‘It’s fun winning’: New Sac State women’s basketball coach vows to keep the Hornets hot

There was a light moment Wednesday on Aaron Kallhoff’s first official day on the job.

The freshly hired women’s basketball coach at Sacramento State laughed when he heard school president Robert S. Nelsen tell a full room at the Welcome Center that Athletic Director Mark Orr “would only hire someone who looks like himself.”

Well, yes. Kallhoff and Orr have the same bit of enthusiasm and spirited people skills as their boss, and also this: The three sport glistening shaved heads, as bald as cue balls lined up on a pool table. They all laughed about it.

The three especially share the same vision that the Hornets can, will and should continue their ascent on the women’s landscape, a rapid rise in short order. Three years ago, the team crash-landed with a three-win season. Mark Campbell came in and injected new life as head coach, leading the program to its first Big Sky Conference championship and first NCAA tournament bid, all while winning 25 games, the most in the 50-year history of the program.

A day after the season ended, Campbell was hired away by TCU and Orr was moved by the flood of national interest in the job. He said he and Nelsen pounced on the chance to land Kallhoff, a native of the Midwest now ready to plant down roots in the state capital after some 10 years of bouncing across the country, be it junior college gigs or stints as an assistant at places such as TCU, LSU, Penn State and BYU.

Kallhoff said Sacramento “is one of the best cities in America” and sounded like a man who wants to let his kids grow up locally. He and wife Josie, have three children — Camden, Caylix and Capri — and each of them attended Wednesday’s news conference bearing broad grins matching the new coach.

Kallhoff was firm in his conviction of: how strong relationships are in this sport; of wanting to recruit globally but also not wanting to lose any top prospects in “our backyard of Sacramento here”; of using all means to produce the most competitive and entertaining teams, including recruiting high school players, junior college talent and using the transfer portal. He also promised a fast and fun team that plays with discipline and purpose.

Kallhoff gave every indication that he’d coach a season opener tomorrow if only the season didn’t start in November.

“There’s a lot of momentum in the women’s basketball program right now,” he said. “There’s a lot, and we ain’t stopping. We’re going to sustain excellence, looking to build it and keep climbing, and that’s what we’re going to do. I took this job because that’s what I want to do.

He added, “What’s next? I’ll tell you what’s next. Building, bringing my family to Sacramento and building something special and putting this place even further on the map and winning games in the NCAA Tournament. Let’s have fun.

“It’s fun winning.”

Kallhoff’s first jobs in coaching was as an assistant men’s coach at Allen County Community College in Kansas in 2007-08. He landed the women’s head gig at Hill College in Texas, then coached Trinity Valley in Texas to a 36-1 season in 2013, and he was hooked on the women’s game.

Not that he saw this path coming. Kallhoff thought he’d play forever. He was a two-year starter at guard at Bemidji State in Minnesota in 2001-013, leading the NCAA Division II ranks in assist/turnover ratio.

“I knew when I was young that I wanted to play the game of basketball,” Kallhoff said. “I love the game. My parents, they’re not basketball people. Nobody in my family played it. Nobody in my family went to college.”

He added, “I had a pretty good high school career. Thought I was good. I got to college, realizing that there are other good players, then I graduated. I had a public relations and advertising degree. I’ve got all of this but I want to coach. Like, what do I do? So I begged my coach and said, ‘Can you make a phone call? Can you do something?’ He got me a junior college assistant men’s job in Kansas, and I thought I had the best job in the world. I got there and they told me I was an admissions counselor, a dorm director, and then I get to coach basketball. ‘Oh, that’s great. I’m going to make good money right?’ I lived in a dorm and made $400 a month. My parents were happy because I got insurance, too.”

Kallhoff concluded, “But that was what built me. That’s where I started learning, ‘you’ve got to work.’ Everything special comes from the start. Then I got the women’s head job a couple years later. At 27, and there’s kids on campus older than me. But there’s where I got my start. No one is going to outwork me or us.”

Nelsen, who is retiring as Sacramento State’s president this summer, said he wanted a coach who would continue the Hornets’ surge. He addressed members of the Hornets team who attended the news conference, and said, “You deserve someone who can take you even farther to the next level. We’ve got that coach.”

He then looked at his new coach and said, “I believe in you. I believe in your vision. I believe in your talent. But most of all, I believe in your heart.”