Rachel Balzer is in her third season on the Longwood women's basketball staff in 2024-25.
Coming on board as Director of Basketball Operations and Player Development in the summer of 2023, she was elevated to assistant coach in May 2024.
Balzer helped lead the Lancers to a successful season in 2024-25, finishing 22-12 overall after advancing to the Big South Conference championship game and earning a berth in the Triple Crown Sports Postseason WNIT. Longwood earned 20 wins for just the second time at the Division I level and orchestrated a 13-win turnaround from 2023-24, thanks, in part, to an eight-game winning streak from Dec. 18 to Jan. 22. Longwood posted a 9-5 record in regular-season non-conference play, the school's best since the 1987-88 season. Balzer was part of a staff that guided the team to victories in its initial six Big South games of the season, a program first. It was also the first time LU won its first six games in conference since 1999-00 when the Lancers where part of the NCAA Division II Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference.
Longwood did it by playing smothering defense, forcing 24.47 turnovers per game while swiping 13.5 steals per game, figures that were second and third, respectively, in all of Division I women's basketball. Senior guard Kiki McIntyre earned Big South Defensive Player of the Year honors and became the program's all-time steals leader for a single season, collecting 130.
At season's end, head coach Lang-Montgomery was named Big South Coach of the Year, another first in Longwood women's basketball history.
In her first season at Longwood in 2023-24, Balzer coached two All-Big South performers while helping guide forward Otaifo Esenabhalu to a pair of Big South Freshman of the Week accolades and a spot on the Big South all-freshman team. Additionally, guard Kiki McIntyre to the 20th best steals-per-game mark in NCAA Division I women's basketball at 2.77.
Balzer came from George Mason, where she spent four years as a member of the women's basketball team. Her career was cut short due to injuries, but she spent her final year in Fairfax on the sidelines as a coaching intern for the Patriots.
In addition to her time with the Patriots coaching staff, Balzer also served as the Assistant Director of Youth Programs and Sports Performance/Advanced Training for Evolution Basketball Training, a basketball training company based in the Northern Virginia area. Balzer graduated from George Mason with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology with a minor in coaching and recently began working on her master’s in educational psychology with a concentration in learning cognition and motivation.
