Two weeks after announcing Georgia Southern would be parting ways with women’s basketball coach Anita Howard, Eagle Director of Athletics Jared Benko announced the hiring of new head coach Hana Haden.
Benko said his search included assistant coaches at the highest collegiate level but ultimately, he decided on Haden with her proven record as a head coach over the past eight seasons.
“She has been a head coach at an early age and this is her fourth head coaching job,” Benko said. “The biggest indicator of future success is past success, and she has won at a high level. I think another thing that was intriguing is her experience at the junior college level. She has had to build a team from scratch and with NIL and the transfer portal that experience is a big plus. I also liked what I saw from her as an aggressive coach.”
Haden comes to Georgia Southern after a successful season at Georgia Southwestern where she led the Hurricanes to a Peach Belt championship and advanced to the Elite-8 of the Division ll tournamanet.
“We were returning a lot of players off of last year’s team at GSW but this was just an opportunity that was too good to turn down,” Haden said. “What interested me about Georgia Southern is the people. The people make the place and they are helping to give us resources to be successful. This is a program we think we can take to the top of the Sun Belt Conference.”
Prior to her historic season at Georgia Southwestern, Haden served as head coach at Moberly Area Community College for five seasons. With the Lady Greyhounds, Haden compiled a 118-36 (.766) record and made five NJCAA Region 16 tournament appearances. She feels her time in the junior college ranks has her prepared for things like the always-fluid transfer portal.
“I was fortunate to coach a lot of players that went on to the D-I level, so I know what it is like to advocate on their side,” Haden said. “I have been through that process and I think I will rely on that experience. It is an ever-changing landscape now and you have to be able to adapt. I feel like Georgia Southern has things in place as far as NIL as well and I feel comfortable about that as well.”
Haden met with a few players after her press conference Tuesday afternoon. One big question that came up was what kind of style of coaching she will bring with her to Georgia Southern. Haden said defensive intensity will be a hallmark, but left the door open to what kind of offense the Eagles will run based on the personnel they have in place.
“Offensively I feel like so much of what you do depends on your personnel skill set,” Haden said. “We could have a smaller team and it may be five out. We could be post-dominant, what kind of shooters do we have? Those are all questions that will determine what we run on offense. Defense travels and we want to be disruptive. Depending on our personnel that could be man-to-man or it may look like switching up defenses and playing zone. We want to create our offense with our defense and take pride on that end and turn it into scoring opportunities.”
Haden said she plans on being busy in the transfer portal. The Eagles lost eight seniors from last year and only return five players off last year’s squad.
