Jon Plefka was named an assistant coach with WKU women’s basketball in the summer of 2026 and will be entering his first season with the Lady Toppers in 2026-27. Plefka comes to WKU after serving as head coach at UMass Lowell for the 2025-26 season. Prior to UMass Lowell, he was an assistant coach at Stony Brook for the 2024-25 season and a head coach at the Division II level for seven seasons.
At Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM) in 2023-24, he led the Warhawks to their first home Gulf South Conference (GSC) postseason game and GSC semifinal appearance in program history after finishing the year with a program-best 20-10 (17-7 GSC) record. Also, that season, he guided the program to its first-ever NCAA Division II South Regional Ranking and helped Allasha Dudley become AUM’s first player to be named to the All-GSC First Team. Prior to AUM, Plefka was the head coach at Post University. There he led the team to a 2023 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) championship game appearance and three North Division Regular Season Championships. At Post, a program that had one winning season in the previous 15 years to his arrival, he went 84-55 overall and 69-33 in league play. He served as assistant coach at Post before being named head coach in 2017-18.
The New Britain, Connecticut native played basketball collegiately at Texas Tech for legendary coach Bob Knight. In his senior season (2007), he helped lead the team to two victories over nationally-ranked teams and a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Plefka was also a part of the legendary coach’s 880th career victory, which was the most in Division I history at the time. He was named Big 12 First Team All-Academic in his final season in Lubbock and he graduated cum laude in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies.
A two-sport star, Plefka was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2006, but stayed in school and signed with the team after graduating the next year. He spent eight seasons playing professional baseball in the United States, Canada, and South America.
During the off seasons, Plefka coached high school basketball at four schools in the state of Connecticut, including the girl’s program at his alma mater New Britain High School.
Plefka was three-sport athlete at New Britain High where he also played football. He received Division I scholarship offers in all three sports. Plefka was named All-State in basketball in 2002.
Plefka and his wife, Elizabeth, have twins, Luka and Lola.
