Minnesota Scene: Bloomington native named NDSU women's coach

Bloomington native Maren Walseth was named the 10th women's basketball coach at North Dakota State.

Walseth joins the Bison after spending the past seven years as an assistant at Penn State, where she also played from 1997 to 2002. She replaces Carolyn DeHoff, who resigned after six seasons at NDSU.

"I am extremely excited to join the Bison family and the Fargo community," Walseth said. "The commitment to winning on and off the court is well established at NDSU. I am looking forward to getting to work and starting the climb to the top."

While she was an assistant at Penn State, the Lady Lions won three Big Ten championships and made four NCAA tournament appearances, twice reaching the Sweet 16.

Before Penn State, she spent three years as an assistant coach at Navy.

"North Dakota State is getting a gem in Maren Walseth," Penn State coach Coquese Washington said.

The Bloomington Jefferson grad was a two-time all-Big Ten selection and a three-time academic all-Big Ten honoree as a forward at Penn State, and she played in the Final Four in 2000.She also played professionally for four years.

Six metro private schools have aligned to form the Independent Metro Athletic Conference for competition beginning in 2014-15. The schools are Blake, Breck, Minnehaha Academy, Mounds Park Academy, Providence Academy and St. Paul Academy and Summit School.

Those schools announced in October that they planned to leave the Tri-Metro Conference, which had ballooned to 16 teams last fall when the Minnesota State High School League added Columbia Heights, Fridley and Holy Angels. Those three schools have enrollments in the 700 to 750 range, putting them among the largest in the conference.