Michele Durand enters her 12th season as the head coach of the Ohio Northern women’s basketball program. She also serves as a assistant professor in the ONU department of human performance and sport sciences.

Last season, Durand led Northern to a 21-6 overall record, with a second placefinish in the Ohio Athletic Conference with an 14-4 mark. She also guided the Polar Bears to the school’s first OAC Tournament Championship apperance since 1988.

During the 2007-08 campaign, Durand took the program to new heights, going 19-7 overall and 14-4 (2nd) in the OAC.

For her efforts that season, Durand was named the Russell Athletic/Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Division III Region Six Coach of the Year.

During her time at ONU, Durand was named OAC Co-Coach of the Year (2006-07) and on Dec. 22, 2006 against Earlham (Ind.), she won her 200th career game. Durand now has 273 wins for her career.

The Toledo native came to Ohio Northern after 11 seasons as head coach at Bluffton College, where she was the school’s all-time winningest coach.

She was named Coach of the Year in the Western Buckeye Collegiate Conference in 1990-91 and in the Association of Mideast Colleges in 1995-96 while at Bluffton.

Durand served in other capacities during her time at Bluffton, as she also coached the women’s tennis and cross country teams, and served as the associate director of athletics and an assistant professor of HPER during her tenure at Bluffton.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and recreation from Bluffton in 1988 and received a master’s degree from Bowling Green State in physical education in 1990.

As a student-athlete for the Beavers, Durand was a two-time All-Western Buckeye Collegiate Conference selection. Durand is 16th all-time in career assists and is 32nd on the school’s scoring list with 609 points.

Durand led her 1995-96 Bluffton squad to a 16-9 record, the best win total by any BC women’s basketball team in 42 years of play. Her team also won the Association of Midwest Colleges regular season and tournament championships.

She has also been inducted into the Toledo Whitmer High School Athletic Hall of Fame for her accomplishments in basketball, cross country and track during her prep days.

Women's Basketball under Durand

Jessica Viertlboeck is in her third season as assistant women’s basketball coach for the Polar Bear squad.

She also doubles as the head women’s golf coach at Ohio Northern University.

Before coming to ONU, Viertlboeck has spent four years at her alma mater, Ohio Wesleyan University, where she was the assistant women’s basketball coach, instructor in the physical education department and director of spring intramurals. 

During her tenure at OWU, the Bishops compiled an overall record of 69-39.  This past season they finished 20-7 overall and 14-2 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. In the 2008-09 season they were the NCAC Tournament Champions and received a bid to the NCAA Division III national tournament.

Prior to her stint at OWU, Viertlboeck spent two years as the assistant women’s basketball coach at Brown University. Her duties included on-court coaching, team travel coordination, recruiting and scheduling.

In 2003, Viertlboeck received her master’s degree in sport administration from Central Michigan University, where she was also a graduate assistant coach for the Chippewa women’s basketball team. Additionally, she taught golf classes in the physical education department.

A 2001 graduate of OWU, Viertlboeck was a four-year starter on the women’s basketball team. 

She was a two-time Kodak Honorable Mention All American and a two-time first team All-NCAC selection.  Viertlboeck was also named conference MVP twice and was captain of the 2001 squad that reached the NCAA Division III Final Four. In the Fall 2011, Viertlboeck was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame at her alma mater. 

A native of Toledo, Viertlboeck currently resides in Ada.

Women's Golf under Viertlboeck