Todd Schaefer - Women's Basketball Coach - University of Washington Athletics

Todd Schaefer

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
todds42@uw.edu

Fresh off of a Final Four run, University of Washington head coach Mike Neighbors has announced the hiring of Todd Schaefer as an assistant coach for the women's basketball program. Schaefer comes to Seattle after spending the last three seasons at the University of Mississippi.

"Todd and I have been trying to work together for 17 years," said Neighbors. "We tried to team up various times but the timing was never right. I couldn't be more excited to step onto the court as a team with him. His experience will benefit every student-athlete in our program. On the court, he is passionate about skill development and helping everyone reach their maximum potential and off the court he is a perfect cultural fit. He gives us another father figure to help insure our Huskies use their four years with us to best attack the next 40 years. I am excited for our Husky fans to get to know Coach Schaefer and his family and welcome them to UW."

"I want to thank Coach Neighbors for the opportunity to join the Husky program," said Schaefer. "The chance to work with Mike is something I have wanted to do for some time now and to be asked to join the Huskies coming off the season they just had is very humbling. I am more than ready to get to work and I would also like to thank my wife Lisa and my three boys for supporting this move Seattle, we can't wait to meet all the Husky fans."

In just three years as the head coach at Washington, Neighbors' coaching tree grew following the 2015-16 season as assistants Adia Barnes and Fred Castro took head coaching jobs at Arizona and Eastern Michigan, respectively. Additionally, former staff under Neighbors have gone on to work at the University of Portland (Megan Osmer) and StonyBrook (Adam Call).

Schaefer worked primarily with the Rebel guards and wing players at Ole Miss. During the 2015-16 season, Schaefer helped sophomore Shandricka Sessom blossom. Sessom, who averaged just 5.3 points per game as a freshman, was Ole Miss' leading scorer as a sophomore scoring 15.6 points per game. Schaefer also helped develop freshman Madinah Muhammad. Muhammad was Ole Miss' top scoring freshman with 7.5 points per game – a number that increased to 8.4 points per game against SEC competition and was second to just Sessom.

The 2015-16 season also saw three-point specialist, freshman Torri Lewis set the Tad Smith Coliseum single-game record by drilling 10 three-pointers against New Orleans. Lewis joins former Ole Miss men's player Marshall Henderson as the only players to record double-digit three-point field goals.

Schaefer went to Oxford with 18 years of coaching experience at various levels following two years at Arkansas State.

At Arkansas State, Schaefer's duties included working with the Red Wolves' perimeter players, opponent scouting and video. During the 2012-13 season with the Red Wolves, the team finished second in the Sun Belt Conference West Division and won 12 conference games.

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Schaefer came to Arkansas State after serving two seasons (2009-11) as the head coach at Greenbrier (Ark.) High School. Before coaching at Greenbrier, Schaefer was an assistant coach at the University of Cincinnati from 2007-09, where he coordinated the Bearcat offense and served as the director of opponent scouting, among other duties.

Prior to his time at Cincinnati, he spent three seasons at Arkansas Tech, including two as head coach during the 2005-07 seasons. While head coach at Arkansas Tech, he led the Golden Suns to a road victory over the top-ranked team in Division II basketball and a berth in the 2007 NCAA Division II Regional Tournament. He also spent 1999-2004 as the head coach at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tenn., where he led the Lady Buccaneers to their first-ever berth in the Gulf South Conference Tournament. Four years later, Schaefer directed CBU to the GSC West Division title and to the NCAA South Regional Tournament for the first time in school history.

Before coaching at CBU, he spent two seasons as head coach at Allen County Community College and two seasons as an assistant at Western Illinois.

Schaefer earned his Bachelor of Arts degree while majoring in English at Thomas More College in Crestview, Ky., where he was a student assistant basketball coach and a member of the football team. He and his wife, Lisa, have three sons, Landon, Will and Jake.