Cedarville Stories Podcast: Relationships Beat Out Records and Wins

Kari Flunker Hoffman ’05 is a winner and record setter. She led her team to two national championship finals (2004, 2005) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). She holds the Lady Jackets all-time mark for three-point shots made, three-point field goal percentage, and assists. She is second on the record books for total points scored with 2,275.

As the head coach for the Lady Jackets from 2016-2020, she led the team to 106 wins and three Great Midwest Athletic Conference regular season championships. An impressive resume, to say the least. And one that might indicate a win-at-all-costs attitude. But that’s not Kari. For this Cedarville Athletics Hall of Fame basketball player, investing people is always number one.

As a player, more than Ws or hitting threes from beyond the arc, Kari valued her friendships with her fellow Lady Jackets. She sought to be the kind of player that her teammates wanted to be on the court with.

This spring, when the door opened for her to lead the Wright State University NCAA Division I women’s basketball program, it was a primary focus on student-athletes as people to be developed that convinced her this was the Lord’s call.

“All my best friends were my teammates there, and they always will be,” she says during the podcast. “I want to keep people and relationships a priority. I hope I’m remembered for treating people right, caring about them and the program, and doing it all while keeping Christ first in my life.”

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More to the Story

During homecoming weekend 2021, Kari was inducted into the Cedarville Athletics Hall of Fame. 

Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,715 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is one of the largest private universities in Ohio, recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and high student engagement ranking. For more information about the University, visit cedarville.edu.