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. He graduated cum laude in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in human development and family studies.
Plefka and his wife, Elizabeth, have twins, Luka and Lola.
