Under head coach Wendy Schuller, the Eastern Washington University women’s basketball team has reached heights unseen in Cheney in decades, both on and off the basketball court.

In nine of the last 10 years, Schuller’s teams have earned a spot on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 Honor Roll -- something achieved by only one other team in Division I history (Indiana State). Eastern has been among the top five academic teams in the nation in seven of those 10 years, including the 2003-04 campaign, in which the team placed first nationally with a 3.63 grade point average.

Eastern has advanced to the Big Sky Conference tournament in seven of Schuller’s 10 years as head coach, including two-straight seminfinal berths in 2010 and 2011. Schuller has twice led Eastern to back-to-back .500-or-better Big Sky Conference regular-season records (2005-06 and 2010-11), becoming the only Eastern coach to do so since Bill Smithpeters in the 1987-88 seasons.

Schuller also recently joined Smithpeters as the only two coaches in EWU history to win a game at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula, Mont. Schuller led the Eagles to a 71-63 upset of the Lady Griz on their home court on Feb. 26, 2011.

Entering her 11th season, Schuller has amassed 126 wins - the second-most victories for any coach in program history. She has had 13 different players named to one or more All-Big Sky Conference teams, including the school’s first-ever league MVP (Julie Piper in 2010) and Big Sky Newcomer of the Year (Julie Page in 2004).

In 2009-10, Schuller celebrated the most successful season in her tenure, and the best the school has seen in more than two decades. Under her direction, Eastern Washington won its first-ever Big Sky regular-season title and hosted the league tournament for the first time in school history. Schuller was named Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year after leading the squad to a 12-4 mark in the conference and 19-11 overall, which were the best records posted by an Eagle squad since the 1984-85 season when Eastern was still a member of the Mountain West Conference. The Eagles advanced to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, marking the school’s first national postseason appearance since the 1987 season. Schuller has now collected 113 wins in her nine seasons at the helm -- the second-most victories in school history.

Eastern also saw another first during the 2009-10 campaign, as Julie Piper was named the school’s first-ever Big Sky Most Valuable Player. Under the tutelage of Schuller, Piper established herself as one of the most dominant players in the league, both offensively and defensively. She was among the top five in the BSC in rebounding (7.5/game) and field goal percentage (.461), while her scoring average of 11.8 points per game ranked 14th among all players in the conference and was by far the best average on the Eagle squad. She registered six double-doubles throughout the season -- the second-most in the Big Sky Conference.

Although the 2009-10 season will go down in the books as one of the most exciting years in Eastern history, Schuller started making her impressions on the EWU women’s basketball program long before that renowned season. She led the Eagles to the BSC tournament in six of her first nine seasons at the school, and had back-to-back .500 win seasons in conference in 2004-05 and 2005-06. To put that achievement into perspective, Eastern Washington played in just five BSC Tournaments in its first 13 years in the Big Sky before Schuller took over the reins of the program.

Since the Big Sky began sponsoring women’s sports in 1988-89, the Eagles have compiled three overall winning seasons and made six trips to the Big Sky Conference Tournament semifinals. All three of those winning marks came during Schuller’s time on the Eastern campus, as did four of the six conference semifinal appearances.

Schuller and the Eagles have made Reese Court a challenging place for visitors to play, as Eastern has compiled a commanding 50-32 mark (.601 winning percentage) in its last 82 games played there. In 2009-10, Eastern recorded more wins on its home court (12) than overall wins attained in the three previous seasons.

In 2005-06, Eastern Washington qualified for the Big Sky Conference Championship for the seventh consecutive season and was the fourth seed at the event for the second straight season, its highest seeding since the 1994-95 campaign.

She led Eastern to a winning campaign in 2004-05 (16-12) to start just the team’s second set of consecutive winning seasons for the Eagles since the 1986-87 and 1987-88 campaigns.

The 2003-04 season saw Eastern Washington qualify for the BSC Tournament semifinal round for the third straight season.

