(WILMINGTON, Ohio) – Wilmington College Director of Athletics Matt Croci announced today the hiring of Shauna Watson as the Quakers new Head Women's Basketball Coach. She becomes the seventh head coach in Quakers program history.

"I am excited to welcome Shauna to Wilmington and watch her rebuild our storied women's basketball program," Croci said. She has great experience as a head coach building programs and will be ready to hit the ground running on day one. Her background will allow her to really push our athletes forward."

Watson has spent the last eight seasons as an NCAA Division III head coach. The last four seasons have come at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas (2021-25) with the previous four at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana (2017-21).

During the 2023-24 season with Ozarks, Watson coached the Eagles to the American Southwest Conference (ASC) tournament semifinals. This was the first time in 22 years that the program advanced to the semifinals after qualifying for the tournament for the first time in seven years.

The Eagles won 13 games in 2024-25, which was their most wins in a season since the team also won 13 in 2018-19. After joining the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) this season, Ozarks qualified for the SCAC tournament for the first time in program history.

At Earlham, Watson led the Quakers to the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) tournament in three of her four seasons. Earlham has not returned to the HCAC tournament in the four seasons since Watson was at the helm of the program.

On the court, she conducted and planned practices, recruited, evaluated, and retained student athletes along with preparing and implementing game strategies at both Ozarks and Earlham.

During her time with both programs, she coached 13 total All-Conference players, one Newcomer of the Year in 2024 at Ozarks, and had one player go on to play professionally overseas. Watson retained an impressive 90% of her roster at both schools.

Her first coaching position came at NAIA institution Indiana Tech as a Graduate Assistant coach for two seasons. While with the Warriors, Watson conducted individual player workouts, assisted in recruiting and game planning efforts, prepared film sessions, planned road trips, organized fundraising campaigns and more.

Watson played four seasons of college basketball at Hanover College in Indiana, where she was a three-year starting point guard for a team that made four straight conference tournaments, won two conference championships, and appeared in two NCAA tournaments.

She takes over a Quakers program with historical success and a National Championship in 2004. They look to return to the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) tournament for the first time since the 2022-23 campaign and the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007-08.