In Brooke Stoehr’s mind, on- and off-court success are intertwined – it is hard to have one without the other.
With that as a basis, Stoehr has engineered a turnaround that restored the shine to one of the Southland Conference’s premier women’s basketball programs, returning it to a position of prominence within the league.
Upon inheriting a six-win team in her first season alongside husband and co-head coach, Scott Stoehr, Brooke Stoehr implemented her four core values of family, passion, service and accountability as a basis for the Northwestern State program.
The results were quick and quantifiable. Northwestern State doubled its win total in Stoehr’s first season on the bench, qualifying for the Southland Conference Tournament one season after winning just two conference games.
In her second season, Stoehr’s squad rode a seven-game win streak in late February and early March to Northwestern State’s first Southland Conference Tournament championship and first 20-win season in 10 years.
A year later, Stoehr cemented her reputation for having her team playing its best basketball at the right time as sixth-seeded Northwestern State repeated as SLC Tournament champions, giving NSU 40 wins in the last two seasons.
Along with the on-court success has come a spate of awards and a record-setting performance in the classroom.
Individually, Stoehr has developed three-year starting point guard Janelle Perez from a player who had no other Division I scholarship offers into a 1,000-point career scorer, the 2012-13 Southland Conference Freshman of the Year and a 2014-15 first-team All-Southland Conference selection.
During Stoehr’s tenure, she has also guided Keisha Lee on a path that led the shooting guard to become the 25th player in program history to score 1,000 points. The maturation of shooting guard Beatrice Attura into the Southland Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player only served to underscore further Stoehr’s ability to develop quality guard play, something that marked her playing career at Louisiana Tech.
Stoehr’s tutelage doesn’t stop in the backcourt. Under her guidance, Trudy Armstead became just the seventh player in school history to record at least 1,000 career points and grab at least 700 career rebounds. Armstead also earned 2014 Southland Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player honors before signing to play professionally in Romania.
From the classroom to the court, Stoehr has overseen a program that has grown by leaps and bounds. In addition to reaching the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons, the Northwestern State women’s basketball program finished the 2014-15 season with a 3.461 grade-point average, the 16th-highest mark in the nation and fifth among teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Every one of Stoehr’s players who has finished her eligibility also has earned her college degree.
Before arriving in Natchitoches, Stoehr spent three years as an assistant coach at Texas Tech and helped guide the Lady Raiders to a NCAA and two National Women’s Invitational tournaments. Prior to Texas Tech, she spent a season on the staff at Southern Mississippi and three years on the staff at her alma mater, Louisiana Tech, following a stay at Arkansas-Little Rock.
The 35-year old was a standout player at Hamburg (Ark.) High School and played collegiately at Louisiana Tech from 1998-2002 where she served as a two-year captain and starting point guard as a junior and senior, while leading the Lady Techsters to an impressive 119-16 mark under legendary coach Leon Barmore. She was instrumental in leading Louisiana Tech to four NCAA Championship appearances, including the Final Four in 1999 and two more Elite Eight appearances.
During her playing days, Louisiana Tech won four regular-season conference titles and conference tournament crowns, while only losing one conference game. The 2001 All-Sun Belt Conference selection ended her career ranked as the NCAA Division I all-time career free throw percentage leader at 91.5 percent, hitting 268 of 292 attempts. As a senior, Stoehr was named an NCAA post-graduate scholarship finalist, WAC All-Academic, NCAA Woman of the Year nominee, Verizon Academic All-District VI and National Strength and Conditioning Association All-American.
In high school, she was named to the Parade All-American team and was the Arkansas and Southwest Region Gatorade Player of the Year.
At Southern Mississippi, Brooke worked primarily with the perimeter players. Her responsibilities also included recruiting, scouting opponents, film breakdown and assisting with all aspects of the Lady Eagles basketball camps.
Prior to her stint at Southern Miss, she spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech, where her primary duties included serving as the academic counselor, recruiting with an emphasis in Arkansas and Louisiana, scouting reports, guard development, summer camps and overseeing the Lady Techsters weight and conditioning program.
While at Louisiana Tech, Stoehr was instrumental in the development of the guards, which included three All-Western Athletic Conference selections and a WAC Player of the Year. She also helped Louisiana Tech claim back-to-back WAC regular-season titles as well as the program’s 25th straight NCAA Championship appearance.
She graduated from Tech in 2002 with a degree in business administration and obtained her master’s degree in sports administration from Florida State in 2004
Brooke spent her first two years as a full-time coach at Arkansas-Little Rock where she assisted with coaching guards, helped with recruiting, supervised preseason individual conditioning workouts and aided in summer basketball camps.
She also served as a graduate assistant at Florida State prior to her job at UALR.
Stoehr has helped continue the annual “Don’t Die Wondering” golf tournament, started more than 25 years ago by former head coach James Smith. The annual scramble event is the largest fund-raiser for the NSU women’s basketball program and a staple of Natchitoches summers.
Brooke and Scott Stoehr are parents of two children – 5-year-old daughter Aubrey and 3-year-old son Cooper. Brooke’s parents, affectionately known as “Sha Sha” and “Papa Bill,” have been staples in the Prather Coliseum crowd, helping take care of Aubrey and Cooper, who are two of the more energetic NSU fans.