In 2002-03, Eastern had its first winning campaign in 16 years at 17-12 and came the closest to making the Big Sky championship game in school history, falling in the semifinal round to top seed and host Weber State by just nine points, 64-55.

In Schuller’s first season of 2001-02, Eastern Washington claimed a tournament quarterfinal contest as the fifth seed for the first of two straight seasons. The Eagles topped No. 4 Northern Arizona 70-57 to mark its furthest advancement in the tournament in seven years.

Schuller’s successes at Eastern have been making waves throughout the entire Northwest, as this past summer, she was asked to be one of the featured speakers at the inaugural Northwest Basketball Coaches Clinic at Lake City High School in Seattle, Wash. Schuller was one of eight esteemed collegiate coaches to speak at the two-day event. Her focus at the clinic was “Primary and Secondary Transition, 3 pt. shooting.”

Prior to arriving at Eastern, Schuller began her coaching career at Northwestern State University. In 1993, she started coaching as a graduate assistant for the Lady Demons while earning a master’s degree in sports administration.

Following graduation, she became a full-time assistant, and her duties included acting as defensive coordinator and primary recruiter and working with opponent preparation and general operations. In 1997, she was promoted to associate head coach.

Her last six years at the Natchitoches, La., school saw her also serve as the senior woman administrator. In total, Schuller coached for nine seasons at NSU under head coach James Smith, the most successful coach in Southland Conference history. In that time span, the team won 185 games and two conference titles and earned a pair of wins over top-25 teams as one of the top-30 winningest NCAA Division I programs of the 1990s.

Schuller earned her bachelor’s degree in business in 1992 from Fresno Pacific University after playing for the Sunbirds as a shooting guard.

Her senior season, she helped lead FPU to a 25-6 record, a No. 14 ranking in the NAIA national poll and advancement to the NAIA Tournament’s Round of 16. She was also selected as an NAIA Academic All-American that season.

A native of Redlands, Calif., Schuller and her husband, Mark, have two sons, 11-year-old Rory and 1-year-old Brandon, and one daughter, 8-year-old, Megan. The family resides in Cheney.

After coaching for more than seven years under two former Eastern assistants, Steve Lowe followed suit as the new assistant women's basketball coach at Eastern Washington University. Lowe officially joined the EWU staff in July 2011.

Lowe came to Eastern from Cameron University in Lawton, Okla., where he was the assistant to Aggie head coach Tom Webb, who coincidentally spent four years as an EWU assistant from 2004-08. But it doesn't stop there. Lowe's very first collegiate coaching position was as an assistant to his direct Eastern predecessor, Cheryl Sorenson.

Lowe and Sorenson coached together for three years at Bellevue Community College before Sorenson was hired at Eastern in 2007. After her departure from BCC, Lowe took over as head coach of the Bulldogs for one season before heading to Cameron. Three years later, Lowe retruned to his native state to again fill the shoes once worn by Sorenson.

In his most recent position as assistant coach at Cameron, Lowe was involved in all aspects of the program, including practice plans, recruiting, budget management, travel arrangements, scouting and film breakdown, strength and conditioning and community outreach.

During his tenure, Lowe helped the Aggies double their total wins from just six in 2008-09 to 13 in 2010-11. He coached five All-Lone Star Conference selections, and had two different recruits honored as LSC Newcomers of the Year.

In addition to his influence on the court, Lowe also helped to dramatically improve the academic success and community involvement of the Aggies. In his three years, the team grade point average improved from a 2.5 to 3.4, and the community service hours logged by the CU women's basketball team grew from 197 in the 2008-09 school year to 295 in 2010-11.

Similar to his contributions at Cameron, Lowe was also instrumental in turning around the Bellevue Community College women's basketball program. In just three years, Lowe and Sorenson took the team from a 4-22 mark to a 26-5 powerhouse. He helped lead the squad to a second-place finish in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) in 2007 and two North Division regular-season titles.

From 2004-08, he coached five All-Region first-team selections, one second-team honoree, four All-NWAACC Tournament players and four academic all-stars.

