Chris Kielsmeier

Chris Kielsmeier (born 1975 or 1976) is the women's basketball coach for Cleveland State University since 2018. He began his coaching career at Howard Payne University in 1999 as an assistant coach. As their women's basketball coach from 2000 to 2008, his team won the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament thrice. Upon winning the 2008 NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament, the university had their first title in team sports since leaving the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. After receiving the WBCA National Coach of the Year Award for Division III schools in 2008, Kielsmeier had 179 wins and 44 losses before leaving for Wayne State College that year.

At Wayne State from 2008 to 2018, Kielsmeier had 237 wins and 72 losses while receiving two Coach of the Year awards as part of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. During this time period, his team won the Northern Sun women's basketball tournament twice and reached the Elite Eight during the 2012 NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament. With Cleveland State, his team had their first ever postseason title when they won the 2021 Women's Basketball Invitational. The following year, Cleveland State were second at the 2022 WBI. In 2023, Kielsmeier's team were the Horizon League women's basketball tournament winners and appeared in the first round of the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. The school competed in the first round of the 2024 Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament.