GLIAC Women’s Basketball Coach Salaries (2026–27)
Head coach and assistant coach pay at the 11 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) women’s basketball programs, an NCAA Division II conference. Division II pay is rarely published for named coaches, so most figures below are institutional bands, not contracts. Men’s programs: GLIAC men’s basketball coach salaries.
Key numbers
- Median head coach pay: about $77,500 across the nine programs with a figure. Figures run from $65,000 to $151,000.
- Highest: Grand Valley State’s Mike Williams at $151,000, an exact figure from the school’s published salary book. Every other figure is below $95,000.
- Men’s pay is about 1.3 times higher at the median (about $102,000 vs. $77,500). Grand Valley State is the exception: its women’s coach earns $2,422 more than its men’s coach.
- Assistant coaches are paid roughly $35,000 to $68,000. Grand Valley State’s salary book shows $68,136 for its associate women’s basketball coach and $44,644 for an assistant.
Head coach pay by school
| School | Head coach | Pay | Basis | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Valley State | Mike Williams † | $151,000 | Exact (salary book, Nov. 2025) | Hired 2015. The salary book omits names; matched by title and hire date |
| Ferris State | Kurt Westendorp † | $80,000–$95,000 | Estimate | |
| Purdue Northwest | Christopher Vincent † | $80,000 | Exact, unconfirmed | |
| Roosevelt (private) | Deon Thomas † | $70,000–$90,000 | Estimate | Fourth season in 2025–26; private school does not publish pay |
| Michigan Tech | Eric Gruber | $70,000–$85,000 | Institutional scale | Named April 20, 2026; previously at SIU Edwardsville |
| Northern Michigan | Casey Thousand † | $70,000–$85,000 | Institutional scale | |
| UW–Parkside | Jen Conely † | $70,000–$82,000 | Estimate | Hired 2018; extended on a multi-year contract |
| Davenport (private) | Shonda Sanders † | $65,000–$80,000 | Estimate | Hired April 2022 |
| Lake Superior State | Grace Howrigon | $65,000–$78,000 | Institutional scale | Named May 2024; previously at Lawrence Tech |
| Saginaw Valley State | Jenny Pruett | Not disclosed | — | Hired April 2019 |
| Wayne State | Carrie Lohr | Not disclosed | — | Entering 16th season. The school’s salary report lists the whole athletics department without sports |
† We could not confirm this coach’s 2026–27 status; searches returned only 2025–26 or older results. “Institutional scale” and “estimate” figures are not individual salaries. Sorted by pay (midpoint where a range is given).
What the numbers show
- Outside Grand Valley State, the range is narrow. Seven of the other eight midpoints fall between $71,500 and $80,000.
- Tenure does not show up in the bands. Conely (hired 2018) has a long tenure but is not near the top. The newest hire, Gruber, is banded at $70,000 to $85,000, the same as Northern Michigan’s coach.
- Women’s pay trails men’s at eight of the nine schools with both figures. At Ferris State the men’s band ($110,000–$130,000) is about $30,000 above the women’s ($80,000–$95,000). At Northern Michigan the gap is also about $30,000, between $98,000–$115,000 and $70,000–$85,000.
Assistant coach pay
| School | Title | Salary | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Valley State | Associate Women’s Basketball Coach | $68,136 | Salary book |
| Grand Valley State | Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach | $44,644 | Salary book |
| Grand Valley State | Assistant Coach | $40,000–$45,000 | School pay range |
| Grand Valley State | Assistant Coach | $38,000–$42,000 | School pay range |
| Wayne State | Assistant Coach | $45,000–$55,000 | School pay range |
| Michigan Tech | Assistant Coach | $42,000–$50,000 | School pay range |
| Roosevelt (private) | Assistant Coach | $38,000–$48,000 | School pay range |
| Davenport (private) | Assistant Coach | $35,000–$45,000 | School pay range |
| Davenport (private) | Assistant Coach | $35,000–$45,000 | School pay range |
| Purdue Northwest | Assistant Coach and Facilities Events Coordinator | $35,568 | Unconfirmed |
| Purdue Northwest | Assistant Coach | $35,568 | Unconfirmed |
| Saginaw Valley State | Assistant Coach | $35,000–$42,000 | School pay range |
| Lake Superior State | Assistant Coach | $36,000–$44,000 | School pay range |
| Lake Superior State | Assistant Coach | $36,000–$44,000 | School pay range |
| Ferris State | Assistant Coach | $40,000–$45,000 | Posting range |
| Northern Michigan | Assistant Coach | $35,000–$45,000 | School pay range |
“Salary book” figures come from Grand Valley State’s published salary book (Nov. 21, 2025). “Posting range” is the pay range in a school’s job posting. “School pay range” is the range the school uses for that position, not an individual’s salary; we have not matched it to payroll records, so treat it as approximate. “Unconfirmed” is a single figure with no second source.
School-wide averages (federal data)
Every college that offers athletics reports average coach pay to the U.S. Department of Education. These are averages per full-time coach across all women’s teams at each school (2024–25 reporting year), not basketball only and not individual salaries. They are the only confirmed pay data for Wayne State.
| School | Average head coach, women’s teams | Average assistant coach, women’s teams |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Valley State | $95,487 | $38,367 |
| Wayne State | $92,350 | $56,033 |
| Ferris State | $85,380 | $33,618 |
| Northern Michigan | $73,999 | $41,096 |
| Lake Superior State | $70,450 | $28,235 |
| Roosevelt (private) | $69,032 | $31,217 |
| Michigan Tech | $66,336 | $46,074 |
| Purdue Northwest | $60,922 | $31,119 |
| Saginaw Valley State | $59,973 | $36,426 |
| UW–Parkside | $57,367 | $42,412 |
| Davenport (private) | $52,492 | $24,477 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data, 2024–25 (ope.ed.gov/athletics).
Data notes
- Nine of 11 member schools are public universities in Michigan, Indiana or Wisconsin; Roosevelt and Davenport are private. Most head coach figures in our records are bands labeled “institutional scale” or “Section 245”, not individual pay.
- Grand Valley State’s salary book (Nov. 21, 2025) is the only exact, sourced individual pay in this post. Wayne State’s published salary report (latest found: 2022–23) lists the entire athletics department by title, so basketball coaches cannot be isolated.
- Purdue Northwest’s exact figures have no second source. Saginaw Valley State’s figure often cited for its head coach is actually the average for all of its women’s teams, so it is not shown as individual pay.
Photo: women’s college basketball game action (Wisconsin at Milwaukee, 2022; not a GLIAC game). Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped. GLIAC logo via Wikimedia Commons.
