After three seasons as head coach of the Allen County womens basketball team, Todd Buchanan is returning to Division I basketball.
The former Houston head coach and Conference USA Coach of the Year is heading to Jonesboro, Ark., to join Arkansas State head coach Brian Boyers staff as an assistant coach.
The move also allows Buchanan to be closer to his parents in Texas. Tom, Buchanans father, is battling dementia and Jonesboro is just several hours away from where they live.
It will be nice to be close to them, Buchanan said. As the years go by, I want to be there when they need me.
Buchanan and the Lady Devils are coming off of a 7-24 season including a 5-21 conference record.
We may not have gotten the wins that we wanted while I was here, but the players that Ive coached will always be very special to me, Buchanan said. Iola, Kansas will always have a place in my heart. Everyone here has been fantastic and coaching here with the staff at Allen County has allowed me to trust people again.
TAKING THE HELM for the Lady Devils will be former assistant Rachel Janzen.
The Oklahoma City native has been an assistant at ACC the past four years before jumping into the captains seat in her first stint as a head coach.
Todd has been a great friend and mentor to me over the past several years and I will miss coaching with him, Janzen said. But Im also excited to get out there and get things rolling. My whole career Ive had to conform to other coaches visions but now I get to create my own and thats very exciting.
Prior to coaching at Allen County, Janzen was an assistsant at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Okla.
In her season there, the team went 24-10 in the regular season and went on to win the National Christian College Association National Championship.
Janzen is also an alumnus of Southern Nazarene and won another national title there as a player in 2004.
The Lady Devils graduated five sophomores last season and bring in an eight-person recruiting class for the 2018-19 season.
Allen Countys season will begin Nov. 2 when Allen County hosts Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa.
