After 24 years, Lisa Bluder, the Iowa women’s basketball player, announces her retirement.

Not to be missed: Iowa’s Lisa Bluder, a great women’s basketball coach, announced her retirement on Monday afternoon. After the announcement, Bluder, who has contributed to the expansion of women’s college basketball, issued a message to Iowa supporters. The entire essay is below. Updates at HawkeyeInsider will follow.

DES MOINES, Iowa Not to be missed: Iowa’s Lisa Bluder, a great women’s basketball coach, announced her retirement on Monday afternoon. After the announcement, Bluder, who has contributed to the expansion of women’s college basketball, issued a message to Iowa supporters. The entire essay is below. Updates at HawkeyeInsider will follow.

To the people of Hawkeye Nation:
I am sharing with you today a spectrum of feelings that accompany my decision to leave as head coach of the Iowa women’s basketball team after 24 incredible years. I let President Wilson and Director of Athletics Beth Goetz know about my choice, and I expressed my gratitude for their consistent support and offered to help them further if needed.
It has been the honor of my career to be a part of the Iowa Hawkeye family, and to lead a women’s basketball program filled with so many talented and remarkable young women, who have gone on to do great things in their careers and, more importantly, in their lives. There is no denying that this past season was incredible for so many reasons, and we could not have accomplished our achievements without all of you. After the season ended, I spent time with our student-athletes and coaches reviewing the season and preparing those moving on for what comes next. With that also came personal contemplation about what this journey has meant to me, how to best champion this program, and what the future looks like for my family and me. After then taking some time away with my husband, David, it became clear to me that I am ready to step aside.

There is never an ideal time to retire and I am sure this fall that I will miss the games, the practices, the road trips, the atmosphere, the tremendous fans and, most importantly, the players. But my belief in the foundation of this program, knowing that success is now an unrelenting component of women’s basketball at the University of Iowa gives me comfort as I transition to become the program’s biggest champion.

I want to thank each and every young woman who believed in our program and in our values for nearly a quarter of a century, and who proudly wore the Black & Gold.

I want to thank Presidents Coleman, Skorton, Mason, Harreld and Wilson for their unequivocal support of our program and Directors of Athletics Dr. Christine Grant, Bob Bowlsby, Gary Barta and Beth Goetz for their unrelenting partnership.

I want to thank my assistant coaches and operations and support staff who each played an integral role in our journey. I specifically want to acknowledge the work of Jan Jensen and Jenni Fitzgerald whom I have had the pleasure of working alongside for the past 32 years.

I want to thank the incredible fans for believing in what we were doing and how we were doing it, creating the greatest home court advantage in all of women’s basketball.

And finally, I want to thank David and our children, Hannah, Emma and David, Jr., for supporting me while I pursued my dreams and for their own sacrifices along the way.