Lycoming College

After retiring from her role as head coach of the women's basketball team after 31 seasons in 2024, Christen Ditzler will join the men's basketball team as a volunteer assistant in 2025-26.

At the time of her retirement, Ditzler was sixth all-time amongst Middle Atlantic Conference women's basketball coaches with 354 wins. She was also the third softball coach in MAC history to reach 200 career wins and was still 13th amongst the conference's softball coaches with 235 wins.

Ditzler is the only coach in the athletic department's history to win 600 career games across all the sports she coached, posting her 600th win with a 78-32 victory over FDU-Florham on Jan. 7, 2023. Ditzler is the women's basketball (366) and softball (235) programs' all-time wins leader, while she also coached the volleyball squad to 13 wins in one season as head coach in 2000, giving her a total of 614 wins at Lycoming.

In 2018, Ditzler was inducted into the West Branch Valley Sports Hall of Fame for her contributions to area sports.

On the court, Ditzler coached 29 all-conference selections, five Academic All-District selections, two All-Americans, one D3hoops.com all-region selection, one MAC Scholar Athlete and one conference player of the year along with 10 Lycoming College Athletics Hall of Fame members. She also earned two conference coach of the year awards.

The Warriors enjoyed a school-record seven straight winning seasons from 2013-20, making six appearances in the MAC Commonwealth Championship in that time, including making a trip to the conference final in 2019. In that span, the team has posted a 107-73 (.563) record.

The Warriors enjoyed an 18-9 season in 2018-19, as a school-record three players earned all-conference honors, led by Kayla Kline, who also earned the school's first Academic All-District honor since 2004. The team finished the year with an 11-5 MAC Commonwealth record to earn the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament, where it beat Widener, 65-64, to advance to the school's first conference title game since 1990.

Despite a lineup with two freshmen starters and a roster with eight rookies, the Warriors didn't skip a beat in 2016-17, posting a 15-11 record and reaching the MAC Commonwealth Championship after finishing 9-7 in league play. Lycoming then added its first postseason win in two decades, a 73-59 triumph over Lebanon Valley in the first round of the conference tournament, as Lycoming reached the conference semifinals for the first time since 1997. 

Ditzler led her 1996-97 team to a 17-10 record, earning a berth in the NCAA tournament and a runner-up finish in the Freedom League. For her efforts, Ditzler was named both the Freedom League and Columbus Multimedia’s Middle Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.

The Annville, Pa., native’s first three seasons also saw great success. In the 1995-96 season, Ditzler led Lycoming to a 16-9 overall record and second place in the Freedom League, helping her earn her first Freedom Conference Coach of the Year award.

Ditzler began her coaching career in 1989 as a graduate assistant at West Chester University. In 1991, she was an assistant coach at Millersville before coming to Lycoming during the 1992-93 season as an assistant under Jim Orr.

Ditzler had a profound impact on the growth of Lycoming’s softball program, serving as head coach from 1993-2008. She helped the team reach 10 conference playoffs in 16 years, coaching 40 all-conference selections, two conference rookies of the year and one conference pitcher of the year. She earned the Freedom Conference's Coach of the Year award twice.

A 1989 graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, Ditzler had a standout athletic career for the Diplomats, as she scored 1,005 points, which is 15th in school history. She also earned All-Middle Atlantic Conference Southern Division honors twice and was named an Eastern College Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year in 1986. In 2011, Ditzler was recognized as part of the 1987-88 women's basketball team, which was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame. On the softball field, Ditzler earned All-MAC Southern Division honors as a senior.

 

The Ditzler File
Hometown: Annville, Pa.

	Education
1989	Bachelor of Science - Sociology	Franklin & Marshall College
1991	Masters of Business Administration	West Chester University
	Collegiate Basketball Experience
1985-89	Franklin & Marshall College
	Collegiate Coaching Experience
1989-91	West Chester University	Graduate Assistant
1991-92	Millersville University	Assistant Coach
1992-93	Lycoming College	Assistant Coach
1993-Pres.	Lycoming College	Head Women's Basketball Coach
1993-2008	Lycoming College	Head Softball Coach
2000	Lycoming College	Head Volleyball Coach
	Awards & Honors
1995-96	Freedom League Coach of the Year	Women's Basketball
1996-97	Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year	Women's Basketball
1996-97	Freedom League Coach of the Year	Women's Basketball
1999	Freedom League Coach of the Year	Softball
2003	Freedom Conference Coach of the Year	Softball
2018	West Branch Valley Sports Hall of Fame
	Ditzler Year-By-Year

Year	W	L	Pct.	Note
1993-94	14	9	.609	Posted a nine-win improvement
1994-95	17	9	.654	Annette Weller set school record with 536 points
1995-96	16	9	.640	First Freedom Conference Coach of the Year award
1996-97	17	10	.630	NCAA Tournament berth; Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year
1997-98	15	10	.600	Coached two all-conference selections
1998-99	11	13	.458	Laurie Scherer posts second 50-block season in school history
1999-00	17	8	.680	Won 100th career game at FDU-Madison
2000-01	12	12	.500	Seventh non-losing campaign
2001-02	9	15	.375	Lyndy LeVan scored her 1,000th point
2002-03	10	14	.417	Coached Lyndy LeVan to fourth all-conference honors
2003-04	15	10	.600	Coached Mindy Culp to all-conference honors
2004-05	7	17	.291	Two players finished in top 10 in conference in 3-point percentage
2005-06	5	19	.208	Andrea Cooper finished in top 10 in league in rebounds and blocks
2006-07	8	17	.320	Rebecca Leid earned Freedom Conference Rookie of the Year
2007-08	10	14	.416	Coached Andrea Cooper to all-conference honors
2008-09	15	9	.625	Posted a five-win improvement
2009-10	7	18	.280	Won 200th career game against King's
2010-11	9	16	.360	Kaitlyn Ober led Commonwealth Conference in scoring
2011-12	10	14	.417	Team wins most conference games (5) since 2003-04
2012-13	8	17	.320	Led team to first playoff appearance since 2000
2013-14	13	12	.520	Team posted first winning conference record (10-8) since 1999-00
2014-15	15	10	.600	Ditzler's eighth 15-win campaign
2015-16	14	12	.538	Coached Shelby Mueller and Nicole Calella to all-conference accolades
2016-17	15	11	.577	Helped team to first postseason win since 1997
2017-18	17	8	.680	Led team to most wins since 1999-00 and fifth straight winning season
2018-19	18	9	.667	Team reached MAC Commonwealth Championship game
2019-20	15	11	.577	Kayla Kline and Akilah McFadden reach 1,000 career points
2020-21*	2	4	.333	Erica Lutz named MAC Scholar Athlete
2021-22	6	19	.240	Team posted a school-record 18-point comeback win against FDU-Florham
2022-23	7	18	.280	Coached two Academic All-District selections
2023-24	12	13	.480	Emily Lockard becomes first All-Landmark Conference player at Lycoming
Total	366	387	.486
* Season altered due to COVID-19