Owens names Lindsay Werntz as women’s basketball head coach

Owens Community College in Perrysburg, Ohio, named Lindsay Werntz as its new women’s basketball head coach, handing the Express a familiar leader as the program looks to keep its championship standard intact. Werntz previously worked with the program and said she was excited to lead the Express and recruit for the 2026 season.

The hire lands at a pivotal point for an Owens program that has already been back in the national spotlight. On March 9, Owens said its women’s basketball team was headed back to the NJCAA national tournament, and by March 19 the athletics department was highlighting multiple honors from a breakout 2025-26 season.

That surge carried into the postseason. A post from Owens Women’s Basketball said the team competed in the NJCAA national tournament and finished fifth, a result that underscores how much the job now carries championship expectations rather than a rebuild. Werntz steps into that pressure with the advantage of knowing the program from the inside, a detail that should help the Express move quickly from hiring to roster management and recruiting.

Her background also extends beyond Owens. University of Denver Athletics selected Werntz for the 2024 NCAA Basketball Coaches Academy on April 29, 2024, and Tulane University Athletics identifies her as a women’s basketball coach. Those stops give Owens a coach with experience around higher-level college basketball, a useful blend for a junior-college program that has to develop talent fast and win immediately.

For Owens, the appeal is continuity with purpose. Werntz already understands the expectations in Perrysburg, but the 2026 recruiting cycle gives her a chance to shape the roster, the locker-room tone and the way the Express play. With a fifth-place national finish in the rearview and a championship tradition still front and center, the first phase of her tenure will be about preserving the standard while making the program unmistakably hers.