Kari Kerkhoff's first four years as recruiting coordinator will go down as one of the most successful four-year periods in the history of Bradley women's basketball. During that stretch, the Braves made the first two postseason appearances in program history, earned the team's first-post season victory, posted the first 20-win season in almost 30 years and collected 71 wins.
Now entering her seventh season on the Bradley bench, Kerkhoff oversees the team's recruiting efforts.
Over the last four years, Leah Kassing garnered second-team All-MVC honors in 2011-12, BU players earned a total of three honorable mention all-conference honors the Braves have had two players earn a spot on the MVC All-Freshman team and senior Katie Yohn became the 16th player in program history to score 1,000 career points.
Last year, Kerkhoff's first full recruiting class helped the Braves to the second postseason appearance in the last three years and won the most games in a four-year period in nearly 30 years. Bradley finished the year with the fifth most wins in program history (18-16) and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women's Basketball Invitational with a home win against Tennessee Tech. The Braves tied a school record with eight road wins in 2011-12.
After tying a school-record with 12 conference wins and finishing tied for third in the regular-season Missouri Valley Conference standings, the Braves received a bid to the Women's Basketball Invitational in 2009-10 where they defeated Big East Conference foe Louisville in the Cardinals' final game at historic Freedom Hall. Louisville, which advanced to the 2008-09 NCAA Championship game, owned a 129-23 (.849) record at Freedom Hall since the start of the 1998-99 season. Bradley's season came to an end in the WBI quarterfinals with a loss at College of Charleston.
Bradley finished the 2009-10 season with a 17-14 overall record and 12-6 league mark as the Braves finished with back-to-back winning seasons for the first since the mid-80's.
In 2008-09, Bradley posted a 21-10 overall record, the best finish in the Missouri Valley Conference since 1991-92 and the first MVC Tournament semifinal appearance in program history since 1996-97.
A four-time letterwinner at Nebraska-Omaha, Kerkhoff played for Buscher for two seasons before her departure for Bradley and joined the coaching staff in July 2006.
She helped the Braves to an improved record in each of her first three seasons. Coming off a 9-19 season and a tie for ninth in regular-season Valley race prior to her arrival, Bradley posted a 12-19 overall record in her first season and earned its first Missouri Valley Conference Tournament victory since the 1996-97 campaign during Kerkhoff's first year on The Hilltop (2006-07).
BU followed that up with a 12-18 overall record during the 2007-08 campaign and posted just the second 20-win season in program history in 2008-09 when the Braves finished off the year with a 21-10 overall mark. While Bradley's overall record took a slight dip in 2009-10, BU tied the school record with 12 conference wins and also matched the best conference finish in program history.
A 2002 graduate of UNO, Kerkhoff earned a Bachelor of Science in secondary education, while starting in 50 games during her collegiate career for the Mavericks.
Her first venture into coaching came in 2002-03 at Wisconsin-Stout as a graduate assistant.
She went on to join the coaching staff at Michigan Tech for two seasons as an assistant coach, where she helped recruit the 2004-05 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference Freshman of the Year. Kerkhoff helped lead the Huskies to a 21-8 record in her final season, including 15 consecutive wins and third-place conference finish.
In 2005-06 she served as an assistant coach at Elon, helping orchestrate a dramatic rebound as the Phoenix improved to 12-16 overall and 7-11 in the Southern conference after finishing the 2004-05 campaign with a 4-24 record and 10th place league finish at 3-17.