Mallory Ladd steps down at Evansville Memorial, Tigers seek new coach

Evansville Memorial’s girls basketball program is back in the market for a head coach, and the timing makes the vacancy bigger than a simple offseason reset. Mallory Ladd stepped down Thursday, April 23, ending a two-year run at her alma mater and leaving the Tigers with unfinished business after a 13-31 stretch, a ninth-place finish in the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference and a second straight loss in the Class 3A sectional championship.

Ladd’s departure closes a short chapter, but it arrived at a moment when Memorial could least afford uncertainty. The Tigers were still working to build continuity under a former Memorial standout, and now the program has to absorb another change just as summer workouts, evaluation periods and family decisions begin to shape next season’s roster. In Indiana girls basketball, that kind of timing matters: a coaching change in late April can affect how quickly returning players buy in, whether younger players stay committed and how the team defines its identity before school is out.

The contrast with the previous Memorial standard is stark. Ladd replaced Lee Auker in April 2024 after Auker stepped down from a five-year run that produced a 106-20 record, three conference championships and two sectional titles. That success gave Memorial a recent benchmark that made the opening meaningful from day one, and it also raised the bar for whoever takes over next. What changed in two years was not just the win-loss record. The program moved from a veteran, highly accomplished coaching era into a period where development, roster retention and consistency became the central issues.

Ladd, a Memorial High School graduate from the Class of 2011, returned to coach the Tigers after playing at Valparaiso University and later transferring to Evansville. Her ties to the program gave the job a homegrown feel, but the next coach will need more than familiarity. Memorial needs someone who can steady the roster, protect development gains and create a clear summer plan for players and families who want to know what the Tigers will look like before next winter arrives.

Ladd said the decision was not easy and that, after reflecting, stepping down felt right personally and professionally. That leaves Memorial searching for a leader who can restore momentum quickly and answer the same question every program faces after a coaching change: how much of the old identity survives, and what comes next.