April 25, 2020
Bluder seemed to have immediate success since her head-coaching début at St. Ambrose University in 1984. The Wisconsin-born coach who grew up in Marion attributes her winning ways during this first stint to former Iowa head coach C. Vivian Stringer, who led the Hawkeyes for 12 seasons, during which she made nine NCAA Tournament appearances.
“When I was at St. Ambrose I would work her camps for her in the summer,” Bluder said. “That would bring me to this campus and so she’s always somebody that I looked up to.”
Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder speaks during a timeout during a women’s basketball matchup between Wisconsin and Iowa on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. The Hawkeyes defeated the Badgers, 71-53.
Her six seasons with the Fighting Bees earned her the same role with the Bulldogs of Drake University for the next decade. The turn of the millennium brought Bluder to Iowa City. Since taking over the Hawkeye program in 2000, she’s won the Big Ten tournament twice.
Now, Bluder looks to be an inspirational figure for the women who play on her team.
“The knowledge she instills in us is something that is so powerful,” Sevillian said. “Not just basketball-wise, because I think a lot of people get focused on that just because she is a coach, but about how women can impact the world, change the world; us and our generation, how we can change the world. Things that we can do and wanting us to succeed, wanting us to do great things in life.”
Senior Kathleen Doyle adds that Bluder’s influence on her is strengthened by the fact that she is the first female head coach for whom she’s ever played.
“The influence that she has on the community and how she’s so admired — it’s really cool to see a woman as a role model for what you can achieve,” Doyle said.
A number of Iowa women’s basketball players can recall moments in which their head coach offered more than just game plans.
“She’s kind of like a second mom; she has her own kids, but I kind of feel like we’re her second set of kids,” Doyle said. “She just genuinely wants you to become confident and independent on the court and off the court.”
Bluder agrees, and treats her team as her family.
Photos: Lisa Bluder leading her squad
“I think that actually becoming a mom made me a better coach,” Bluder said. “I think it gives you more patience. I think it gives you a different compassion level.”
Perhaps nobody has been a better witness to the personal effect Bluder makes on players — both on and off the court — than assistant head coach Jenni Fitzgerald, who began working with Bluder 28 years ago at Drake. After being so close to the three-time Big Ten Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year for so long, Fitzgerald attested to Bluder’s mission: ensuring that everyone involved reaches their full potential.
“What makes Lisa super cool is that she helps each coach continue to grow in their roles and yet she also knows what we’re really good at and has us focus on that as well,” Fitzgerald said. “She’s really good at growing the people around her.”
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