Ashton Feldhaus, one of the nation’s top young head coaches, was named head McNeese women's basketball head coach on April 7, 2026.
Feldhaus, a member of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) 30 Under 30 Class, comes to McNeese after spending the 2025-26 season as the head coach at Morehead State where she guided her team to 18 wins and a postseason appearance in the WNIT.
Feldhaus takes over a Cowgirl program that’s on the rise following a record-setting 2025-26 season that saw McNeese post a 29-6 overall record, win a Southland Conference regular season championship, and advance to the second round of the WBIT.
In her young head coaching career, Feldhaus has won 72 percent of her games including 70 percent in conference play.
In her one season at Morehead State, the 18 wins ranked as the eighth-most in school history while posting four Top 100 NET wins, the most in school history. She coached one All-OVC first team player, two on the second team, and two on the All-Newcomer Team. Her team’s 13 conference wins tied for the most in league history by a first-year head coach while the postseason appearance marked just the third in school history.
Feldhaus' basketball pedigree runs deep. Her father, Allen, was a standout player at Eastern Kentucky and is currently the head boys' basketball coach at Madison Central High School in Richmond, Kentucky. Her uncle, Deron, was a notable player at the University of Kentucky, while her uncle Willie was a member of the Morehead State men's basketball program from 1984-85 through 1986-87. Ashton's mother Karen is the head cheerleading coach at Madison Central.
Prior to her first collegiate head coaching job at Missouri Western, Feldhaus served five seasons as the top assistant and associate head coach for Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla. Where she helped guide the Tritons to five straight Division II tournament appearances, most recently during a the 2023-24 season when Eckerd had a 20-12 campaign and won the Sunshine State Conference Tournament championship. The Tritons posted a 91-28 overall record during her five-year tenure.
She was instrumental in developing two all-conference selections in Octavia Loll (First-Team) and Zoe Richards (Second-Team). She also served as the team's academic advisor as the Tritons ranked third nationally on the WBCA Academic Top 25 Honor Roll with a 3.78 GPA in the 2019-20 season.
In the 2021-22 season, as the program's recruiting coordinator, she secured two all-conference selections in Lauryn Vieira - the SSC Defensive Player of the Year - and Sofia Persson who was Second-Team and All-Newcomer. She also was key in the development and coaching of the SSC Player of the Year, Maya Price.
During the 2022-23 season, she helped guide the program to monumental heights, including the sixth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament and the program's first Sweet 16 appearance. Eckerd ended the season at No. 9 in the WBCA Poll and reached a season-best No. 5 in November. The team set five single-season program records, while five players set single-season records and three career program records. She also helped guide Persson to WBCA Honorable Mention All-American, D2CCA All-Region, and SSC First-Team honors. She also aided Vieira to back-to-back SSC Defensive Player of the Year accolades and Price to another First-Team All-SSC honor.
Feldhaus was successful as a player as well at Butler then UT Martin. Following her freshman year at Butler, Feldhaus transferred to UT Martin, missing two seasons due to the NCAA transfer rule and an injury. She then earned Second-Team All-OVC honors and OVC All-Newcomer honors and was a six-time conference Newcomer of the Week while averaging 11.0 points and 5.1 rebounds per game in her first full season. As a senior, she also earned Second-Team All-OVC.
A standout high school player in the Kentucky, she played for head coach Robert Cooksey at Madison Central High School where she helped her team win four straight district championships (2010-13) and two region titles (2011, 2013). She was selected as a Kentucky All-Star after her junior and senior year. Feldhaus was a three-time All-District selection and a two-time All-Region honoree and earned First-Team All-State honors as a senior.
Feldhaus earned her bachelor's degree in communications and a master's degree in family and consumer Science from UT Martin.
FELDHAUS HEAD COACHING FILE
| YEAR |
SCHOOL |
OVERALL RECORD |
CONFERENCE RECORD |
| 2025-26 |
Morehead State |
18-15 |
13-7 (OVC) |
| 2024-25 |
Missouri Western |
20-10 |
14-5 (MIAA) |
| TOTAL |
|
38-25 |
27-12 |
FELDHAUS PREVIOUS COACHING EXPERIENCE
| YEAR |
SCHOOL |
POSITION |
| 2023-24 |
Eckerd College |
Associate Head Coach |
| 2022-23 |
Eckerd College |
Associate Head Coach |
| 2021-22 |
Eckerd College |
Assistant Coach |
| 2020-21 |
Eckerd College |
Assistant Coach |
| 2019-20 |
Eckerd College |
Assistant Coach |
