Mark Kellogg has been named the head women’s basketball coach at Northwest Missouri State University, announced Tuesday by Director of Athletics Wren Baker. Kellogg leaves Fort Lewis College having won 79 percent of his games and 83 percent of his conference games throughout his seven-year tenure.
“I’m honored and humbled to be a part of Northwest and the Maryville community,” Kellogg said. “I think so highly of the university and community, and I feel the change will be a great thing for me and my family.”
Kellogg will be formally introduced at a press conference at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 12, in the Tower View Room inside the Northwest J.W. Jones Student Union. Baker echoed his excitement in the announcement of Kellogg joining the Bearcat family.
“Mark Kellogg is one of the rising superstars in women’s basketball,” Baker said. “His success in seven years at Fort Lewis is unprecedented. We are very fortunate to have a coach of his integrity and caliber coming to Northwest. I have every confidence that he will lead our women’s basketball program to new heights. He and his wife, Trisha, are small-town people with small-town values. The Kellogg’s will be tremendous assets to our community.”
Kellogg, 36, posted a 173-46 overall record in seven seasons at Fort Lewis including a 116-23 mark in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC). He guided the Skyhawks to the last five NCAA Division II tournaments, highlighted by a national runner-up finish in 2009-10 and a Sweet 16 appearance in 2008-09.
Kellogg continued by expressing his intent to emphasize “student” in his student-athletes.
“I am excited and can’t wait to get to Northwest and get started,” Kellogg stated. “I hope to come in and compete right away and have our teams in the top five of the conference and region academically and athletically. We want to win conference championships, conference tournaments and then do some damage in the regional tournaments.”
Last season FLC went 26-5 and finished second the in RMAC with a 19-3 record. His Skyhawks swept through the RMAC postseason tournament earning the tournament championship and the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Division II tournament. Fort Lewis won its first-round game before losing to conference rival Metro State in the second round.
Upon Kellogg’s arrival in Fort Lewis, a massive transformation ensued starting with the 2005-06 season that was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Instead, it saw the Skyhawks win the RMAC West title with 16-13 overall and 12-7 league records.
Kellogg’s 2007-08 team posted a 14-13 record (11-8 RMAC) before starting the most successful five-year run in school history. The success was led by Kellogg’s strong 2007 recruiting class that included five high school seniors. That class won three straight RMAC regular season and West Division titles, going 89-12. His 2007-08 team posted a 26-4 record and advanced to the NCAA tournament. The 2008-09 team went 28-4 and won the first NCAA tournament games in school history as it advanced to the Sweet 16. Those achievements were only the start as the 2009-10 team went 35-4 on its way to a national runner-up finish, losing to the MIAA’s Emporia State in the championship game.
Kellogg has been voted RMAC Coach of the Year three times (2008, 2009, 2010) and was named WBCA Region Coach of the Year twice (2010 and 2011). During his tenure at Fort Lewis he coached two All-America players and a pair of RMAC Players of the Year.
Kellogg is also a firm believer in succeeding in the classroom as well as on the court. His teams earned WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll accolades three straight seasons for maintaining one of the highest cumulative grade point averages in the country (in 2009, 2010 and 2011). In 2010-11, the Skyhawks had the highest women’s basketball team GPA (3.715) in the country at any level — NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and community/junior colleges.
Six of his players earned RMAC All-Academic honors in 2010-11. All totaled during Kellogg’s six-year FLC career, 38 Skyhawks received the RMAC All-Conference Student-Athlete designation.
Before his time at Fort Lewis, Kellogg spent four seasons at Montana State University in Bozeman, where he was a women’s basketball assistant from 2001 to 2005. During the 2004-05 season, Kellogg was promoted to assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. While at Montana State, Kellogg helped guide the Bobcats to two Big Sky Conference championships, three appearances in the conference tournament and a bid to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT).
Prior to joining the Bobcat staff in 2001, the Dallas native spent two seasons as the assistant men’s basketball coach at West Texas A&M University. In his two years (1998-2000) at West Texas A&M, the Buffaloes finished first and second in the Lone Star Conference and qualified for the NCAA Division II postseason tournament in 1999.
Kellogg received his master’s degree in sports and exercise science from West Texas A&M in 2000. He graduated in 1998 from Austin College (Sherman, Texas) with a bachelor’s degree in communication arts and physical education.
While at Austin College, Kellogg competed on the basketball and golf teams for the Division III institution. In basketball, Kellogg ranks as Austin’s fourth all-time leading scorer, amassing 1,446 points. He was also a Jostens Trophy Finalist, an award given to the NCAA Division III Basketball Athlete of the Year. Kellogg was three-time American Southwest all-conference selection, a two-time American Southwest all-academic pick, a second-team All-South Region choice and an All-District VI Academic student-athlete. He was nationally ranked in free throw percentage, three point field-goals per game and scoring.
— NWMSU Sports Information —