Leah Earnest is in her first season as an NIU women's basketball assistant coach.
Earnest comes to DeKalb after serving as an assistant coach at Wisconsin-Stevens Point for the 2025-26 season. The Pointers started the year 11-0 and reached the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament. She guided Maija Rice and Karissa Smith to All-WIAC honors. Rice led the conference in scoring with 17.3 points per game and was an All-Region and WBCA Collegiate All-Star Game selection.
Earnest played collegiately at Valparaiso and was a two-time All-Missouri Valley Conference selection. In 2024 she was a Second Team All-MVC selection after leading the Beacons with 16.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. She was the first Valpo player in over 30 years to lead the team in scoring, rebounding and assists. She followed that up with First Team All-MVC honors in 2025. Earnest was fourth in the conference in scoring at 17.4 points per game and seventh in rebounding at 7.5 per game. She finished her career as Valpo's all-time leader in games played at 145 and rebounds with 887, as well as the program's third all-time leading scorer with 1,664 points.
Earnest earned her Bachelors of Science in Exercise Science and Masters of Business Administration from Valparaiso University. She was a College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honoree in 2023 and 2024 and was named to the MVC Third Team Academic All-Conference in 2025.
