Jacob Misener promoted to head girls’ basketball coach at Mount Vernon

MOUNT VERNON — Overhaul, not necessary.

“I don’t need to come in and reinvent the wheel,” Jacob Misener said Monday, upon the announcement that he has been promoted to girls’ head basketball coach at Mount Vernon High School.

“This is a ready-made program.”

Misener, 32, had served as an assistant for the past four years under Nate Sanderson, who resigned April 8.

“Nate and the girls put a great foundation in place,” Misener said. “This is a program built on values, something I care very much about.”

Mount Vernon captured the Class 3A state championship in March, capping a 26-1 season.

The Mustangs will take a 25-game winning streak into 2025-26, and are slotted as the state’s fifth-ranked team in The Gazette’s preliminary Class 3A rankings.

Despite the graduation of all-staters Chloe Meester and Sydney Huber, Mount Vernon will return an elite backcourt.

Twins Taylor and Courtney Franck will be seniors next season; Savanna Wright will be a sophomore. That trio combined to average 28.4 points per game.

Junior-to-be Rylee Rasmussen will be counted on in the post.

Misener graduated from Cedar Rapids Kennedy in 2011, from Mount Mercy University in 2015. He works at the Shoot 360 basketball facility in Robins.

“I’d kind of been dragging my feet for the past decade on being a head coach,” he said. “This seems like a perfect fit, to keep building this program.

Misener will be assisted by Lindsay Knake, who played at Central DeWitt and the University of Wisconsin, and has served as an assistant at Cornell College.

The hire leaves two prominent girls’ basketball coaching vacancies — at Cedar Rapids Xavier and at Clear Creek Amana.

  Buy Photo

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com