Cyclone Women's Basketball Camps
Coaching Staff

Jack Easley
Associate Head Coach

Jack Easley is in his seventh season on the Cyclone women’s basketball staff, and his fifth as associate head coach, earning the title after two seasons at Iowa State. He joined the Cyclone staff in May 2003 after spending one season as an assistant at Providence College and 19 seasons at Oklahoma State.

Easley has been a part of six postseason appearances with the Cyclones and helped ISU compile a 133-66 overall record. In his tenure, ISU has been to the NCAA Championship four times, including a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight in 2009. The Cyclones posted wins over East Tennessee State, Ball State and a come-from-behind victory over Michigan State en route to the NCAA Regional Final. ISU has also competed in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament twice during Easley’s tenure, including the WNIT semifinals in 2003-04.

In his time at Iowa State Easley has coached a number of highly successful post players. Easley coached Brittany Wilkins to the best season of her career as a senior which sent her on to a professional career in the WNBA and abroad. He also coached Nicky Wieben to a place on the All-Big 12 Team as a sophomore. Under his tutelage, Wieben completely rewrote the Iowa State school record for blocked shots with 198 (more than 40 over the previous record) and became the 20th player in school history to record 1,000 career points, despite missing a majority of her junior season due to a season-ending injury. Wieben went on to a professional basketball career in Greece.

Easley came to the Cyclones as no stranger to Big 12 basketball after spending 19 seasons as an assistant at Oklahoma State. The Cowgirls compiled a 350-244 record during his tenure, including seven 20-win seasons, seven NCAA Championship berths, two WNIT appearances and three Big Eight Conference championships.

The Kansas City, Mo., native started his coaching career at Slater High School in Missouri. He coached the girls basketball team from 1977-79 before moving on to State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Mo., where he served as the head women’s coach and assistant men’s coach from 1979-83.

Easley was a shooting guard for two years at State Fair CC, where he earned his associate’s degree before playing two seasons at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education, with a minor in history, from MVC in 1977. He and his wife, Marla, have three sons: Sam, Lance and Zac, and two grandsons. Sam and Angie have a son (Logan), and Lance and April have a son (Easton).

Jodi Steyer
Assistant Coach

Jodi Steyer Jodi Steyer is in her eighth season on the Cyclone coaching staff, after rejoining Bill Fennelly’s staff in May 2002. She spent six seasons as his assistant at Toledo.

Steyer has been an integral part of the Cyclones’ six postseason bids in the last seven seasons, including the 2009 NCAA Elite Eight berth and the semifinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament in 2004.

She has helped Fennelly guide the Cyclones to the NCAA Championships in each of the last three seasons, including last season when the Cyclones tied the school record for wins in a season with a 27-9 overall record and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight. ISU finished in a tie for third place in the Big 12 standings and made the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship for the third consecutive season.

Steyer oversees the Cyclone backcourt and has had the opportunity to work with some of the best guards in Iowa State and Big 12 history. She came on board for Lindsey Wilson’s final season at ISU as she made her way into second place on the school’s career scoring chart with 1,875 points. She also helped guide Lyndsey Medders to a school-record 719 career assists and 1,449 career points. Iowa State is one of the nation’s most prolific three-point shooting teams under Steyer’s guidance, leading the Big 12 in three-pointers every season since the inception of the conference. The Cyclones have also owned virtually every three-point mark in the Big 12 record book.

A native of Burlington, Wis., Steyer was a four-year letterwinner and starter at Colorado State. She finished her career as the Rams’ all-time leading scorer (1,598). She earned first-team all-High Country Conference honors three times and academic all-league honors all four years. The former forward earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from CSU in 1989.

Steyer joined Fennelly at Toledo in 1989, working primarily with the Rocket post players. She coached five all-conference players and two Mid-American Conference players of the year, including current Iowa State assistant Latoja Schaben (1993). Fennelly and Steyer guided Toledo to a 141-45 record in six seasons, including five postseason appearances. Steyer spent an additional year at Toledo after Fennelly left for Iowa State, helping the Rockets to a 25-6 record and an NCAA Championship berth in 1996.

Steyer and her husband, Ed, have a daughter (Jamie) and a son (Eric).

Latoja Schaben
Assistant Coach

Latoja Schaben, who played for head coach Bill Fennelly at Toledo, is in her 13th season on the Cyclone staff. During her tenure in Ames, Iowa State has compiled an overall record of 247-110 and made 11 postseason appearances.

Just as she helped Fennelly propel Toledo into the national spotlight as an All-American center for the Rockets, she joined her mentor on the sidelines at ISU to build a nationally recognized program. In her first season, the Cyclones recorded their first 25-win season (25-8).

Schaben has been part of many ISU women’s basketball firsts, celebrating a pair of Big 12 Championship titles (2000, 2001), a share of the 2000 regular-season conference crown and two trips to the NCAA Championship’s Elite Eight. She saw the Cyclones win over top-seeded Connecticut in 1999 to shock the women’s basketball world and send ISU to its first NCAA Elite Eight and she was on the sidelines 10 years later when ISU used a come-from-behind victory to knock of Michigan State in 2009 for its second Elite Eight berth in school history.

She saw ISU become a mainstay in the national rankings over a three-year stretch, including the team’s highest spot at No. 4, and has helped direct the Cyclones to nine NCAA Championship berths. In addition to the Elite Eight appearances, Schaben has coached ISU in two more Sweet Sixteen contests and a total of 21 NCAA Championship games. In 2004 and 2006, the Cyclones were selected to play in the WNIT, advancing to the semifinals in 2004.

Schaben’s primary assignment is working with the Cyclone post players. She tutored Iowa State’s all-time leading scorer, Angie Welle. She saw Welle post 54 career double-doubles and earn nine All-America honors in her career. She also played a role in developing Brittany Wilkins, who has gone onto a professional basketball career both in the WNBA and overseas. Schaben has also coached Nicky Wieben, ISU’s most prolific shot blocker, who ranks 12th in ISU career scoring, despite missing several games her junior season due to a season-ending knee injury.

Prior to arriving in Ames, Schaben joined the professional basketball ranks for three years. She played in Portugal, Italy, Finland and Turkey, averaging double-figures in both scoring and rebounding her entire professional career and leading all of her teams to the finals for the first time in the programs’ history.

At Toledo, Schaben was an honorable mention All-American center, lettering three years and earning 1993 Mid-American Conference Player of the Year honors. Schaben graduated from UT in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in communications.

The Mansfield, Ohio, native was inducted into the Toledo Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Mansfield Senior Hall of Fame in 2003. Schaben, who married Scott in 2007, has a daughter (Jasmine).

Josh Carper
Director of Basketball Operations

Josh Carper is in his second season on the Iowa State women’s basketball staff, after spending five seasons with the Cyclone men’s team.
 
In his first season on the women’s staff, Carper saw the Cyclones achieve success recorded only once before in its history. Iowa State collected a school-record tying 27 wins and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight for the second time in program history. ISU finished third in the Big 12 Conference regular-season race and advanced to the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship.

Carper’s roll on staff includes scheduling practices, team travel, assisting with camps, budgets, alumni relations and game scheduling.

Carper served as the associate for operations on the ISU men’s basketball staff in 2007-08, and he previously spent four years as a student manager for the Cyclone men’s team.

A native of Sioux City, Iowa, Carper was part of a men’s NIT Final Four team and an NCAA Championship squad as a student manager. He also assisted with the women’s team in its 2007 NCAA Championship appearance as a manager.

As the men’s associate for operations, Carper assisted the staff with day-to-day operations, including pregame scouting and video editing.

Carper earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing from Iowa State in 2007.