Vikings’ women’s basketball head coach to retire
After coaching the Augustana women’s basketball team for 32 seasons, head coach Dave Krauth will be retiring at the end of the 2022-2023 season.
Krauth, a 2022 inductee to the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame, started coaching at Augustana in 1989 and has accumulated 670 wins and 296 losses. He has been named Coach of the Year on multiple occasions throughout his career and has coached 69 all-conference performers and has had 119 Academic All-Conference honorees.
Krauth’s personal honors include Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Coach of the Year (2018 and 2021), North Central Conference Coach of the Year (1990), the South Dakota Sportswriters’ College Women’s Coach of the Year (1994), and the South Dakota Basketball Coaches Association Women’s College Coach of the Year for 1989-90, 1990-91 and 2004-05.
“Women’s basketball still has a ways to go and if you compare it to men’s basketball, I mean that can be an unfair comparison,” Krauth said. “We share the same season and there are things that are challenges for the women’s game, but we have come so far. I am so proud to be apart of what has happened and I can certainly see how ours and the program has come along.”
Before coaching at Augustana, Kauth coached at Tri-Valley High School in Colton, South Dakota and Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa. He took eight teams to state tournaments.
As a coach for Augustana, he has led the team to 13 NCAA tournaments, most notably in 2013 when the Vikings advanced to the Final Four before falling to Dowling College. They were ranked No. 4 in the final USA Today Sports Coaches Poll.
“One of the things that made [being a coach] easy for me is that our fanbase took us very quickly,” Krauth said. “I found myself being a little unique over the years on how we handle situations, how we played and worked as a team. I sensed that our fanbase took us quickly and I wanted to keep it going.”
Last season, the women’s basketball team finished with an overall record of 13-11 with an average of 71.6 points per game and a scoring margin of 4.1.
The team’s key returners include First Team All-NSIC senior forward Aislinn Duffy and junior guard Lauren Sees. Duffy returned 15 points and 10.8 rebounds per game while Sees averaged 15.4 points per game last season.
Krauth and his wife Sally have two daughters, who are Augustana Alumni, and six grandchildren. After retirement, he hopes to help out with the grandchildren and their involvement with sports. He also wants to attend as many games as possible to support Augustana.
“The time that I have spent with two daughters on a basketball court and the field, there are not many people who have had that opportunity and I have let them share their thoughts, but I have grandkids that are really active in sports and that jumps in my mind that I could help,” Krauth said.
No plan has been made to find the next coach yet.
