Lauren Macer and Rachel Balzer have joined Bob Dunn’s staff as assistant coaches, Cleveland State announced this week, the latest moves for a Vikings program that has rapidly regenerated itself in the six weeks since Dunn was hired as its eighth head coach.
Macer is no stranger to Northeast Ohio, or to the Horizon League.
She worked on Maria Marchesano’s first two squads at Purdue Fort Wayne, in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Those seasons proved to be transformative for the Mastodons, who were a putrid 1-22 in the campaign before Macer and Marchesano arrived. However, PFW quickly jumped to nine wins, then 14, along with a surprise run to the HL semifinals in 2022-23. That became a springboard to what has been the best three-year run in the school’s Division I history, with consecutive 20-plus win efforts, followed by deep WNIT runs.
Both before and after her time with the ‘Dons, Macer was the head coach at her alma mater, Division II’s Notre Dame College. Her first run at the South Euclid-based school, from 2017-21, produced a 78-32 record, highlighted by a 26-5 mark in 2019-20. The Falcons won the Mountain East Conference regular season and tournament titles that season – with Macer collecting the conference’s coach of the year award – though NDC’s opportunity to compete in the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic.
She returned to that role following her time at PFW, in 2023-24, though that second Notre Dame tenure was abruptly truncated by the school’s closure in May of 2024. Macer quickly landed on her feet and served as the head coach of another Cleveland-area DII program, Lake Erie College, over the last two years.
Prior to all of that, Macer, a Twinsburg native, scored more than 1,000 points as a Notre Dame player. She then began her coaching journey by working up the ladder with the Falcons following her 2013 graduation.
“Lauren’s extensive experience as a head coach, assistant coach, and former collegiate player will greatly influence our student-athletes and staff,” Dunn said in Cleveland State’s release. “She is very familiar with our program, knows the areas we will recruit, and will be a strong relationship builder with our players.”
“Very familiar” also describes Dunn’s relationship with Balzer, a native of Doylestown, PA. In fact, while an assistant coach at George Mason, Dunn recruited Balzer to play for the Patriots from 2019-22 (coincidentally, once Dunn left to join the Vikings in 2021, following the resignation of head coach Nyla Milleson, current Robert Morris leader Chandler McCabe spent 2021-22 on the GMU staff).
Balzer’s playing career was ultimately cut short by injuries, but she immediately pivoted towards coaching, first as an intern at George Mason, then at Longwood, where she became the Lancers’ director of basketball operations and player development in 2023-24. By the recently-concluded season, she was an assistant coach for Erika Lang-Montgomery, and also LU’s recruiting coordinator.
Those promotions weren’t without merit. Longwood has abruptly become one of the country’s better mid-major programs over the last two years, including 43 combined wins and a bid to the 2025 WNIT. This spring, Balzer was named to the WBCA’s prestigious Thirty Under 30 list, alongside one of her new co-workers, assistant coach Shelby Zoeckler.
“I have known Rachel for nearly half of her life, and she was one of the first people I called after accepting this job,” Dunn said. “As a player, she was a true gym rat with a high basketball IQ. As a young coach, she has already been part of two winning programs and brings valuable experience and knowledge that will benefit our staff and players.”
Macer and Balzer will join the Vikings’ bench alongside Zoeckler and Carolyn Wochele, Northeast Ohio natives who were retained from Chris Kielsmeier’s staff (Zoeckler, of course, also worked with Dunn during his previous two stints in Cleveland). Wochele, most recently CSU’s graduate assistant/video coordinator, is now a full assistant coach, and will also serve as the team’s director of basketball operations. Hanna Zerr, the previous operations czar, followed Kielsmeier to Texas State, while 2025-26 assistant coaches Chenara Wilson and Steve Lanpher will not return. Jenna Bolstad, the other member of this past season’s staff, is now the head coach at Mayville State, an NAIA school in North Dakota.
Presumably, Dunn will move to fill Wochele’s former position, though it remains unclear whether that role will be similar in nature – his contract allows for “one part-time administrative assistant, or one graduate assistant,” and he may have a slightly different idea of how to use that flexibility.
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