May 22, 2015
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Katie Capps, an 11-year member of the women’s basketball staff at the University of Kansas, has been named director of women’s basketball operations at the University of Notre Dame, it was announced Friday by Muffet McGraw, the Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Women’s Basketball Coach for the Fighting Irish.
Capps joins the Notre Dame staff in the operations role most recently held by former Fighting Irish All-America forward Natalie Achonwa (’14), who filled that position for the 2014-15 season before departing in April to resume her professional basketball career with the Indiana Fever of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).
At Notre Dame, Capps will be responsible for coordinating team travel, working closely with the Fighting Irish coaching staff on preparation and distribution of recruiting materials, planning and coordination of all on-campus recruiting weekends and oversee the program’s groundbreaking social media efforts. Capps also will supervise the Fighting Irish student managers, coordinate the popular Notre Dame women’s basketball summer camps, and help organize the program’s numerous community engagement projects.
“Katie is exceptionally talented and will be a valuable addition to our staff,” McGraw said. “She has a great deal of experience with the operational side of women’s basketball, and she brings energy, passion and fresh ideas to our program. I’m looking forward to having her on board and I think our fans will see a renewed connection with our program.”
“I’m excited and truly grateful to have the opportunity to join Coach McGraw’s staff and be a part of the women’s basketball program at the University of Notre Dame,” Capps said. “It’s a program rich in tradition, one that consistently competes at the highest level and has an exceptional fan base that is among the best in the nation. I can’t wait to get started and begin to build relationships with those that make Notre Dame such a special place.”
Capps spent 11 seasons (2004-15) at Kansas working on the staff of then-head coach Bonnie Henrickson (now the head coach at UC Santa Barbara). Capps most recently served four seasons as the Jayhawks’ director of basketball operations following seven years as KU’s assistant director of basketball operations and video coordinator.
During her tenure at Kansas, Capps was charged with coordinating team travel, business operations, community relations and directing summer camps. She also supervised the Jayhawks’ annual coaches’ golf tournament, served as the program’s liaison with its Hardwood Booster Club and assisted with on-campus recruiting, game day management and student-athlete development.
“Katie is a tireless worker who is comfortable wearing a lot of hats,” Henrickson said. “She offers an unmatched initiative and will be great in building relationships on campus and in the South Bend community. Katie’s incredible organizational skill and creative eye for basketball promotions will make her a great addition to the staff at Notre Dame.”
Capps began her career at her alma mater, Western Kentucky University, which she spent the 2003-04 season as a graduate assistant. In that role, she filled a number of administrative duties, including community liaison and booster club coordinator, while also assisting with scheduling, academic affairs, team travel and the marketing and promotion of the program’s summer camps.
A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Capps graduated from WKU in 2002 with her bachelor’s degree in corporate and organizational communications. She also was a four-year letterwinner on the Lady Topper basketball team and helped WKU to a berth in the second round of the 2000 NCAA Championship, as well as two trips to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT).
Capps also earned her master’s degree in physical education from Kansas in 2007. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA), serving on the awards committee for the latter group.
The former Katie Wulf, she married Eric Capps in 2005, and the couple has three sons — Charlie (7) and twins Harrison and Winston (4).
Capps will join a Notre Dame program that returns four starters and 10 monogram recipients from last year’s team that posted a 36-3 record, advanced to the NCAA championship game for the fourth time in five seasons and its fifth consecutive NCAA Women’s Final Four, and secured its second sweep of the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season and tournament titles in as many years of conference membership.
Next season, the Fighting Irish also welcome the nation’s No. 3-recruiting class, a three-player group that features three McDonald’s High School All-America guards — McDonald’s High School All-America Game MVP and 2015 Gatorade New Jersey Player of the Year Marina Mabrey (Belmar, N.J./Manasquan), three-time Wisconsin Player of the Year Arike Ogunbowale (Milwaukee, Wis./Divine Savior Holy Angels), and 2015 MaxPreps National High School Player of the Year and the reigning Indiana Miss Basketball Ali Patberg (Columbus, Ind./Columbus North).
For more information on the Notre Dame women’s basketball program, sign up to follow the Fighting Irish women’s basketball Twitter pages (@NDsidMasters or @ndwbb), like the program on Facebook (facebook.com/ndwbb) or register for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the “Fan Center” pulldown menu on the front page at UND.com.
— Chris Masters, Associate Athletic Media Relations Director