Jeff Hans
Hired in April of 2024, Jeff Hans became the new women’s basketball head coach. He is now entering his second season, after a first season of ups and downs.
Even though it is his second year at the helm, it is not his first rodeo at NKU. Before his head coaching stint at Thomas More, he served as both a graduate assistant (2001-02) and assistant coach (2008-11) for the Norse under Head Coach Nancy Winstel for five years in total.
Hans spent 13 seasons at Thomas More, becoming the winningest coach in the program’s history, with a record of 339-42 overall (.889).
He is also one of the most decorated coaches in college basketball, with eight conference regular season championships, eight conference tournament titles, two NCAA Division III National Championships, one NAIA National Championship, two NAIA National Runner-Up performances and three-time National Coach of the Year.
What led Hans to come back to the program was the opportunity to coach at the highest level.
“The opportunity to be a Division I head coach and to run the program and the staff here that again, I have a lot of respect for the program and what the previous coaches have done here, especially coach Winstel with working for her and all the success that she had, I just wanted to try to do that again at a different level,” he said.
His favorite part about coaching at NKU is the university as a whole.
“It’s the people, the university, the location and the tradition that we have here. When I talk about the people, I’m talking about the people on campus, but also the alumni from our campus,” Hans said.
Hans wants to be more visible on campus to get students to come to games. He knows how hard it is for all sports across the university to get student support.
“We got to get out there on campus more and be seen. We’ve done a little bit of that, but not the level we need to,” he said.
When he got hired, he talked about wanting to play faster, and he will uphold that, wanting students to know that his team will be fun to watch.
“We’re gonna be fun to watch…We will play faster, we’re gonna make better plays, we will make winning plays and try to continue that part of it,” Hans said.
Hans is just more than a basketball coach — he wants students to know that he is down-to-earth and approachable.
“If I see you walking across campus, I will say hi. It’s just how I am,” he said.
Dizzy Peyton
Dizzy Peyton has been the head coach for the NKU baseball team for four years now, after assuming the role in June of 2021.
Peyton spent the preceding 17 years as the assistant coach for the Norse, working beside the previous Head Coach, Todd Asalon.
An Ohio native, Peyton has built the NKU baseball program from the ground up, recording three straight 30+ win seasons, along with a Horizon League championship in 2024.
After losing to Wright State in the Horizon League tournament last season, Peyton has begun navigating the offseason, which can be one of the toughest times for the head coach and players.
“For me, it’s missing the guys that just left and started their new life, and the toughest part is just not being able to get on the field,” Peyton said.
Peyton has spent much of his offseason recruiting and reloading his team for next season. With many players graduating or transferring to other schools, building a quality roster can be a challenge.
“It’s a huge time in the portal for us and the assistant coaches. But it’s really a ton of work for us to kind of get a roster built,” Peyton said.
Aside from improving his roster on paper, Peyton also stresses the importance of individual player progress throughout the offseason.
Peyton said, “It’s a lot of discovery from the players’ perspective, kind of discovering how we do things and work on and off the field.”
“We try and guide them as much as we can,” Peyton said.
Shortly after becoming head coach, Peyton implemented a unique strategy called boat crew captains, which helps the team take more accountability for themselves and their teammates.
Peyton said, “We adopted it from the Navy Seals, and it’s just a way to have leaders instead of captains, because oftentimes captains are voted on or just appointed.”
“Instead of being a captain of the whole team, there are about five to six guys in each boat crew,” Peyton said.
With these persistent philosophies, implemented during both the season and offseason, Peyton has his team more motivated than ever to improve every single day, one day at a time.
Bob Sheehan
In 1997, Bob Sheehan was named the first head coach for the NKU women’s soccer team in program history.
Since then, the NKU women’s soccer program has amassed an impressive 365-136-44 record across Sheehan’s 28 years at the helm, including a program-first NCAA tournament appearance in 2016.
Sheehan, a Cincinnati native, coached at Saint Ursula Academy for 13 years before his time at NKU, being named Girls Greater Cincinnati League Gray Division Coach of the Year seven times.
Sheehan’s favorite part of coaching at NKU is the training sessions.
“So, last year we were 0-4, and we train early in the morning, and I came in at six o’clock in the morning, and there’s two people here, the athletic trainer and me, and I’m like, ‘This is what I love about coaching.’ We’re 0-4, and we’re going to get better, and we’re going to be positive,” Sheehan said.
Sheehan gave credit to his wife as his motivator and the reason he’s been able to coach for so long at the highest level.
“My wife supports. She’s very supportive. So, I couldn’t do it without her,” Sheehan said.
One thing Sheehan wants NKU students to know about his team is that they are committed and dedicated to winning the Horizon League and playing in the NCAA tournament.
“Our ultimate goal would be to win the Horizon League,” Sheehan said. “We’d love to play in the NCAA Tournament at the Division one level. We’ve done it once in 2016; unfortunate to play West Virginia. They were number one in the country, so that was the seed that we drew. But it was an awesome experience,” Sheehan said.
Kevin Woodhull-Smith
Hired in April of 2024, Kevin Woodhull-Smith put his name in the history book as the first men’s and women’s swimming head coach in program history.
Before he was a coach, Woodhull-Smith was a swimmer himself at North Carolina State. He spent four seasons on the nationally-ranked Wolfpack squad. He was voted the team’s Most Valuable as a senior in the 2009-10 season after receiving the Hardest Worker award a year earlier. Also earning the team’s Most Improved award as a freshman and sophomore, and was deemed a Scholar-Athlete in six semesters.
Woodhull-Smith is a former school record holder in the 200-meter Individual Medley and competed at the 2008 Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb.
Prior to joining the Norse last season, he was head coach at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina, for three years. While he was at the helm, he was named the Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year three times, led his teams to one conference championship, three runner-up performances, two third-place showings and his squad never finished lower than third at the conference championship meet.
Woodhull-Smith also spent eight years at East Carolina University as an assistant. He led the Pirates men’s team to four American Athletic Conference Championships and eight league individual championships.
What led Woodhull-Smith to come to NKU was the new opportunity to start a Division One team.
“I applied in I think January 2024, and started to go through the process, and it seemed like a great opportunity. The school was in a good location, the conference is set up well to compete in swimming. We didn’t have to worry about what conference we would be in or starting a new conference; everything was already in place to join. The Horizon League has a good, solid swimming foundation,” said Woodhull-Smith.
He feels that NKU has embraced him during his two years through the support of other coaches and the administration.
“Dizzy (Peyton) and Liz (Hart) have been veteran coaches here for a long time, and they’ve been great resources of how things have worked in athletics. All the staff and coaches and everyone in the university will stop by and say, ‘Hey, we heard you started a swim team. That’s great’ so we got a lot of support from different places around campus,” he said.
One thing Woodhull-Smith wants NKU students to know about his team is that he is looking for support from you.
“We are looking for support from everyone, from the university to the community… Getting to know the team and the schedule, knowing that there are four or five meets that are pretty close by,” Woodhull-Smith said, “ It would be big for our team. Just come to meets, just show support to the team in any way you can.”