Elyse Schlump

Bio

The Cleary Cougars women’s basketball team have a new head coach, as Elyse Schlump has been named the second coach in program history on Monday, May 5, 2025.

In Coach Schlump's first season as head coach of the Cougars, the team would go 14-15 overall, and had a winning record in league play for the first time in program history, going 12-10.  As the 7-seed in the WHAC Tournament, the team would fall in the opening round of the Tournament to Rochester Christian.  The success continued in the award season, as Izzy Dugal became the first Cougar to earn First Team All-WHAC honors, while teammate Samantha Hoelscher was named Second Team All-WHAC for the second consecutive season.  8 members of the team were named to the WHAC All-Academic team, and 7 of those 8 were NAIA Winter Sport Scholar-Athletes.

Schlump joined Cleary after three seasons in charge of the Concordia University Cardinals in Ann Arbor, in which she had a 51-37 record, 42-20 in the WHAC.  Concordia made it to at least the WHAC Quarterfinals in each of Schlump’s three seasons, and the team made it to the WHAC Semifinals in the 2023-24 season.

The success for Concordia wasn’t just wins and losses for Schlump at CUAA.  She coached five student-athletes that were named First-Team All-WHAC, two student-athletes that were named Second-Team All-WHAC, one WHAC Defensive Player of the Year, and three student-athletes that were named to the WHAC All-Freshman Team. 

Prior to her time at Concordia, Schlump was the Director of Basketball Operations at NCAA Division 1 Marist University from 2018-2022.  At Marist, Schlump helped the Red Foxes win both the regular season and MAAC Tournament title to advance to the NCAA Tournament.  In the NCAA Tournament, the 15-seed Red Foxes fell to the 2-seed Louisville Cardinals in the first round.  The Red Foxes would also have their championship season of 2019-20 end prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Marist finished the regular season as regular season co-champions with Rider College.

Schlump’s first coaching position out of college was at NCAA D3 Skidmore College, where she was the associate head coach from 2013-2018.  At Skidmore, Schlump helped the Thoroughbreds win two Liberty League regular season and tournament championships.  She was part of a coaching staff of the year twice, and coached six First-Team All-Liberty players, including three Liberty League Players of the Year.  The Thoroughbreds had three student-athletes named to the All-Rookie team, including one Rookie of the Year.  She coached three WBCA All-Americans while at Skidmore.