Montana Western Women’s Basketball Coach Resigns

Montana Western women's basketball coach Cara Cocchiarella is resigning at the end of the spring semester after three years as head coach of the Lady Bulldogs.

Cocchiarella says she made the difficult decision due to personal reasons.

Montana Western athletics director Mark Durham says Cocchiarella brought significant improvement to the program and will be missed.

Cocchiarella's teams posted a 32-51 record, including a 15-13 record during the 2011-12 season. Western received votes in the NAIA national poll this past season and upset then fourth-ranked Lewis-Clark State 73-53 on Jan. 6 to improve its record to 11-3. However, the team went 4-10 the rest of the way.

Cocchiarella received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Montana, where she played for the Lady Griz.

She has also coached at Sentinel and Loyola high schools in Missoula.