Hannah Varel enters her first season as Head Coach in the 2024-25 season.
After serving as an assistant coach her first three seasons, Varel was promoted to associate head coach prior to the 2023-24 season.
In 2024, after helping lead Transy to their second straight trip to the NCAA Final Four and a 64 game winning streak, the third longest in NCAA DIII Women's Basketball history, Varel was named the WBCA DIII Assistant Coach of the Year.
Varel was a 2023 Thirty Under Thirty Honoree, having helped lead the Women's Basketball program to their first ever national championship in school history and ending the season undefeated at 33-0. It was the 5th straight season that the Pioneers won the HCAC.
In her first season at Transylvania, Varel steered the latest tradition in winning for the Pioneer women’s basketball team as they achieved their third straight Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, winning 69-65 over Hanover in March 2021. In a season altered by the pandemic with no NCAA Tournament, Varel helped guide the Pioneers to a 14-6 overall record, including a season-ending string of eight wins in the final nine games.
She and her staff put together an all-time great season in 2021-2022 as Transylvania defeated a pair of top ranked opponents in Tufts and John Carroll, on their way to the program’s first ever undefeated regular season at 21-0, while being ranked in the coaches’ poll as high as the #2 team in the country.
The Pioneers rolled to their fourth consecutive HCAC Title and with Varel helping lead the way, the team went on an unforgettable NCAA Tournament run where they reached the Elite Eight, and finished the season at 27-1 overall. Varel’s group earned the 2022 Transylvania Coaching Staff of the Year award, with four of her players taking All-HCAC honors. Mentored by Varel, Madison Kellione earned numerous accolades including First Team All-HCAC, D3 Hoops Team of the Week, All-Region First Team, and the 2022 Transylvania Athlete of the Year from a women’s sport.
Varel joined the Pioneers from fellow Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference member Hanover College, where she had spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Panthers women’s basketball program.
“Hannah is an exceptionally hardworking coach with a natural ability to connect with players on and off the court,” says Transylvania women’s basketball head coach Juli Fulks. “She understands what championship basketball requires and will be an excellent addition to our staff and basketball family.”
Prior to her arrival in Hanover, Varel spent three years with PricewaterhouseCooper in St. Louis, Missouri as an Assurance Senior Associate, managing twenty team members. She also served as a team captain for the PwC International Basketball Tournament for a traveling team in Athens, Greece during the summer of 2018.
Varel is a 2015 graduate of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Accountancy and later gained her CPA in the Missouri State Board of Accountancy. Following her graduation, Varel gained coaching experience as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Columbia High School from 2015 through 2018.
Varel is a member of the Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Association and is currently and adjunct accounting professor at Transylvania.
