On Sept. 13, Ithaca College women’s basketball legend Katherine Bixby ’10 was inducted into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame. However, the former All-American has continued to leave her mark on the women’s college basketball landscape, coaching at multiple levels. On Sept. 2 she accepted an assistant coaching position at the University of North Carolina.
As a student-athlete at the college Bixby excelled on the court. In her senior year, she led the Bombers to the NCAA tournament and became the second player in program history to earn an All-American honor when she was selected to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association honorable mention team for the 2009–10 season.
Bixby was a two-sport athlete, playing on the women’s lacrosse team as well as the basketball team. Bixby said her experience at the college was valuable because of the connections she made not only in athletics, but also in the classroom.
“I was a head coach, really young, but building that community starting in college, you’re starting to become your own person,” Bixby said. “So much of it was just the relationship and the community and the connection.”
Bixby remained at the college for two more years to pursue her Master of Arts in teaching. During this time, she worked as an assistant coach under women’s basketball head coach Dan Raymond. Raymond said it was immediately evident Bixby had coaching in her future.
“She was the first assistant coach that I passed along a lot of the offense, end of game situations,” Raymond said. “So because of who I saw as a player, in her development there, I had complete confidence that she was going to make some really good decisions.”
While Bixby was an assistant at the college, she was introduced to Courtney Banghart, University of North Carolina’ women’s basketball head coach. At the time, Banghart was a head coach at Princeton University and had invited Raymond and his staff to help work one of Princeton’s prospect camps. Banghart was immediately floored with the immense knowledge and love for the game Bixby demonstrated as a student-assistant coach and Banghart said she had Bixby on her radar ever since.
“She’s just been so consistently a champion for women’s basketball and a great thinker about it,” Banghart said. “And her experience as a head coach, I knew it’s one thing our staff doesn’t have. So she sort of fit so many boxes for us at a perfect time.”
Bixby left South Hill after the 2013–14 season to take a head coaching position at Dickinson College. There, she turned around the program, taking them from a 5-19 record in the 2013–14 season before she arrived to an 18-8 record in the 2016–17 season — her final year with the program.
Bixby continued to have success as a head coach when she took a job at Johns Hopkins University in 2017. There she led the program to three 20 win seasons in her five seasons at the helm, including a 23-5 2018–19 campaign that saw her win the Centennial Conference Coach of the Year award.
Raymond said it came as no surprise seeing his former player have immediate success as a head coach. He said that while her basketball IQ is off the charts, he believes it is her ability to connect with her players that allows her to build winning cultures.
“Her biggest strength isn’t the X’s and O’s, it’s building relationships for the players, establishing those bonds of trust among the players,” Raymond said.
Bixby said one of her focuses as a coach is to slow things down, when she was a player this meant she let plays develop. As a coach this means that she does not panic when there is a mistake or issue, rather she takes her time to process the situation before giving a resolution. This was something that worked for her on the court as a player, as she said it helps her make the best possible decisions.
“I think that’s something for sure that has continued with me as a coach,” Bixby said. ”Just constantly listening and kind of being a good sounding board, but then also being able to insert my opinion when I’m ready.”
After the Blue Jays, Bixby took the leap to the Division I level for the 2023–24 season when she was hired as an assistant coach at Loyola University Maryland. There, she also helped to turn the program around, taking them from a 10-21 record in the 2022–23 season to a 16-15 record in the 2023–24 season, helping her fellow coaching staff win the 2024 Patriot League Staff of the Year.
Bixby said the key strategy for programs like Dickinson and Loyola is to focus on long term growth of the program.
“I think in those programs it just reminds you to take it day by day and always focus on what you can control,” Bixby said. “Don’t necessarily focus on winning as the outcome but focus on what you’re doing day by day.”
Now as she begins her next chapter at UNC, Bixby is doing what she has been her entire career: making connections and building relationships. Banghart said that despite Bixby only being in the program for a few weeks, it is evident she will have a major impact on her players and people are taking notice.
“She’s connectable and relatable and she meets you where you are,” Banghart said. “She will be a key piece of what we do, bringing out the best of our individual players. There’s not a person in this office that hasn’t said to me, ‘Great, great hire.’”
Raymond said that he could not be more proud of his former player and assistant coach and that he cannot wait to see what else she accomplishes. He believes that no matter how far she chooses to pursue her coaching career, her biggest impacts will be off the court.
“She is so into making sure that whatever she does in her coaching career, it is to empower young women to realize they can accomplish anything and everything that they want to, as long as they do it the right way,” Raymond said.
Bixby said her passions for basketball and uplifting young women is what has led to her success and hopes to continue on that path in her new chapter at UNC.
“I love what I do so I think injecting that at Loyola was really good for that program and then we’ll see here at UNC,” Bixby said.
