Head Coach Anahit Aladzhanyan

Anahit Aladzhanyan, or Coach Heat, which she is widely referred as, has been the head women’s basketball coach since taking over in 2012. Coach Heat was on the bench as an assistant coach for both of Oxy’s NCAA Division III playoff appearances in 2009 and 2011 and four consecutive SCIAC championships from 2008-2011. Along with her passion for the Xs and Os of the game, Coach Heat has recruited some of Oxy’s finest basketball players.  Stephanie Babij ’11, former SCIAC

Player of the Year, shared: “Heat knows her stuff. I’ve played for a number of coaches and there are surprisingly few who can truly see and understand how to make adjustments in a game like Heat can — both at an individual and team level. She knows basketball and is fun to play for.”

Prior to taking over for the women’s program in 2012, she spent the 2011-12 season as the head assistant to the Oxy men’s basketball team, making her one of only a handful of women in the nation coaching men’s collegiate basketball. Coach Newhall, Oxy’s longtime men’s basketball coach, said he believes Coach Heat is a great leader. “Heat’s combination of basketball knowledge, her recruiting work ethic, and her feel for the institution makes her an outstanding head basketball coach at Occidental,” Newhall said.

In addition to coaching, Aladzhanyan is the Senior Woman Administrator and budget manager for Oxy’s athletic department. She has also recruited for various sports during coaching changes, and has served on numerous committees – such as the Alcohol and Other Drugs committee and most recently, Oxy’s Student Experience Strategic Planning Committee.  She has also served as the chair of the SCIAC women's basketball coaches while also representing the SCIAC on the regional advisory committee for the NCAA.

As a product of the program herself, it is one she knows well. Aladzhanyan ’07 played at Oxy and by Anahit’s senior season, she was a team captain and essentially a player-coach as an extension of Coach Hoffman (then head coach) on the floor. Coach Heat graduated from Occidental College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a minor in Kinesiology in 2007. She later earned a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine in 2010. Prior to Oxy she was a two-year captain at John Marshall High School.