Central’s Petersen leaves women’s basketball post

Central College

PELLA — Chelsea Petersen has resigned as Central College’s women’s basketball coach after five years on the Dutch staff.

Petersen joined as an assistant for the 2012-13 season. Late the following August she agreed to serve as interim head coach when her predecessor, Mike Jacobsma, left to accept another position. She was named head coach following that season.

“We’re extremely grateful to Chelsea for stepping up when we were left without a head coach and for her service the past five seasons,” athletics director Eric Van Kley said. “Without question, Chelsea worked tirelessly on behalf of her student-athletes and Central women’s basketball. She is extremely bright and talented and we wish her nothing but the best as she leaves here.”

Under Petersen, the Dutch recorded 11 wins in 2013-14, the program’s highest victory total in a decade. Central was 9-16 this past season.

She served on the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Regional Advisory Committee and, in 2015, was selected to study at the NCAA Women Coaches Academy in Denver. Colorado. She was among 40 women from all NCAA divisions accepted into the academy.

A Wyoming, Iowa native, Petersen was a team captain at Upper Iowa University where she earned her bachelor’s degree and received a master’s of business administration degree at Anderson University (Ind.), where she served as an assistant coach from 2009-12. She maintained a 4.0 grade point average throughout her undergraduate and graduate careers.

Van Kley said Central is launching an immediate search for a new head coach.