Before teaming up with Sorenson at BCC, Lowe was the head girls' basketball coach at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, Wash. He also spent more than seven years in the classroom as a special education teacher in the Lake Washington, Issaquah and Richland school districts.

Lowe is a 2001 graduate of Central Washington University, where he received his bachelor's degree in special education. He went on to earn a master's in technological education from Walden University in Baltimore, Md.

He is married to Brianne Lowe (formerly Smedley), and the couple is expecting their first child this September.

Hewa (formerly Chase) returned to her alma mater prior to the 2008-09 season after coaching the previous two years at Idaho and the two years before that at North Idaho College.

In her first three years as a coach at Eastern, Hewa worked specifically with guards, before taking over responsibility of the posts for the 2011-12 season. Off the court, she is directly involved in recruiting, academic support and is responsible for organzing all community service efforts of the team.

In the year before Hewa arrived on campus as a coach, the Eagles went 4-25 overall and 1-15 in Big Sky Conference action. In her very first season, the Eagles nearly tripled their wins from four to 10 in 2008-09. And then in 2009-10, Hewa’s second year in the program, the Eagles celebrated the most successful season in nearly two decades, as the team captured the school’s first-ever Big Sky Conference regular-season title with a 12-4 league record, and 19-12 overall mark.

That same season, Hewa protege Kyla Evans was selected to the All-Big Sky Honorable Mention squad, and was selected as a BSC Player of the Week. Before graduating in 2011, Evans became the all-time career leader for three-point field goals made, and was one of 29 female student-athletes among all Division I, II and III schools in the nation to receive an NCAA post-graduate scholarship.

While with the Vandals, Hewa assisted with all aspects of the program in her first full-time coaching experience at the NCAA Division I level. Hewa helped recruit standout Katie Madison, who was named the WAC Newcomer of the Year and was honored on the All-WAC second team as a freshman.

In her time at NIC, Hewa helped coach the 12th-ranked Cardinals to a Region 18 title and a 24-7 mark in 2005-06.

She served as a graduate assistant coach with the Eagles from 2002-03 to 2003-04 to commence her coaching career.
As a player, Hewa was a four-year letterwinner for Eastern and earned All-Big Sky Conference honorable mention accolades as a senior. At the time, she ranked among the top 10 in the Eastern record book for career three-point made with 60.

Hewa earned a bachelor's degree in community health in 2002 and a master's in sports psychology in 2004, both from Eastern.

Hewa and her husband, Joe, were married in December 2010. They have one daughter together, Hannah, born Jan. 22, 2011.

Chaffee enters her fourth year as a member of the Eastern Washington women’s basketball staff. She returned to the EWU campus prior to the 2008-09 campaign after working as a graphic artist at the Lincoln Marketing Group in Spokane for more than a year.

In Chaffee’s first year back on campus, she helped turn around a team that went 4-25 in 2007-08 to earn a 10-19 record the following year, and a 19-12 mark in 2009-10, which was the best record for the women’s program in nearly two decades. That year, EWU captured the school’s first-ever Big Sky regular-season title, while Julie Piper, who worked directly with Chaffee as a post, was selected as the Big Sky MVP.

Chaffee works primarly with post players in on-the-court coaching and film breakdown. She is also responsible for all travel arrangements of the team, and assists in academic meetings with the student-athletes. Chaffee has also used her graphic skills to design brochures, t-shirts and highlight videos for the Eagles. She also assists with all social media efforts of the team.

Chaffee graduated from Eastern with a major in graphic communications and a minor in art in 2007 after playing for four years with the Eagle basketball squad and one season with the volleyball team.

During her time as an Eagle basketball player, she played 113 games, tied for the fourth-highest total in Eagle history. She averaged 12 minutes, 4.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.5 blocks per contest in her career, while making 43 percent of her field-goal attempts and 62 percent of her free throws.

She earned Big Sky Conference All-Academic honors all four years as a basketball player, as well as her one season as a volleyball athlete.