting director at Monmouth. With Mowen on staff, Monmouth posted its best conference finish.
As a student-athlete, Mowen began her career at the University of Illinois before playing three seasons and graduating with a degree in applied science from Youngstown State. While at Illinois, Mowen played under 1992 Team USA and Hall of Fame coach Theresa Gantz. Mowen also earned a master of education degree from Texas State in 2010 while serving as a graduate assistant coach for two seasons.
