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Western Illinois University Athletics

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Chad Boudreau

Get to know Chad Boudreau.

On Thursday, April 13, 2023, Western Illinois University Director of Athletics Paul A. Bubb announced the promotion of Chad Boudreau to Leatherneck men's basketball head coach, becoming the 25th head coach in program history.

"Chad's influence over the past three years as the associate head coach and the positive results we have seen in the program made this a rather easy decision," Bubb said. "The volume of interest, from calls to emails and text messages, was refreshing and confirmed to me that the program is definitely in better shape than during other recent searches, and Coach Boudreau has been a big part of making that turn around."

In his first season as Leatherneck head coach in 2023-24, Boudreau led Western Illinois to a 21-12 overall record. The 21 wins were the most for the program since the 2012-13 season. The 13 conference victories are the most for the program since 2012-13 as well. Boudreau's 21 wins are the most for a first-year coach in program history, breaking Stix Morley's record 19-win season in 1947-48. Western Illinois also won 10 true road games, finishing among the top five in the country. Boudreau was named as a finalist for the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year Award.

The award is presented annually to the top rookie, first-year head coach in division I college basketball. The Joe B. Hall award is named in honor of longtime Kentucky head coach Joe B. Hall who was given the task of following the legendary Adolph Rupp at the school.

Boudreau was named interim coach on Friday, April 7, 2023.

Prior to being named head coach, Boudreau has served as associate head coach for the Western Illinois men's basketball program. During those three years, the Leathernecks saw increases in wins and win percentage, both overall and in the Summit League.

Before coming to Western Illinois, Boudreau was head coach at Highland College in Freeport, Illinois.

At Highland, Boudreau led the Cougars to three consecutive Arrowhead Conference titles with undefeated conference marks in 2019 and 2020. He earned Arrowhead Conference Coach of the Year honors all three seasons of his Highland tenure and was named NJCAA Region IV' Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2020.

Before coaching at Highland, Boudreau was an assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 005-2016. Boudreau assisted Milwaukee to Horizon League championships in 2006, 2011, and 2014, and the Panthers qualified for six postseason tournaments during the 11 years.

Before Milwaukee, Boudreau was the lead assistant at Indian Hills Community College from 1999-2005 and recruited two eventual NBA draft picks. Indian Hills advanced to the NJCAA Final Four during his tenure.
 
Boudreau graduated from Hannibal-LaGrange College with a bachelor's degree in education in 1995 and from Southwest Baptist University with a master's degree in education in 1999. He began his coaching career as a women's basketball graduate assistant at HLGC.
 
Boudreau and his wife, Stacy, have five children.