‘Bowling Green has my heart’: Inside Kadie Hempfling's Return to BG

BGSU women's basketball assistant coach Kadie Hempfling was at her parents' home in Ottawa, Ohio, when she got a phone call from head coach Fred Chmiel.

It was the offseason for college basketball, and Hempfling had just completed her first season as an assistant coach for Ohio Northern University.

"It was a Saturday afternoon, and I got a call, and I'm like, 'Why is he calling me right now?' So I answer the call, I go into a back room, shut the door," said Hempfling. "My mom's like trying to look through the door. 'Who's calling you now?'

While Hempfling had an idea of why Chmiel was calling her in the first place. She didn't realize the conversation would end with a job offer.

"We were just having a conversation, and then all of a sudden, he and I were like, oh boy, what is he gonna ask?" Hempfling said. "He was like, 'Would you wanna be on my staff?' There was like a five-second pause, and I was like, 'Is he really asking this right now?' I'm like, 'wait, are you serious?' He's like Yeah, I'm so serious.'

From the moment Chmiel heard the excitement in her voice, he knew they had found the missing piece on the coaching staff.

"One big thing with me is, you gotta be in love with the job. And I think I could hear that in her voice, the excitement of the offer and wanting to be here and a part of BG," said Chmiel. "I felt like that was the piece that we needed on our staff. We pretty much have everything else, but we needed that connection."

Now in her first season on the coaching staff, Hempfling returns to a university and a program that she called home for five years, and where she made a legacy for herself.

From 2018 to 2023, Hempfling played for Bowling Green under former head coach Robyn Fralick. During those five seasons, Hempfling finished as the all-time program leader in games played with 155, fifth in starts (122), sixth in assists (432), and eighth in rebounds (809). She was also a two-time All-MAC Third Team selection and became the 29th player in program history to surpass 1,000 career collegiate points.

Her final season with the Falcons saw the Orange and Brown go 31-7 overall and 14-4 in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play—a MAC Championship appearance and a famous run all the way to the Fab 4 of the WNIT.

So the question is, after only a couple of years away, why come back to BGSU?

"Why not? The university that has given me so much and the people and everything that I've learned, as a player, and how much growth I experience as a person is," said Hempfling. "Nevertheless, the opportunity to be able to coach at the place that I played in and that I love so much. Bowling Green has my heart, and it always will, no matter what happens. I couldn't be more thankful for the journey that I had, so I also wanted to have the opportunity to impact the players on our team in the same way that I was impacted."

Two players on the current roster, senior Emily Siesel and redshirt junior Jasmine Fearne, both played their freshman seasons with Hempfling during her final season.

When Siesel heard the news that Hempfling was coming back, she was beyond thrilled.

"I was super excited when I heard Kadie was coming back to be a coach here. Just being able to play with her. She loves everything about BG, and every day she's gonna put her best foot forward."

Siesel was so excited, she had to call to share the news with the people closest to her.

"Right away, I actually called my family. They loved watching Kadie play in my freshman year. I got to play with her. I called my parents and told 'em, and my whole family was excited," said Siesel.

The dynamic between Hempfling and her former teammates, now players, hasn't changed. If anything, Hempfling always felt like a leader to Siesel and Fearne.

"I don't think it's changed anything. To an extent, of course, I'm like more of a mentor, but I felt like a mentor then too," said Hempfling. "Because we were on the scout team together, which was super fun for me. I tried to make it fun for them because freshman year is hard for everyone."

Chmiel, who is in his third season as head coach of the Falcons, made sure he did his homework on Hempfling before offering her the job.

"I called former players who played with her coaches, people who knew her, and everybody. There was not one bad thing anybody had to say about her," said Chmiel. "Sometimes that's hard to believe. But it was true. We got her here; she's got great energy and great focus. She's all in two feet, 10 toes down, whatever you can say. That's her, and we're lucky to have her."

Hempfling is a Northwest Ohio native, born in Lima and graduating from Ottawa-Glandorf High School. Along with her Bowling Green playing career, having her on Chmiel's staff has provided a connection with the area.

"The other two coaches are from out of the area. To have somebody that we can drive 30 miles down the road and mention her name, that helps us in recruiting," said Chmiel. "It helps us build relationships with coaches, and helps bring fans in. That's something that we couldn't get from anybody else."

After just one season at Ohio Northern under head coach Mark Huelsman, Hempfling said she quickly learned what it meant to wear multiple hats.

I was in charge of a lot of different things, so I had a lot of things that I had to prioritize on what I needed to get done for that day. I was more on the operational side," said Hempfling. "I was still a coach. It was just Mark and me. Which was also different, having only two people on staff. He would be a sounding board whenever he wanted to talk about things and talk, go over scouts and film. And I was in charge of film for the first time for the opponent, and I was like, 'Oh gosh, here we go."

Before Hempfling spent the 2024-2025 season with ONU, there was about a year's gap before she secured her first coaching position after her collegiate career came to an end.

While she always had an itch to be a coach, Hempfling didn't immediately come into coaching after her playing career ended. After earning her bachelor's and master's degrees at BGSU, she decided to enter what some may call 'the real world'.

That didn't last long.

"I put coaching on the back burner. I can always coach like a junior high team or travel ball team, something like that. So I went into marketing in the corporate world, and did not like it at all. I ended up hating it," said Hempfling. "I missed that team aspect. Having someone else and like a big group to rely on something bigger than myself, and I felt like I wasn't making an impact on what I was doing. So I was like, 'All right, let's just try to get into coaching.' Because I did miss basketball.

Missing that team environment gave Hempfling a second life in the game—this time on the sidelines. After stepping away following her final collegiate season and then becoming an assistant coach at the Division III level, it didn't take long for Hempfling to find herself back on a Division I sideline.

"Being back in the division one world of my second year of coaching, I for sure thought it would take me longer. So that sped up things for me quite a bit," said Hempfling. "My personality goes with the flow. Wherever I am, I'm going to do whatever I can to be the best at it and put everything that I can into what I'm doing and hopefully get a lot of wins while I'm doing it."

Hempfling may have thought her time at Bowling Green ended. But after just a couple of years, she's returned to the program ready to continue her legacy, this time as a coach.

But above all, the sense of community is what she feels truly sets the program apart.

"I really think the special thing about Bowling Green is the people make the place, and I will always and forever say that it's the people that make the place," said Hempfling. "I feel that very deeply about Bowling Green, and Bowling Green's a special place. It will forever have a special place in my heart."

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results