Set to begin her ninth season (no season in 2020-21 due to Covid-19) as the Cerritos College women’s basketball head coach, Trisha Kozlowski (formerly Raniewicz) is looking to return to the Southern California Regional Playoffs for the sixth time. Although they finished the 2022-23 season with a 14-15 mark, the team qualified for the postseason after coming in second place in the South Coast Conference South Division for the second time in her tenure. Kozlowski has led the Falcons to two South Coast Conference titles and a pair of second place finishes in her first eight years, while she was named the conference’s Coach of the Year in 2018-19. She has compiled a 115-96 (.545) career record, with her 100th win coming in as the result of a forfeit against Los Angeles Southwest College.
Prior to being named the head coach, the Falcons were led for 33 years by Karen Welliver until with her retirement after the 2014-15 season. From 2008-13, Kozlowski served as an assistant coach and associate head coach under Welliver. She moved on to Pepperdine University as an assistant coach after the 2013 season after serving as the longest assistant coach under the tutelage of Welliver. During her tenure with Cerritos, the team posted a 99-53 overall record (.651) and captured four South Coast Conference championships. Kozlowski is just the fourth head coach in the college's history. During her final year as an assistant with Cerritos, Kozlowski was named Adjunct Professor of the Year - one of just two such honors awarded annually by the college.
Prior to joining the Falcon coaching staff in 2008, Kozlowski spent the 2007-08 year as the head varsity coach at LaSalle High School in Pasadena. Before that, Kozlowski was an assistant coach at Menlo College (2006-07) and helped lead them to a 25-3 record and #7 national ranking. Her coaching career also includes serving as a varsity assistant coach at Mater Dei High (2005-06), while her career started as a graduate assistant coach from 2003-05 at Cal State Fullerton. During the summer of 2007, Kozlowski was a video coordinator and scout for the Houston Comets of the WNBA.
As a student at Our Lady of Mercy High in Rochester, NY, Kozlowski was selected the Rochester Player of the Year in 1999, while she was also a three-time league Most Valuable Player and graduated as the school’s all-time leading scorer. In her freshman year, she helped lead the team with the sectional championship. As a soccer player, Kozlowski led her team to two sectional titles. She spent her first two collegiate seasons at Division I St. Bonaventure University in Olean, NY and then went on to finish her playing career at Cal State San Bernardino, where she was the team captain her senior year.
Kozlowski earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Cal State San Bernardino in 2003 and her Master’s degree in Kinesiology from Cal State Fullerton in 2005. Kozlowski lives in Long Beach.
