UMD Loses Another Women’s Coach

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

Annette Wiles informed the University of Minnesota Duluth this morning that she will resign her position as women’s head basketball coach effective June 10, 2015. UMD athletics has accepted her resignation.

During her seven seasons the Bulldogs, Wiles compiled an overall record of 109-86, including a 12-15 mark this past winter, and directed UMD to two  NCAA Division II tournament appearances (2010 and 2012).

A search for Wiles’ replacement will begin immediately

Another women’s coach at the University of Minnesota-Duluth has announced her resignation.

The school announced Monday that women’s basketball coach Annette Wiles is stepping down after seven seasons leading the program.

Wiles posted a 109-86 record in her career at Minnesota Duluth, including a 12-15 finish this past winter. In her seven seasons, she led the Bulldogs to two NCAA Division II tournament appearances (2010, 2012).

While the statement from the school doesn’t offer any reason for Wiles’s resignation, she now becomes the third women’s athletics coach to resign her position in 2015 at UMD.

Wiles resignation is effective June 10 – her contract was set to expire on June 20.

In a statement issued through her attorney, Justi Rae Miller, to the Duluth News Tribune Wiles says:

“It’s been an incredibly tough year and although I had hoped to finish my career at UMD and raise my family in Duluth, it is no longer healthy for me to continue to work in the current UMD athletic department environment.”

 

 

 

Minnesota Duluth cited budgetary concerns when it chose not to renew the contract of longtime women’s hockey coach Shannon Miller. The move has been controversial in Duluth, because of the success that Miller has brought the program over the years, including five national championships.

Softball coach Jen Banford also turned down a one-year contract offer from UMD after she was told she’d no longer be able to continue in her other job as director of women’s hockey operations.

Reports that both Miller and Banford have already filed complaints with the federal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.