Kayla Waskow named Coe women's basketball coach as Nate Oakland takes position at North Dakota State

Coe College women's basketball coach Nate Oakland is moving to the Division I ranks as an assistant at North Dakota State and will be replaced by assistant Kayla Waskow, the program's all-time leading scorer.

Oakland was 27-26 in two years leading the Kohawks and follows the lead of previous head coach Randi (Peterson) Henderson, who was an assistant at D-I Charlotte before being named head coach at D-III Washington-St. Louis this offseason.

'With bittersweet emotion, I have resigned from Coe College as Women's Basketball Coach,' Oakland wrote on Twitter. 'I am extremely excited for our next opportunity.

'I am so happy for Coach Waskow to take over and lead the Kohawk program and I cannot thank (Athletics Director) John Chandler enough for the opportunity to pursue my dream at Coe College. We loved every minute of our time here with our players, staff and everyone in the Coe community. We created many lifelong friendships which we hold very dearly.

'My family and I are beyond ecstatic for our next challenge! Thanks to everyone who has reached out!'

Oakland, a Northern Iowa alumnus and former UNI assistant (2006-09), was a Coe assistant under Henderson from 2009-11 before spending four years as an assistant at Wartburg.

Waskow will lead the program into a new era with the opening of Coe Performance Arena after spending the last two seasons as an assistant. She led Coe to its first two NCAA tournament appearances while earning first team all-conference honors all four years and being named Iowa Conference MVP in 2011-12.

Waskow scored 1,853 points in her career and owns seven other school records. She also spent two years as a graduate assistant at Aurora University.